How to know if you’re living in a dictatorship

We're already seeing signs of creeping fascism, and it could get much worse.

It’s “Day 1” – when Donald Trump says he’ll be a dictator. Don’t count on him to stop on Day 2.

Some Trump supporters thought he was exaggerating when he talked about shoving aside democratic norms and ruling as a strongman. They were kidding themselves. The fact is that we’re well down the road to autocracy already. Yet things can still get much, much worse.

There won’t be a group text message to notify us if a dictatorship descends and democracy dies. So here are some signs to watch for:

Investigators being investigated

If Trump’s Justice Department takes action against former special counsel Jack Smith and other people who have investigated him, it will be an unmistakable sign that Trump has turned federal law enforcement into a goon squad. Will Joe Biden’s pardons for the Jan. 6 committee be enough to fully protect them? Will others involved in prosecutions be targeted? It will be incumbent on the news media to keep close track of any such political revenge. And it will be incumbent on the public to get off their couches and protest.

Even worse smears of marginalized groups

During the 2024 campaign, Trump and his running mate JD Vance spread vicious lies about immigrants eating dogs and cats. Now Trump is trying to find an excuse for stricter border policies by labeling immigrants as diseased. Republicans are going after transgender Americans too, and some even want to roll back protections for gay people. Dehumanizing minority groups is a key page in the fascist playbook.

Pro-dictator oligarchs dominating major media

This is already happening to a large extent, leaving news consumers with limited alternatives. The Murdochs’ Fox News attracts a huge cable TV audience. Elon Musk and Twitter/X spread disinformation on behalf of Trump and promote white supremacy worldwide. Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos is in a contest with Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg and the Los Angeles Times' Patrick Soon-Shiong to see who can suck up to Trump most enthusiastically. TV networks are vulnerable to a pressure campaign from a Trump-friendly Federal Communications Commission, which can target their affiliates to apply pressure. In a brilliant article in Politico about the lessons for America from Viktor Orbán’s takeover in Hungary, Gábor Scheiring wrote: “Liberal-minded billionaires should not sit idly by as they did in Hungary, watching the right take over the media.”

A torrent of lawsuits harassing the press

ABC recently agreed to pay $15 million to Trump’s presidential library to settle a lawsuit over comments by host George Stephanopoulos. There were good reasons to think ABC could win the lawsuit, but the network folded, encouraging more such suits from Trump and his MAGAites to intimidate journalists. This could be an especially effective anti-democratic tactic in the coming months and years. And its impact will be hard to measure. We won’t know what reports never get broadcast or published because news outlets are afraid to do so.

More public attention to birth rates

A key belief in dictatorships is that women must give birth for the sake of the nation. The Nazis put great pressure on Germans of “racially valuable” ethnicity to have many children. Russia’s birth rate is now at a 25-year low, and dictator Vladimir Putin has pushed through a law banning media that produce “destructive content” promoting a “conscious” rejection of having children. This bears a disturbing similarity to JD Vance’s denunciation of the “childless left.” The higher birth rate of Americans of color is cited by proponents of the racist “great replacement theory” who claim liberals are trying to “replace” white culture. Obviously, one way to encourage people to raise families is to give them hope that their children will grow up in a free society. But autocratic governments prefer force. When getting an abortion is considered an unpatriotic act instead of a matter of personal choice, women do not have equal rights.

The return of racist symbols

Fort Bragg, named after a Confederate general who fought to keep Black people in bondage, was renamed Fort Liberty in 2023. MAGA politicians are talking about bringing back the Bragg name. This would be a clear signal of their intention to enforce white supremacy. It would mean much more than the renaming of a fort.

A growing chorus of Trump worship

For years, hypocritical religious leaders have treated Trump like a Christian soldier when his actions are antithetical to the teachings of Jesus Christ. There’s a cottage industry of devotional books with titles like “Trump: God’s Appointee” and “Messiah Trump: King of Kings.” Then there’s the $59.99 “Trump Bible,” which includes government documents in a troubling meld of church and state. Right-wing propagandists have found a deft way to get white evangelical Christians who are offended by Trump’s behavior to support him anyway. They depict him as a modern-day version of the Persian king Cyrus, who is described in the Bible as a person who was not a man of God but did the will of God anyway. This rationalization gives Trump a total pass on his corrupt behavior.

Monopolies flourishing

The reason that so many super-rich Americans are flocking to Trump is that he has mimicked Putin’s oligarch system to reward or punish businesses based on their support or opposition. One of the strongest weapons that everyday people have is the power of the boycott – refusing to patronize malevolent businesses. But if a dictator endorses monopolies, our economic system becomes like the old Soviet “command economy,” with the government making the choices, not consumers. Some industries would do especially well in a dictatorship. The private prison industry, for example. The number of people imprisoned in the U.S. is already a scandal. If Trump follows through on his threats, it will become an even bigger scandal.

Fictional government statistics

As Trump installs lackeys in key positions and expels responsible public servants, he may be able to cook the books on federal data to help his failing regime deny reality. Look for statistics that seem dodgy.

A powerless Congress

The right-wing Project 2025 calls for the president to grab authority from Congress and bulldoze our system of checks and balances. Last week, House Speaker Mike Johnson removed Mike Turner, R-OH, as chairman of the Intelligence Committee. Many suspect Johnson did so on the orders of Trump because Turner is relatively independent and is hostile to Putin, whom Trump has often praised. Trump’s pick for head of the Office of Management and Budget, Russell Vought, supports the idea of “impoundment” – that the White House can refuse to spend money appropriated by Congress. Beware of the Republican-led Congress surrendering its power to the Republican president and turning Congress into a piece of decorative furniture.

Suspicious troop deployments

One of my biggest fears is that Trump will turn the U.S. military on American protesters. Trump asked a top general in 2020 whether soldiers could shoot demonstrators in the legs. If it happens in Trump’s second term, we won’t be able to say we’re surprised.

Elections as meaningless exercises

Many dictatorships have elections just to keep up appearances. But will future American elections be anywhere close to fair? Will the media spread the dictator’s lies and disappear his opponent’s truths? Already the Republican Party is working hard to dilute Black political power and draw unfair maps to seize outsized power. Already Elon Musk is allowed to spend $277 million to sway an election. At what point do we stop being a democracy and start being Kabuki theater? History’s gold standard for rigged elections came in 1927 when Charles D.B. King was re-elected president of Liberia with 240,000 votes – in a country with only 15,000 eligible voters. At some point, if we don’t get tougher in fighting the MAGA fascists, we’ll be voting in 1927 Liberia too.

So what do we do about it?

We remain loud and engaged. We demand fair elections. We point out Trump’s broken promises to our family and friends – especially on issues that pretty much everyone cares about, like grocery prices. If there are outrageous assaults on our freedom, we take to the streets in mass peaceful protests. We realize we have a duty to future generations, and we refuse to surrender. See you in the streets, if it comes to that.

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