Timothy Snyder: The Strongman Fantasy

[Nevilledog]

https://snyder.substack.com/p/the-strongman-fantasy

Quite a few Americans like the idea of strongman rule. Why not a dictator who will get things done?

I lived in eastern Europe when memories of communism were fresh. I have visited regions in Ukraine where Russia imposed its occupation regime. I have spent decades reading testimonies of people who lived under Nazi or Stalinist rule. I have seen death pits, some old, some freshly dug. And I have friends who have lived under authoritarian regimes, including political prisoners and survivors of torture. Some of the people I trusted most have been assassinated.

So I think that there is an answer to this question.

Strongman rule is a fantasy. Essential to it is the idea that a strongman will be your strongman. He won't. In a democracy, elected representatives listen to constituents. We take this for granted, and imagine that a dictator would owe us something. But the vote you cast for him affirms your irrelevance. The whole point is that the strongman owes us nothing. We get abused and we get used to it.

Another pleasant illusion is that the strongman will unite the nation. But an aspiring dictator will always claim that some belong and others don't. He will define one group after another as the enemy. This might feel good, so long as you feel that you are on the right side of the line. But now fear is the essence of life. The politics of us-and-them, once begun, never ends.

We dream that a strongman will let us focus on America. But dictatorship opens our country to the worst the world has to offer. An American strongman will measure himself by the wealth and power of other dictators. He will befriend them and compete with them. From them he will learn new ways to oppress and to exploit his own people.

*snip*

[Silent3]

1. Strongmen are, oddly enough, never quite strong enough to defeat all of the "enemy"

You need someone to blame for anything that makes the people unhappy, so it's the lurking "counter-revolutionaries" who must be preventing the arrival of paradise.

[JoseBalow]

5. It's always "Them", "the Outsider", "the Other"

Tradition informs us who that usually is

[erronis]

2. Snyder has such a sharp view of the world and these conflicts.

I look forward to getting his newsletter every week - should probably chip in!

[dalton99a]

3. "When you vote a strong man in, you vote out the rule of law"

Unaccountable to the law and to voters, the dictator has no reason to consider anything beyond his own personal interests. In the twenty-first century, those are simple: dying in bed as a billionaire. To enrich himself and to stay out of prison, the strongman dismantles the justice system and replaces civil servants with loyalists.

The new bureaucrats will have no sense of accountability. Basic government functions will break down. Citizens who want access will learn to pay bribes. Bureaucrats in office thanks to patronage will be corrupt, and citizens will be desperate. Quickly the corruption becomes normal, even unquestioned.

As the fantasy of strongman rule fades into everyday dictatorship, people realize that they need things like water or schools or Social Security checks. Insofar as such goods are available under a dictatorship, they come with a moral as well as a financial price. When you go to a government office, you will be expected to declare your personal loyalty to the strongman.

If you have a complaint about these practices, too bad. Americans are litigious people, and many of us assume that we can go to the police or sue. But when you vote a strong man in, you vote out the rule of law. In court, only loyalism and wealth will matter. Americans who do not fear the police will learn to do so. Those who wear the uniform must either resign or become the enforcers of the whims of one man.

Everybody (except the dictator and his family and friends) gets poorer. The market system depends upon competition. Under a strongman, there will be no such thing. The strongman's clan will be favored by government. Our wealth inequality, bad enough already, will get worse. Anyone hoping for prosperity will have to seek the patronage of the official oligarchs. Running a small business will become impossible. As soon as you achieve any sort of success, someone who wants your business denounces you.

[world wide wally]

8. The only problem with your argument is that it is based on intelligence and logic

Which no longer carries much weight in 21st Century America.

[Bucky]

4. And yet...

.

In a democracy, elected representatives listen to constituents.

As a government and economics teacher, I make these kind of generalizations all the time.
Let's be honest. In our democracy the elected representatives mostly listen to their donors. We the taxpayers only give MCs $174,000 a year. Fundraisers and lobbyists pay them millions, plus junkets, speeches, hookers, future contacts, and often a big fat job offer to join a lobbying firm at the end of their tenure. So who's really paying their salary?

[MadameButterfly]

6. yet there are some limits to what an elected official can do

Citizens United has given money disproportionate power over voters, and one could argue that without it we wouldn't be in this pickle.
But one must admit that there's an order of difference between what we would have under President Biden and Dictator Trump on this point.

[Bucky]

9. Re: your last paragraph

Well I wouldn't be here if I thought any different.

[MadameButterfly]

11. OK, I get your point that the current system needs some work

on this score

[Bev54]

7. Don't need a strongman to get things done, need to vote blue for all branches

and just watch it all get done.

[DinahMoeHum]

17. ". . .watch it all get done. . ."? Not quite.

We have to keep reminding them through communications what they promise us and what they deliver.

The late folksinger Phil Ochs said this back in 1971:

"Governments always lie. You have to kick their ass to get them to do the right thing."

And by governments, that also includes democracies. Can't ever forget that.

By the same token, when they do deliver, communicate your thanks to them, whether by e-mail or letter. They really appreciate it.

[MadameButterfly]

10. This is brilliant, as always from Snyder but I wish he'd focus more on the economy and "getting things done"

Because neither of those things happen in dictatorships. Authoritarian rule is bad for the economy, and when only loyalists are runnning things then nobody knows what they are doing and things don't get done. The illusion is that without debate, you just do it. But without debate, you do it wrong, do the wrong things, don't solve problems.

I suppose all this is implied in his text, but the people who need to hear it need it spelled out. Dictatorship= less getting done, poor economy, less money for you.

[stage left]

12. This is one of the most important posts I've ever seen on DU.

And I've seen a lot. Thank you, Nevilledog for posting it. I've just read the entire piece and shared. Wish there was a chance in hell of Trump supporters reading and understanding it.

[DENVERPOPS]

13. Well said Neville......

Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely????? Is that the old quote????????

I keep thinking of some Frenchman? and what he said when we were forming our new democracy.....He said:

"Democracy will work until some person or group figures out that they can vote themselves power"......LOL

I used to joke that what we needed is a Benevolent Dictator, not realizing in my younger years that there is no such thing......

[Ping Tung]

15. It was Lord Acton

He also said this:
Great men are almost always bad men.

[DENVERPOPS]

21. Another good one!!!!!!!

I am really glad that we have some people who are educated on here! Thanx

And, the only Truly great man I ever met and had the chance to sit and talk to is........Jimmy Carter. We are lucky to have at least some individuals in the world that defy the Lord Acton's thing about great men.....

Now I am going to go look up Lord Acton......thank you!!!!!!!!!!

[Ping Tung]

23. Jimmy was the best president of my lifetime.

I was born in 1944 so I've lived through many. I voted for him with reservations thinking him just another slick southern Democrat with a good sales pitch. I now think him he is tied with John Quincy Adams for Best President of all. Both were known for their very real honesty and humility.

[Dave Bowman]

14. History seams to repeat itself.

[mopinko]

24. human nature is intractable.

but it’s also true that most of the great advances in human history have come from cooperation, not competition.

[ThoughtCriminal]

16. And they are inept at governing

Oppression is the only thing that works. Fear is everywhere. Loyalty is rewarded over competence.

Their economies are not strong, the corruption down to the local level is corrupt and violent, and contrary to myth, the trains do not run on time.

[ancianita]

18. Thank you.

[IbogaProject]

19. Plato's Republic covers this

The perfect form of government is a Benevolent Dictator, but the catch is you can't know until too late. So Plato conceived of a Republic to protect individual liberty. But than can fail if people start ceeding rights to be safe. We've done that to protect us from the Iran Contra coke crisis and after 911. The first was actual GOP crimes the second was at best GOP negligence.

[ShazzieB]

20. Snyder is absolutely right on.

I read the whole article, nodding my head all the way.

Strongman rule is a fantasy. Essential to it is the idea that a strongman will be your strongman. He won't.

This is the problem with MAGA. TSF's worshipful followers absolutely believe that he is "their" strongman, that he will make America just the way they want it to be, and they will all live happily ever after. That is very much a fantasy, but good luck trying to convince them of that. *groan*

Another thing they never think about is the problem of succession. He's an old man (much as they like to pretend otherwise), and he has a limited number of years left. Who's going to take over from Dictator Trump when he drops dead? Even those who are convinced that he will be a benevolent dictator (an oxymoron if I ever heard one) should be familiar with the concept that nobody lives forever. Whatever things are like under one strongman, there is absolutely no telling what they'll be like under the next one!

But who am I tying to kid? They're probably convinced that he'll have a carefully chosen and anointed successor ready to step in, and they don't know enough history to realize that such transitions are rarely smooth and peaceful.

All of which just underlines will we already know: we have to pull out ALL the stops and work like hell to make sure he doesn't get elected.

[yardwork]

22. It's very sad that we have to implore fellow citizens not to vote for a dictator.