Down the Garden Path...
/Meet Stacy Abrams, via Wikipedia: “born December 9, 1973... an American politician, lawyer, voting rights activist, and author who served in the Georgia House of Representatives from 2007 to 2017... A member of the Democratic Party, Abrams founded Fair Fight Action, an organization to address voter suppression, in 2018. Her efforts have been widely credited with boosting voter turnout in Georgia...” Abrams was twice nominated for Governor of Georgia but lost both races. She was “the first African-American woman to deliver a response to the State of the Union address.” Born in Madison, Wisconsin, but raised in Mississippi, Stacy has authored 10 books, two of which were New York Times best-selling nonfiction.
What interests me about Ms. Abrams today, however, is her ten-step warning about the path democracies take as they slip into authoritarianism. Abrams’ 10 Steps were apparently based on the research of Kim Lane Scheppele, Rockefeller Professor of Sociology and International Affairs at Princeton. I’m going to list those ten steps below, and I’m going to restrain myself: I’ll list each without comment.
What I request that my reader do, at each step, is ask this question: Do I see any evidence that this is already underway? Maybe you could jot down the numbers of steps (if any) you think we’ve already taken, boundaries that have already been crossed. If you’re really enthusiastic, you might even want to record a few examples that come to mind (if any do). Take a look at the Ten Steps, record your responses on a piece of scrap paper – okay, on your tablet – and then I’ll see you at the end.
10 Steps to Autocracy (Stacy Abrams)
Conduct a "last" free and fair election: Autocrats begin by using the democratic process to gain power, but intend for that election to be the final one that is truly free.
Exceed executive power: The leader uses numerous executive orders to claim authority that exceeds their actual constitutional power.
Weaken competing powers: They neuter or make other branches of government, like Congress and the courts, complicit.
Target the media: The free press is attacked and discredited to sow distrust and make it easier to control the public narrative.
Gut the government: Experts are fired, and government agencies are dismantled.
Install loyalists: The leader places unqualified loyalists into positions of power who are solely faithful to the executive.
Sow social discord: They demonize marginalized communities and use scapegoating to divide people and prevent them from uniting against the authoritarian threat.
Attack civil society: Organizations like philanthropies and nonprofits that do "good work" are targeted to discourage independent action.
Incentivize private violence: The autocrat encourages and enables private violence against their opposition, often by using agents like militarized federal officials. Abrams has indicated that she believes the U.S. is at or near this step.
Undermine free and fair elections: The final stage is to systematically make it more difficult and unsafe to vote, creating a sense of futility and disenfranchisement.
Okay, have you drawn some conclusions? I am wondering:
Do you think we’ve crossed any of those boundaries?
Which ones do you think are already fait accompli?
Which steps have not been taken?
How do you feel about it all, and what, if anything, are you going to do about it?
My position? Oh, this is so hard for me, but I promised myself to keep quiet, hoping to learn from the perspectives of others. Let’s get responses from several readers, and then maybe I’ll come back and share my thoughts on these ten steps. So, what do YOU think about these ten steps and the likelihood that we are (or are not) moving, demonstrably and evidentially, toward authoritarianism? Please click on the “comment” area below and tell us which of the ten steps toward authoritarianism, if any, you believe we’ve taken and, if possible, why you think that. Let’s see what we get...