CPAC and modern authoritarian anti-democracy tactics

This 19 minute video discusses how authoritarians rise to power in democracies and then they subvert and kill democracy. The process is well underway in America right now. Most of the interview is with Kim Lane Scheppele, a professor at Princeton. She is an expert on how Hungarian democracy was destroyed after Viktor Orban was elected in 2010. Orban has since been re-elected three times in rigged elections, making him the Hungarian dictator for life. Central points are:

• Modern authoritarians in democracies have learned how to gain power and then use it to establish tyranny. After being elected, they destroy free and fair elections and by subverting government. Government subversion involves firing career professional employees and replacing them with people chosen for their loyalty to the tyrant. That includes government employees who oversee elections. Loyalty to the Constitution and the rule of law, concern for the public interest, professional competence and other concerns are not the most important qualifier. Loyalty is all-important.

• CPAC (Conservative Political Action Conference), which consists mostly of Republican Party elites, elected politicians and radical right propagandists (Faux News, etc.), is openly adopting these same tactics. Once back in power, Republicans plan to give themselves the power to fire tens of thousands of federal employees. Fired employees will be replaced by people loyal to the Republican Party leader and its elites. 

• Most average people in democracies are very slow to understand what is happening to their form of government. It takes years before most people come to realize that they have lost their democracy. Holding rigged elections distract from the fact that elections have been turned into a farce. Despite being a farce, holding rigged elections provides extremely effective propaganda and cover for tyrants. Tyrants boldly but falsely claim they are democratic and adhering to the rule of law by holding elections they falsely say are free and fair. The tyrant's supporters do not complain because they believe they are rightfully winning, and defending their racial purity, their nation and literally Western civilization.

• Institutions and norms that impose checks and balances on concentration of power, like those in place in the US, fall apart when the people in power are loyal to a party or a tyrant In a functioning American democracy, loyal of powerful people in government would be to federalism, the institutions they are in, and the Constitutional. That is the legal basis for separation of power sufficient to prevent the rise of a tyrant. If Republicans once again get control of institutions, including federal agencies, federal courts, congress and the presidency, their loyalty to their party will be the pathway for a tyrant to rise to power for life. So far, the Republican Party has disabled all of the checks and balances that it could. That makes the rise of a tyrant for life in the US much more likely. The GOP already controls the US Supreme Court, making it a major ally in the Republican Party's run at tyranny.

Acknowledgement: Thanks to PD for bringing this interview to my attention.