To Save America From Tyranny

I've lately found myself wondering if this is all a dream, so surreal is it to fathom what the G.O.P. has wrought. And what this may mean for the future of our country, of our planet, of millions of species at risk. Our republic is facing a clear and present danger, with authoritarianism and strains of fascism looking to make it exceedingly difficult to wrest democracy back. I worry that this reality is already being normalized in the media, is being accepted by too many people as simply the new state of affairs. Euphemism is extremely dangerous at such times. It's not out of the question that children today will grow up in a country where, as in Russia, free and fair elections are a thing of the past, where we've effectively ceded our power as citizens, including our collective ability (which we'd finally begun to exert under Obama) to mitigate environmental catastrophe.

Along these lines, here are two worthwhile pieces that spell out the dangers before us. The first is from foreign policy analyst Stephen Walt: "10 Ways to Tell if Your President Is a Dictator."

The second is from the historian Timothy Snyder, one of the world's most respected experts on 20th-century Europe, and not someone given to hyperbole: "What you—yes, you—can do to save America from tyranny."

Also notable are these pieces on how authoritarianism relies on a war on truth---a war that Fox News and Breitbart and the Wall St. Journal editorial page, among others, have waged with more success than we as a nation have come to terms with:

"Trump’s lies have a purpose. They are an assault on democracy," by Ned Resnikoff

"Trump’s Lies Destroy Logic As Well As Truth," by Jeet Heer

"Who's Really to Blame for Fake News," by Neal Gabler

This haunting reflection by Masha Gessen on Jewish persecution during World War II, and on lessons for resisting fascism today, is also worth a read.