Donald Trumpwill be presidentagain.
We are a house divided on a fault line of decency.
Campaigning for the White House, Trump was a peacock with fetid feathers.
President-elect Donald Trump holds a campaign rally on Nov. 4, 2024, in Reading, Pennsylvania.Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
And more than half of American voters didnt recoil.
Whether they relished in Trumps vicious spectacle or simply abided it, they did not turn away.
Now were going to fulfill that mission.
Published in 2017, it gave shape to popular resistance of the first Trump term.
You cant despair, he tellsRolling Stone.
Because thats what they want.
They want you to think that its hopeless.
Snyders first rule inOn Tyrannyis dont obey in advance.
He emphasizes that Americans opposed to Trumps designs should take stock, and action, now.
For normal people, Snyder insists the key is to get out in protest now and through the inauguration.
The understandable impulse of keeping your head in, Snyder says will only embolden Trumps reactionary team.
Youre giving them even more confidence that theyre gonna be able to do what they want in January.
Its about corporeal politics, Snyder says.
These are preconditions for autocracy, she insists.
And that something else is autocracy.
Jason Stanley is Yale professor and author ofHow Fascism Works.
He says Trump is pursuing a well-worn playbook.
Hes going to replace the civil service with Trump loyalists.
The next thing autocrats do is go after the courts, the press, and the universities.
Americans have to grow up, Stanley says.
A lot of people live under these situations.
Project 2025 will take time to implement.
You know, The world is falling apart.
Youve defined an emergency.
Theres a real danger of us losing the rule of law.
Mixing Orban With Pinochet
What will Trumps model of authoritarianism look like?
I dont think well be as bad as Russia, Stanley says.
Its Orban, whosvisiting and giving advice.
Stanley notes that Orbans mechanisms for controlling dissent are milder than Vladimir Putins.
Theyll probably do the Orban thing where they go after your taxes.
They go after your livelihood, your job, he says of Trump.
Theyre not going to start assassinating people.
What he would like to do is partly reorient military power to be used for domestic repression.
The Trump-Vance initiatives can only work by getting the population involved and basically corrupting us, he says.
Am I going to become the kind of person who denounces my neighbors because they are not documented?
If youre more privileged, you should be thinking, What can I do for the least privileged people?
If their rights are on the line, my rights are on the line.
Thats not just a moral position.
Its actually, politically, 100 percent correct.
Thats an example of the most privileged people saying, Im going to act like the least privileged people.
Im going to pretend thatImthe one whos going to be hurt here, and Im going to run away.
The blowback to that will help build and strengthen opposition.
The economy is going to be based on, are you friends with Trump?
(After Harris loss, Cubantweetedhis congratulations to Trump and Elon Musk.)
Folks have this fantasy that if you have a dictator, then the dictator is going to solve problems.
Thats going to be bad for almost everybody, Snyder says.
In Poland, the other side didnt give up, says Snyder.
They kept running, even when the elections [appeared] unfair.
And they kept coalitions going, and people took risks.
Dictator for Life?
Many things are going to be terrible.
But controlling the federal government doesnt mean youre controlling everything, he says.
Here, Trumps age and lack of a clear successor offers some hope.
Hes old, so at some point, age is going to make a difference, Stanley says.
There will be a power struggle.
The next opportunity will be when he dies in office.
