According to a recent survey by Pew Research, a significant minority of Americans are open to the idea of America becoming an authoritarian dictatorship. For people on the ideological right, the number is even higher. The current Republican Party President, reflecting his admiration for totalitarian dictators and his avowed intention to turn America into a dictatorship, has aggressively exploited these feelings. By promising people at his campaign rallies last that they won’t have to worry about voting any more, what he is really saying is that there will be no need for elections in America ever again. Like Putin and Xi, he will be President for life.
After two hundred fifty years of democracy in America, it is almost impossible to believe that anyone would want this to happen. The problem is that most Americans, including those who express positive views about absolutist dictatorships, have never lived in a dictatorship and really have no idea how it would affect their lives. What they don’t realize is that the consequences of living under absolute rule are quite severe; and when they actually experience life under these conditions, they will hate it.
As I point out in my recently published book, those Americans who gravitate towards dictatorship do so for several reasons: either they expect that their personal views will become the dominant narrative in society when their dictator is installed; they believe that the things they want done will happen more quickly under an autocratic regime; or they are under the misapprehension that having an absolute dictator in charge will reduce their need to take responsibility for their own lives. Unfortunately, none of this is likely to happen.
Instead when people allow absolutist ideas to creep into their society, they are opening the door to very deadly consequences. For instance, according to RJ Rummel, absolutist governments are much more likely than democratically-elected governments to engage in mass murder. Rummel's research demonstrated the democratic nations are less inclined to commit mass murder due to restraint imposed by democratic processes and pluralism. In contrast, totalitarian regimes attempt to control all aspects of society through force and fear. This breeds paranoia among the leaders that they will soon be overthrown. As a result they are very aggressive about eliminating enemies and creating structural rigidities that make rebellion virtually impossible.
Absolute rulers, like Vladimir Putin of Russia, Xi Jinping of China, and Ali Khamenei of Iran, use torture, imprisonment, and assassination of enemies to create terror; they punish dissent severely; they make the judicial system at tool of the state security services; and they constantly and repetitively push their false ideological narratives in the society to justify their illegal actions.
The worst thing about these kinds of regimes is that ordinary citizens are subjected to the arbitrary decisions of the leaders and have absolutely no recourse to resolve disputes. There is no objective rule of law, no right to a fair trial, and no ability to change leadership. People can be arrested without warrant, tortured brutally, and even killed with impunity. So they live in constant fear of bad things happening to them. Ordinary citizens are powerless and have no control over their lives. Everything, including personal morality, can be dictated by the state. People have no say in their future. And there is no escape.
Even those who think they are part of a favored group, and therefore will be safe, can suddenly be targeted for elimination. Some of the most loyal cadres with the finest revolutionary credentials were eliminated in every communist country. The fact that they were champions of the regime or enthusiastically embraced the required belief system did not save them. The reason: paranoid autocratic rulers have great fear of anyone or anything they cannot control. It is widely known that many of the most powerful men in Russia and China have been removed from their positions and killed or imprisoned in the last few years. No one is safe in an absolutist government.
Finally, autocratic leaders are not accountable for their actions. Everything is shrouded in secrecy and there is no transparency. This allows disproportionate amounts of money to be allocated to internal security or alternatively siphoned off from the system by corrupt officials stealing the resources of the state. Either way, the leaders end up bankrupting or impoverishing the economy.
No matter how frustrated people are with their lives in a democratic society, no matter how badly off they think are; no matter how poorly they think their interests are being served, they should never want to live in a dictatorship. They will be much worse off!
Living in a democracy is a rare gift that must not be put at risk. Dictatorship is not a solution to a country's issues. Those who think it might be acceptable do not fully understand the brutal realities of life under autocratic rule and will inevitably pay dearly for their ignorance.