Surviving Autocracy

by Masha Gessen

Trump’s deep instinctual understanding of the world as a strange and hostile place where one needed to live in a fortress. The Wall and the Muslim ban would also serve as tests of civil society’s ability to resist Trump. If Trump was to be successful in his autocratic attempt, he would need to trample civil society—from grassroots activist organizations to professional civil society groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union: the activists who would march for the rights of immigrants, the aid workers who would provide direct services to them, and the lawyers who would fight for their legal rights. A confrontation like this had never occurred before. No American president had staged an autocratic attempt—and no other country’s civil society was as vast and varied, as well funded, and as separate from the state as American civil society. In post-Communist countries such as Hungary or Russia, civil society was weak, quite new, and dependent on foreign donors for much of its funding—and this made it relatively easy to crush or co-opt. In Western-style liberal democracies such as Italy or Israel, civil society was intertwined with political parties and dependent on the state for some of its funding—and this made it relatively easy to intimidate and marginalize. In the United States, civil society appeared uniquely well equipped to resist a bully like Trump.