Autocrats are Bad, Actually

I have something to say that ought to be obvious.

It’s so obvious it’s hard to put into words.

It’s something that ought not to be controversial, but lately it is. When I was a sixteen-year-old homeschooler, the very conservative devout Catholics in our homeschool group would have ben surprised I even brought it up, but nowadays it’s fashionable to believe the opposite and pretend this has always been the good wholesome Catholic position. You’re going to see those people swarming the comment box today, so I probably won’t be moderating down there unless I get bored.

The obvious, non-obvious, mundane and controversial statement is this: autocratic governments are bad.

It’s bad to live under an autocrat. You shouldn’t want that. It’s no fun, it hurts all but a tiny few, and it gets a whole lot of people killed.

Narcissistic strongmen who govern by fiat are not heroes, they are bad guys.

Life is better when you get a say in your government, even if that government is woefully imperfect.

All other things being equal, it’s good to live in a place where you get to vote on your representatives, however irritating both choices may be. It’s good to live in a society where you have at least a snowball’s chance at electing a leader you like, rather than some bozo with a personality cult calling all the shots.

It’s preferable to live in a country where there are laws which are written down which tell you what you could get punished for and what the punishment will be, and as a bonus you often get to vote on those laws as well, and you get a fair trial if you’re suspected of breaking the laws– rather than in a society where you get punished at random because the Dear Leader doesn’t like you.

It’s easier to prosper in a place where you can start a business or work for a wage or a gratuity and pay a certain amount of taxes and try and work for a more just economy, even though that economy might be terribly unjust, rather than in a place where the oligarch controls all the businesses like a giant protection racket with its own military.

It’s far nicer to try and make your way in a world where you’re legally permitted to learn about the world around you, and to talk about it with others, and to speak your opinions, than it is to live in a place where the media you consume is drastically restricted and you’ll get in legal trouble if you criticize the wrong people.

And I am right with you if you start pointing out the ways in which America is not a good place to live.

I think our economy is deeply unjust and always has been– after all, it was founded on the misery of enslavement. I think our two-party system stinks. Our police are breathtakingly corrupt and murderous. Our military exploits overseas are often horrendous. The fact that we still have a death penalty is deplorable. Women, LGBTQ people, the disabled and racial minorities are still treated like garbage.  There’s plenty we have to do to reform the way we vote so everybody gets a say. I can name half a dozen constitutional amendments I’d like to pass right away if I could, and that’s just the beginning. But it is better to work towards a just society where everyone is free and gets a say, than it is to throw in the towel and give in to a dictatorship.

Which is why I am sickened that over the weekend, as I’m sure you’ve already heard, Donald Trump echoed Hitler and called his opponents “vermin,” promising to eradicate them. And then, when asked about it, his campaign leaned into the autocratic dictator language and said that the “sad, miserable existence” of his critics would be “crushed.”

And he’s not just talking a big game; Trump’s Republican Party has already laid out the blueprint of how they’re going to irrevocably destroy our democracy if they win in 2024. His plan has all the marks of an autocracy: filling his government with yes-men, prosecuting his former minions who displeased him, prosecuting his political opponents just for spite, siccing the military on US citizens to quell any protest.

I’m not actually terribly afraid of Donald Trump himself just now. Lord knows I have been in the past.

But the man is visibly sundowning and I’ll be shocked if he lives through all of the trials for his 91 felony indictments. I am, however, deeply concerned that a sizable chunk of the US population still thinks he’s just great. I’m particularly anxious about my fellow Catholics who have decided it’s “traditional” to admire autocrats right now. This is a very dangerous situation.

These people are not a majority. The people who believe in democracy are a majority. But the people who still like Trump, like him BECAUSE he wants to be an autocrat. They want him to be an autocrat because they think he will hurt the right people– be they queer people, immigrants, feminists, or whatever. When Trump is gone, they will not give up. They will find themselves another autocrat. And because our democracy is so flawed, that minority has the power to wreak havoc and will for a long time. I don’t know who their next hero will be. I’ve seen signs popping up supporting DeSantis in the yards of some local conservative Catholics, but DeSantis doesn’t have the charisma to lead the movement. Whoever it is, it’s sure to be somebody smarter than Trump, and then we’ll be in trouble.

These people do not want a democracy of any kind. They want an autocracy that will enforce their will.

No, I don’t want to eradicate them like vermin, because I’m not an autocrat. But we can’t just let our guard down and let them win another election.

We all have to work as hard as we can to make sure that they don’t.

I shouldn’t have to say this, but here we are.