Book Review: Democracy Awakening: Notes on the State of America, by Heather Cox Richardson
The lesson from the long view of history is to never give up in the present. The observations of historian Heather Cox Richardson—who’s been a bulwark of stability throughout and beyond the authoritarianism of the Trump presidency—are cause to take a deep breath and care for our neighbors, even while others insist on abandoning them. The author makes it clear from the historical arc that to allow autocrats to set themselves up as superior beings eventually leads to everyone else becoming their slaves—remaining silent and complacent is not the easy way out; instead it’s a type of enabling behavior autocrats actively seek, in which they in turn betray even their most loyal supporters. The only viable option is to resist autocratic tendencies at every level available.
Richardson gets specific about who the bad actors are. The historical record in this book reveals a common thread from the slave holders during the early European settlement of America, through the industrialists of the 19th Century, through the Jim Crow South, through fellow travelers with Nazis of the 3rd Reich, through the financialization that took off in the 1980s and created the obscene wealth disparity that exists today—we may accurately and objectively call them fascists. Their target for almost a century is the liberal consensus of the New Deal and its centrist political culture. Most people would like to assume that others are reasonable and desiring of mutually beneficial outcomes—by their nature, fascists don’t view the world this way, and Richardson enumerates their methodologies.
The author describes how fascists take advantage of any wiggle room allowed to them, as they don’t campaign in good faith—instead they use or create any opportunity possible to disrupt normal democratic societal functions, which allows them to capture the process for their own authoritarian ends. These encroachments against the public will must be consciously countered by the whole public, which includes appropriate engagement by those who would rather just keep their heads down and just not get into politics. More face to face social engagement in the form of small in-person gatherings would help greatly in reducing individual isolation, and anything that facilitates that would provide an essential boost to countering authoritarian bullies.
The alternative to an engaged public is autocratic dystopia, toward which we have been hurling at unconscionable speed. We must restore the liberal consensus to its practical effectiveness—that requires that everyone be proactively productive, including both politically and socially.