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"Competitive Authoritarianism--" the latest threat to democracy and freedom in the United States

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Fantine

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heathercoxrichardson.substack.com

May 14, 2025

On May 8, political scientists Steven Levitsky, Lucan Way, and Daniel Ziblatt published an op-ed in the New York Times reminding readers that most modern authoritarian leaders are elected.
heathercoxrichardson.substack.com heathercoxrichardson.substack.com

most modern authoritarian leaders are elected. They maintain their power by using the power of the government—arrests, tax audits, defamation suits, politically targeted investigations, and so on—to punish and silence their opponents. They either buy or bully the media and civil society until opposing voices cave to their power.

Levitsky, Way, and Ziblatt call this system “competitive authoritarianism.” A country that has fallen to it still holds elections, but the party in power has so weighted the system in its favor that it’s virtually impossible for it to lose.
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The article goes on to enumerate the ways DJT's authoritarian regime is threatening our society.

Looking at the many ways the Trump administration has been harassing critics, law firms, universities, judges, and media stations, they conclude that “America has crossed the line into competitive authoritarianism.”
Click to expand...

More examples of "deadly weaponized" government follow.

Conservatives must decide if it is sensible--or even sane--to place so much power in the hands of someone whose toolbox includes threats, extortion, audits, ending grants, and more.
 
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Pommer

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Fantine said:
heathercoxrichardson.substack.com

May 14, 2025

On May 8, political scientists Steven Levitsky, Lucan Way, and Daniel Ziblatt published an op-ed in the New York Times reminding readers that most modern authoritarian leaders are elected.
heathercoxrichardson.substack.com heathercoxrichardson.substack.com



The article goes on to enumerate the ways DJT's authoritarian regime is threatening our society.



More examples of "deadly weaponized" government follow.

Conservatives must decide if it is sensible--or even sane--to place so much power in the hands of someone whose toolbox includes threats, extortion, audits, ending grants, and more.
Click to expand...
The “levels” of authoritarian control have remained roughly the same throughout our history.

I’ll concede that government authoritarianism is rising, but the (mostly mainline Protestan) churches gave up a lot of power from the ‘40s to the ‘90s…political nature abhors a vacuum and government is more than happy to fill it.
 
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2PhiloVoid

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Fantine said:
heathercoxrichardson.substack.com

May 14, 2025

On May 8, political scientists Steven Levitsky, Lucan Way, and Daniel Ziblatt published an op-ed in the New York Times reminding readers that most modern authoritarian leaders are elected.
heathercoxrichardson.substack.com heathercoxrichardson.substack.com



The article goes on to enumerate the ways DJT's authoritarian regime is threatening our society.



More examples of "deadly weaponized" government follow.

Conservatives must decide if it is sensible--or even sane--to place so much power in the hands of someone whose toolbox includes threats, extortion, audits, ending grants, and more.
Click to expand...

That's interesting. Thomas Sowell was just recently saying something very similar.
 
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FAITH-IN-HIM

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Fantine said:
heathercoxrichardson.substack.com

May 14, 2025

On May 8, political scientists Steven Levitsky, Lucan Way, and Daniel Ziblatt published an op-ed in the New York Times reminding readers that most modern authoritarian leaders are elected.
heathercoxrichardson.substack.com heathercoxrichardson.substack.com



The article goes on to enumerate the ways DJT's authoritarian regime is threatening our society.



More examples of "deadly weaponized" government follow.

Conservatives must decide if it is sensible--or even sane--to place so much power in the hands of someone whose toolbox includes threats, extortion, audits, ending grants, and more.
Click to expand...

These issues were litigated during the 2024 campaign, and Americans chose lower egg prices. Whether the choice is good or bad, time will tell.
 
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Hans Blaster

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Pommer said:
The “levels” of authoritarian control have remained roughly the same throughout our history.

I’ll concede that government authoritarianism is rising, but the (mostly mainline Protestan) churches gave up a lot of power from the ‘40s to the ‘90s…political nature abhors a vacuum and government is more than happy to fill it.
Click to expand...
I don't go back to the 1940s (except on vacation), but I don't recall the Protestant churches having any power in the 1980s or 90s. The only power the pope-based church had was on me personally was because I fell for their thing. They had no general authority in society.

I don't think this commentary on rising authoritarianism is about that anyway.
 
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Fantine

Fantine

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FAITH-IN-HIM said:
These issues were litigated during the 2024 campaign, and Americans chose lower egg prices. Whether the choice is good or bad, time will tell.
Click to expand...
That time has passed, and those who voted for eggs have egg on their faces.
 
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FAITH-IN-HIM

FAITH-IN-HIM

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Fantine said:
That time has passed, and those who voted for eggs have egg on their faces.
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That may be true, but President Trump is POTUS for the next 4 years, and there is absolutely nothing the Democrats can do to change that.
 
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