This is what autocracy looks like.
At the most inspiring of marches over the last few years- the Women’s March, Pride Parades, the March For Our Lives- the common refrain is always the same: “This is what democracy looks like.” The perfect beat to match our marching boots. The positive message to couch our peaceful protest.
When I woke up today, though, all I could hear was a new refrain: this is what autocracy looks like. Like so many of you, I’ve shuffled through these dark few days, stunned but not surprised by the too many reminders of brutality and oppression of people of color in this country. I can’t claim to know the pain because I hold so much privilege as a cis white male, but I mourn for our country and the pain of so many people I love and cherish.
What has surprised me though is the audacity with which our supposed president has wielded his power in a way that, more than in the past, shows his most autocratic aspirations. We could easily recap so many weeks in this presidency with a mind-numbing litany of terrible actions. But this one feels so overtly tone-deaf, so defiantly undemocratic, that it is remarkable.
To recap: Trump started the week by slandering an oppositional journalist, accusing him of being involved in the murder of a former employee. Twitter, sidestepping calls to flag Trump’s accusations as false, instead flagged other Trump tweets as spreading misinformation regarding mail-in voting. Inflamed by that, Trump threatens to shut down social media platforms due to their “conservative bias” and issues a (legally dubious) executive order threatening to curtail legal protections for online media. From there, Trump reacts to Minneapolis protests against police brutality after the unjust murder of George Floyd by calling protestors “thugs,” a barely veiled racial slur. And his most baldly authoritarian move, was to suggest that “when the looting starts, the shooting starts.” Twitter, like so many reasonable citizens, declared this a violation of our norms for its message of encouraging and inciting violence. But the thought of Trump, bolstered by armed troops, quashing our protests through state-sponsored violence is chilling and not so far fetched.
Just having to write these sentences boils my blood and yet leaves me immobilized and dizzy, which is exactly what Trump wants us to feel. As always, the master illusionist has managed to distract our attention away from his epic mishandling of the coronavirus response, his attempts to suppress voters by hobbling mail-in voting opportunities, and as of just a few hours ago, his deeply consequential decision to withdraw the US from the World Health Organization. We let him do it because we are in pain, because we are dizzy, because we cannot possibly chip away at all of his undemocratic maneuvers. Instead, we focus today on the one that hits closest to home: deep and pervasive racism.
And we’re not wrong to do it. We should continue to fight him, and make it clear to all who will listen that this man, who grossly coopts honoring George Floyd’s life as a political prop, is a bald racist. Let’s not forget that while Donald Trump the individual distracts us, his political agenda enables deeper systemic racism when we allow his most undemocratic instincts and policies to win. His botched pandemic response only exacerbates higher health risks for communities of color, so many of whom are forced to work in unsafe environments during a pandemic so that Trump and his elite voters can go back to their former, perfectly privileged lives. His voter suppression efforts will very intentionally make working class voters of color to have to choose between their vote and their paycheck. His continued obstruction and dismantling of critical international diplomatic institutions will undermine our safety and shared resources in the face of continued global crises and who will pay the price first? Communities of color.
Trump’s racism and authoritarianism cannot be untangled and so when we fight against his politics or his racism, we inevitably also tear at the other. To topple this autocratic regime, we fortunately can still leverage our democratic tools; today, more than ever, we must stand in solidarity to protect our precious gift of protest. It is protest that will engender action and progress, that will allow us to end the reign of this horrible leader, but also of the now entrenched policies he has has ushered in.
It’s hard to believe much will change- we’ve gone through these cycles before. But in a time of national mourning, for lives lost in a recent pandemic and for even longer in the epidemic of racial discrimination, let’s continue to speak out, protest, organize. And as we do it, let the chant ring loud and clear: “Donald Trump: you are what autocracy looks like. But we are what democracy looks like.”
