Surviving Autocracy

by Masha Gessen

Americans tend to talk about institutions much more than we talk about another factor Obama mentioned in his reassuring postelection speech: the presumption of good faith. It is true that, despite a consistent history of injustice, an ever-increasing number of Americans, different kinds of Americans, have gained access to the rights and protections of citizenship. A long enough and generous enough view of American history affirms the narrative of continuous progress toward justice. The thoughtful design of our institutions is only one reason for this history of progress. The other is that American citizens and public officials have largely acted in good faith. Some of them have lied, many have cheated, many have bent the system to their ends, but they generally did so in accordance with sincerely held beliefs and a coherent system of values. Their abuses of power have usually been limited to discrete ideologically defined areas—and this meant that even when the system of checks and balances failed, a successive administration could address the damage (though it’s worth noting that Obama did not succeed in closing the detention camp in Guantánamo Bay). No powerful political actor had set out to destroy the American political system itself—until, that is, Trump won the Republican nomination. He was probably the first major party nominee who ran not for president but for autocrat. And he won.

This. ☝️