Very good, provocative piece. I think what is missing here and what we need is extensive analysis of where are the vulnerabilities of the authoritarian model, and especially this version of it. We now know a whole lot about the vulnerabilities of the democratic model. The alternative futures we might imagine must come from strategies derived from both of these analyses.
In the meantime, democratic forces basically have to push back much harder than they have for decades. In a world that is now in flux in the ways so aptly described here, the power, and indeed the existence, of democracies are being challenged. The Democratic-inclined must assert their power financially, legally, in law enforcement, and militarily. The US and allies have extraordinary resources to deploy in this conflictual period. They must use them such that they get everyone’s undivided attention, and then they must assert and enforce a critical threshold of order — and then lead the way into some revised and new forms of democracy-enhancing socio-political norms and practices.
Make no mistake, democracies must take and maintain a firm, unyielding, and, where necessary, pain-inducing grip on forces that threaten us, both internally and externally: Firm and unyielding in deploying and strengthening guarantees of liberty, equality, and justice that address key failings and stir the hearts of The People to maintain and demand comity. But also, as in all wars, whether kinetic or political, there must be pain inflicted in deterring or stopping forces of mayhem and autocracy. We already know well that, once organized and unleashed, they can only be defeated through confrontation and the anticipation or infliction of unavoidable painful consequences for their actions.
After years of being blindered to and in many ways complicit in the rise of anti-democratic forces, we are now charged with, and are responsible for, resisting and then defeating them. This is not a mandate that any of us wished for or expected, but it is what it is and we must all now do what’s necessary to maintain the democratic project.
Very good, provocative piece. I think what is missing here and what we need is extensive analysis of where are the vulnerabilities of the authoritarian model, and especially this version of it. We now know a whole lot about the vulnerabilities of the democratic model. The alternative futures we might imagine must come from strategies derived from both of these analyses.
In the meantime, democratic forces basically have to push back much harder than they have for decades. In a world that is now in flux in the ways so aptly described here, the power, and indeed the existence, of democracies are being challenged. The Democratic-inclined must assert their power financially, legally, in law enforcement, and militarily. The US and allies have extraordinary resources to deploy in this conflictual period. They must use them such that they get everyone’s undivided attention, and then they must assert and enforce a critical threshold of order — and then lead the way into some revised and new forms of democracy-enhancing socio-political norms and practices.
Make no mistake, democracies must take and maintain a firm, unyielding, and, where necessary, pain-inducing grip on forces that threaten us, both internally and externally: Firm and unyielding in deploying and strengthening guarantees of liberty, equality, and justice that address key failings and stir the hearts of The People to maintain and demand comity. But also, as in all wars, whether kinetic or political, there must be pain inflicted in deterring or stopping forces of mayhem and autocracy. We already know well that, once organized and unleashed, they can only be defeated through confrontation and the anticipation or infliction of unavoidable painful consequences for their actions.
After years of being blindered to and in many ways complicit in the rise of anti-democratic forces, we are now charged with, and are responsible for, resisting and then defeating them. This is not a mandate that any of us wished for or expected, but it is what it is and we must all now do what’s necessary to maintain the democratic project.