Many of us are struggling to make ends meet in the current inflationary times. Everything is expensive, including the essentials like food, energy, and accommodation. Rents and interest rates are high and unaffordable for much longer for a lot of us. Some of us are holding down two jobs to keep food on the table and a roof over our head. It is easy to take your eye off the bigger picture during periods like this. This is a warning about sleepwalking into an autocratic nightmare. Populist political leaders make promises at times like these and it is common not to read the fine print about just how they will fix things.
The Appeal Of Authoritarians During Tough Times
Economic crises are fertile ground for authoritarianism. Citizens are fed up with doing it tough and they want to hear from those who have solutions to the problems. The thing about economics is that there are no quick fixes, as everything is cyclical – the boom and bust, the bull and bear markets, growth and recession. Political leaders going around telling you that they can solve all your problems are selling you a pup.
More ominously, the current crop of radical conservatives are dangerous if you value your liberty. Democracy is under real threat.
The Rise Of Dictators During Inflationary Periods
I am a historian. If you look back through history you will observe the patterns in regard to the rise of dictators and fascists. Adolf Hitler emerged out of the chaos post WW1 in Germany. His Nazi party promised to get Germany out of its hyper-inflation and to restore the nation to greatness. Well, most of us know what happened and about the more than 50 million people who died as a result of German military aggression. Around 30 million people died in what was the Soviet Union from German attacks and fighting in WW2. Less than a million Americans died during WW2. You can see who bore the brunt of the German aggression.
| “Battle Deaths | 15,000,000 |
| Battle Wounded | 25,000,000 |
| Civilian Deaths | 45,000,000 |
*Worldwide casualty estimates vary widely in several sources. The number of civilian deaths in China alone might well be more than 50,000,000.”
Benito Mussolini in Italy and Franco in Spain were two more fascist dictators who rose to power in the 1930’s. Ion Antonescu was the dictator in Romania from 1940-44. Petain was in charge in Vichy France from 1940-44. Jozef Tiso ruled in the Slovak Republic from 1939-45. There were authoritarian regimes throughout Europe during this period. Monarchies had fallen after WW1 and new forms of government were being mooted.
Uncertainty breeds insecurity in many people and they can be ripe for totalitarian control.
Putin The Dictator In Russia
Right now, we have Mister Putin in Russia flexing his autocratic muscles in Ukraine. Putin wants to re-establish the Russian zone of influence through eastern Europe. The NATO and European Union countries have been supporting Ukraine by sending arms. This war has been going on for 2 years and this good will seems stretched by the grinding nature of the conflict. In the US, the Republican Party is becoming increasingly isolationist and flagging in it support for sending arms to Ukraine.
Trump is a narcissist and has no loyalty to anything but himself.
Trump Aspiring To Dictatorship Of America
Indeed, Donald Trump is promising retribution if he is re-elected to the presidency in 2024. Although, indicted criminally on several charges relating to the 2020 election and the January 6th storming of the capital by his supporters, Trump is banking on pardoning himself and dismissing all charges by winning the top job once again. Americans, according to the polls are sleepwalking into an autocratic nightmare. It seems pretty damn obvious, after his reluctance to leave office after losing the 2020 election to Biden, that Trump will establish a dictatorship if he regains the presidency in 2024. Look at Putin and Xi Jinping, leaders who have locked in their personal fiefdoms for the foreseeable future. Russia is a police state, where differing opinions are not tolerated. Citizens go to prison for dissent. Oligarchs are murdered regularly and power is concentrated around Putin.
The Cult Of Donald Trump
Perhaps, GOP America sees its future in the hands of a deranged narcissist for better or worse. Perhaps, conservatives see a dictatorial hand on the tiller for decades to come as their preferred way forward. The US as a Christian theocracy with its orange Jesus at the helm. The cult of Donald J Trump. Old white men have been leading America since Obama’s two terms in office. Is this an indication that the nation has run out of ideas? Are we seeing the crumbling of the republic?
Will the young stand up and fight for democracy? Will they turn out in record numbers to vote the Trump dictatorship down at the ballot box? Or are they all sleepwalking into an autocratic nightmare?
The GOP is no longer a political party for conservatives in America, according to political historian Heather Cox Richardson. The current version of the Republican Party must be viewed as a radical departure from what it once was. Many commentators have called it a cult to Donald Trump. Those representing the GOP in Congress and the Senate have put aside their respect for the rule of law and their adherence to the democratic tradition is paper thin. Many Americans have always had a win at any contest attitude and this has pervaded the MAGA infested GOP to an extreme level.
I have been immersing myself in American history this year and what a fascinating subject it is. The American experiment, as they called the establishment of their Republic, has revealed much of the character of Homo sapiens in the modern era. The United States has been riven by racial inequality from its inception and for all the fine talk in the Bill of Rights – it is a white man’s conception of a land of the free. Half of the US was a slaver nation for its first 300 years. These southern states were police states for blacks, where dark skin put the spotlight on you. Chains and whipping were the daily reality for these Imported African slaves. You cannot scrub away the stain of slavery, not after three centuries. Many white folk were hellbent on maintaining slavery as an economic model for their states. Indeed, the Civil War would cost the lives of some 625, 000 Americans in 1860-65.
Robert Sudha Hamilton is the author of Money Matters: Navigating Credit, Debt, and Financial Freedom.
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