When no less a classic cultural and political conservative than David Brooks declares it is “Time for a Civic Uprising” in his “New York Times” column Thursday, joined by his also moderately-inclined colleague Ezra Klein declaring on his side of the page, “The Emergency Is Here,” you know we are in a heap of trouble. Not even 100 days into Trump redux, we are now facing the fully flowering existential threat that most Democrats feared and warned about all through the fall election cycle, only to be dismissed because too many American voters, if one is to believe the polling and focus group data, were angry about the price of eggs.
Now that the price of our freedom seems to have shoved those concerns aside for an ever-increasing part of the electorate, we would do well to consider two things.
The first is the need to take seriously and literally Donald Trump’s own words from January 6 to “fight like hell or you’re not going to have a country anymore.”
No, that doesn’t mean to ransack the Capitol and have bowel movements on congressional office carpets. But it does mean you speak out and fight for your democracy as if your very freedom depended on it, which, as has become increasingly clear, it most certainly does.
Yes, here in America. The shock is still sinking in.
Second is to prepare for the real possibility that this administration will continue its multi-pronged effort to force a constitutional showdown with the judicial branch of our government—and succeed by defying the court’s directive. This would clear the decks for them to firmly establish a faux democracy on the Hungarian-Turkish model that its leading thinkers so admire.
That means all opposition either in jail, deported or neutered, future elections a sham overseen by Elon Musk’s young tech bros, and the mob boss rule the Trump organization has always dreamed of to steer the ship of state forevermore.
I wish the picture wasn’t quite so dark, and with enough public revulsion and mobilization, the forces for good may yet prevail, or at least temper the worst of MAGA excess until the 2026-28 elections (assuming they occur, and are legitimate).
But until then, we must address the question T.S. Eliot asked in another place, amidst another dark time: “What shall I do now? What shall I do?…What shall we ever do?”
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I’m going to give the latter part of this post over to one of the most learned and wisest of the many commentators framing the roiling currents of our cultural moment. Timothy Snyder is a Yale University historian, professor, writer and longtime internationalist who has focused the bulk of his career studying and writing about Central and Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union, and the Holocaust.
In other words, he has seen this movie now playing in front of us Americans many times before, and he was early to the barricades warning of its troubling signs. He published “On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century” in 2017 as a concise (128-page) afternoon’s read which, despite its dark portents, served as both a wake-up call and action guide for what was even then emerging as the would-be authoritarianism that has always darkened Donald Trump’s worldview.
Snyder’s book, whose small size allowed us to keep it for years in a little slot in the car dashboard for easy reference and reminder, was recently condensed to even more manageable bites on Snyder’s Substack page, each of the 20 bullet-pointed “lessons” followed by a short paragraph of action-oriented guidance.
It’s a valuable little touchstone, a thoughtful compendium, an antidote to the feelings of despair currently roiling all those who saw the Project 25 train coming down the track and realized its dire implications for our country.
And a response, in calm purposeful language, to Eliot’s question that should undergird, if not inspire, all the days ahead in this long and truly endless human struggle to resist the tyranny that lurks in the darkest frozen corners of the human heart.
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TWENTY LESSONS ON TYRANNY
1. Do not obey in advance. Most of the power of authoritarianism is freely given. In times like these, individuals think ahead about what a more repressive government will want, and then offer themselves without being asked. A citizen who adapts in this way is teaching power what it can do.
2. Defend institutions. It is institutions that help us to preserve decency. They need our help as well. Do not speak of “our institutions” unless you make them yours by acting on their behalf. Institutions do not protect themselves. So choose an institution you care about and take its side.
3. Beware the one-party state. The parties that remade states and suppressed rivals were not omnipotent from the start. They exploited a historic moment to make political life impossible for their opponents. So support the multi-party system and defend the rules of democratic elections.
4. Take responsibility for the face of the world. The symbols of today enable the reality of tomorrow. Notice the swastikas and other signs of hate. Do not look away, and do not get used to them. Remove them yourself and set an example for others to do so.
5. Remember professional ethics. When political leaders set a negative example, professional commitments to just practice become important. It is hard to subvert a rule-of-law state without lawyers, or to hold show trials without judges. Authoritarians need obedient civil servants, and concentration camp directors seek businessmen interested in cheap labor.
6. Be wary of paramilitaries. When the men with guns who have always claimed to be against the system start wearing uniforms and marching around with torches and pictures of a Leader, the end is nigh. When the pro-leader paramilitary and the official police and military intermingle, the end has come.
7. Be reflective if you must be armed. If you carry a weapon in public service, God bless you and keep you. But know that evils of the past involved policemen and soldiers finding themselves, one day, doing irregular things. Be ready to say no.
8. Stand out. Someone has to. It is easy to follow along. It can feel strange to do or say something different. But without that unease, there is no freedom. Remember Rosa Parks. The moment you set an example, the spell of the status quo is broken, and others will follow.
9. Be kind to our language. Avoid pronouncing the phrases everyone else does. Think up your own way of speaking, even if only to convey that thing you think everyone is saying. Make an effort to separate yourself from the internet. Read books.
10. Believe in truth. To abandon facts is to abandon freedom. If nothing is true, then no one can criticize power because there is no basis upon which to do so. If nothing is true, then all is spectacle. The biggest wallet pays for the most blinding lights.
11. Investigate. Figure things out for yourself. Spend more time with long articles. Subsidize investigative journalism by subscribing to print media. Realize that some of what is on the internet is there to harm you. Learn about sites that investigate propaganda campaigns (some of which come from abroad). Take responsibility for what you communicate to others.
12. Make eye contact and small talk. This is not just polite. It is part of being a citizen and a responsible member of society. It is also a way to stay in touch with your surroundings, break down social barriers, and understand whom you should and should not trust. If we enter a culture of denunciation, you will want to know the psychological landscape of your daily life.
13. Practice corporeal politics. Power wants your body softening in your chair and your emotions dissipating on the screen. Get outside. Put your body in unfamiliar places with unfamiliar people. Make new friends and march with them.
14. Establish a private life. Nastier rulers will use what they know about you to push you around. Scrub your computer of malware. Remember that email is skywriting. Consider using alternative forms of the Internet, or simply using it less. Have personal exchanges in person. For the same reason, resolve any legal trouble.
15. Contribute to good causes. Be active in organizations, political or not, that express your own view of life. Pick a charity or two and set up autopay.
16. Learn from peers in other countries. Keep up your friendships abroad, or make new friends abroad. The present difficulties in the United States are an element of a larger trend. And no country is going to find a solution by itself. Make sure you and your family have passports.
17. Listen for dangerous words. Be alert to the use of the words extremism and terrorism. Be alive to the fatal notions of emergency and exception. Be angry about the treacherous use of patriotic vocabulary.
18. Be calm when the unthinkable arrives. Modern tyranny is terror management. When the terrorist attack comes, remember that authoritarians exploit such events in order to consolidate power. Do not fall for it.
19. Be a patriot. Set a good example of what America means for the generations to come.
20. Be as courageous as you can. If none of us is prepared to die for freedom, then all of us will die under tyranny.
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I’ll rise like the day/I’ll rise up/I’ll rise unafraid/I’ll rise up/And I’ll do it a thousand times again…
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Ominously, “What shall I do now? What shall I do?…What shall we ever do?” are lines from T.S. Eliot’s poem “The Wasteland”. Chillingly, “The Wasteland” opens with “April is the cruelest month.” Timothy Snyder’s “On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons on the Twentieth Century” reminds all of us to be ever vigilant about the universal signs of totalitarianism, and each lesson provides a common-sense strategy to combat them. I wrote this poem in 2017 shortly after Trump’s first inauguration.
“Dissent”
Hate, like a soulless pall, suffocates,
sowing evil; augers of a dark world,
devouring souls like carrion hors d’oeuvres,
tearing asunder Good with toxic talons.
Vile words, synchronized beats to callous hearts,
drip and spew forth anger in demonic calls–
“I’d rather my son have cancer than be gay.”
“Gabby Giffords: The Gun Control’s Human Shield.”
“The Confederate Flag Proclaims a Glorious Heritage.”
“Feminism have made us dumber.”
Whisper, please. Hide your true self.
Watch Fox. Read Breitbart.
And why do we need the Endowment for the Arts?
Communists built a wall to keep ‘em in.
He’ll build a wall to keep ‘em out.
He’ll gut Lady Liberty, laugh, then shout.
His design, drown all opposing voices,
And pave the path for democracy’s death;
An eerie silence, freedom’s nightfall ensues,
serenaded by muted songbirds in gilded cages.
He flouts inalienable rights with disregard,
Poisoning the land like a dirge unfurled,
Lifeless laws, tombstones in a foul graveyard.
Whisper, please. Hide your true self.
Watch Fox. Read Breitbart.
And why do we need the Endowment for the Arts?
Crosses rend burkas beneath English Only signs,
And tariffs scream to hell with the world,
Cries of disgust abound in faraway cities,
Berlin, Dublin, New Delhi,
Brussels, London, Paris, Nairobi
Sydney, Cape Town, Barcelona,
Athens, Mexico City, Montreal.
Vast protests, arias demanding change,
Channeled choruses swirling the globe,
Despair succumbs to spirited defiance.
Yell. Don’t hide your true self.
Never watch Fox. Boycott Breitbart.
Sustain and support the Endowment for the Arts.
As Snyder advises, stay active and realize steps can be taken to counter this evil and its design to suffocate freedom. Bottom line: Never give up hope.
I’m about to hop on a plane here in San Francisco, Robert, and gazing at your list of cities there, most of them are looking and sounding rather attractive, I must say, as the mind wanders to ex-pats of old…
Thanks for this!
I saw David Brooks speak post election, pre inauguration, and when the questions from the audience came up one man asked what most of us had constantly hovering in our minds. “Do you think this is end of America as we know it?” Brooks answered to the effect that he had traveled all over the country for decades and talked to thousands of people, and though he acknowledged deep flaws remained, he believed in America as an essentially good and just nation. He believed in its people as essentially good and just. I wonder how Brooks would answer that questions today? One phrase I have heard over and over from people who know and follow events much more than I is that this is all happening much faster, and it much worse than imagined.
States don’t get much redder than Idaho, where I live. And yet 12,000 people made the effort to come out and hear what Bernie and AOC had to say. 35 years I have lived here and never have I seen a political event to rival that. So, people are waking up. Too late? Maybe. The weekly 5051 demonstrations at least give a feeling of solidarity. My hope is all this evolves into some non-partisan populist uprising which can’t be ignored. Violence, on some level, seems inevitable. We will all pay a price if democracy will be preserved.
7 months ago I applied for Irish citizenship (my grandmother came over at 19) and should hear back soon. I still see it as all-hope-is-lost way to blow the hatch on this madness, but more and more my mind wanders to what life would be like living in the EU. For the moment I have no intention of letting the bastards win without some kind of fight. I have heard Snyder mentioned often lately. I appreciate your adding that list here. I will print it out. I will pass it, and your post on. I’ve joined Snyder’s Substack.
In my head, the mid-term elections are a real litmus test. If they are subverted or don’t happen at all due to some “emergency,” it may be time to consider options.
Thanks for the sobering and thoughtful post, Andrew.
Whew, that’s a big step applying for Irish citizenship, Dennis. That alone, whether you follow through, signals something important. A few years ago I started musing on looking into Hungary, but the more I learned of Orban and the faux democracy he’s managed to finagle there, the less sense it made. And then there’s the family, the friendships, the familiar haunts…
But if things careen completely out of control, which is to say, completely UNDER the control of Project 2025—what then? I don’t know, but UNTIL then, we do all of what Mr. Snyder and others are telling us to do, and which you reference as well here. Lots to chew on, for which I thank you very much.
Thank you sharing the Timothy Snyder action tips, Andrew. We all need some practical guidelines during these tumultuous and emotional times.
Robert, your poem really stuck home for me as I wrestle with a few friends, past and current who have chosen not to “Hide your true self,” revealing that they have been captured by “Vile words, synchronized beats to callous hearts drip and spew forth anger and demonic calls.” This personal struggle is, in a sense self-inflicted due to my decision to post remarks on my Facebook page knowing full well that tracing our president’s clear march toward authoritarian rule would elicit outrage from Trump supporters. The result has been to “out” a few people and to ignite contentious dialogue in comment sections among friends and associates that perhaps serves no real constructive purpose. I would like to think that my aim has been to educate and to draw attention to the dangerous direction taken by this administration. In a sense, it has been my desire to not stand by and do nothing as disaster unfolds around us. And yet I am left with wishing that I and others are not subject to viewing the “anger in demonic calls” that have found their way onto my posts. At the same time it seems that these thoughts and emotion need some light and some outlet, somewhere. Social media can be that place, and with it comes the sometimes “Vile words and synchronized beats. . . “