There has been a constant onslaught of terror from our new autocratic administration, which can make us feel powerless. But there is nothing futile about resistance. Here’s why.
For many of us, the idea of life under dictatorship tends to conjure images from George Orwell’s 1984, where we imagine the government is all-powerful, and resistance is futile. Perhaps that’s where things are headed, but we’re not yet there—and an omnipotent autocracy is not the only possibility. There’s a whole framework of government, “competitive autocracy,” with which Americans need to become familiar, because that’s where things are rapidly headed, and history can be instructive here.
The histories of anti-authoritarian or anti-fascist resistance are not usually happy ones. Not because they all end in tragedy—though many do—but because it is a slow, dogged, painful struggle, and one that is often quite boring because there are long periods of forced inactivity. Americans usually consume stories such as these through TV shows and action movies, and this has warped our sense of what “resistance” really looks like. It’s not blowing up rail lines or narrowly escaping capture or daring gun battles. Nor is it impassioned speeches about freedom to convince the other side how wrong they are. It can be boring; it also tends to be a game of relationship-building.
Elections actually have a certain amount of value for authoritarians and fascists, and at times they might even look competitive. Apartheid South Africa consistently held elections, though of course the only people who could vote were white. Under the Salazar dictatorship in Portugal, elections were held regularly, but opposition candidates invariably withdrew before election day. They can be a safety valve, especially if there’s a controlled or weakened opposition: Disgruntled citizens can blow off some steam and air grievances in a structured way. They also allow the party to engage supporters. Even a toothless legislature like the Cortes in Francoist Spain was still a place where money or favors could be traded, and an election is a chance for the autocrat to demonstrate their strength to the rest of the party.
In short, elections are not likely to go away even in the worst-case scenario in the United States.
It is funny that people can spend their whole adult lives watching kayfabe elections, watch things crumble and decline and shift Right no matter who they elect, lose their civil rights no matter which “side” is in power, and then open the next paragraph like “and if we’re not careful, all what I just described could happen here.”
It’s like when you hear somebody from the abandoned industrial Appalachian wastes start with “third world country” rhetoric.
Well, MAGA completely hijacked “AntiFa,” which means Anti-Fascist, but of course the former is easier to remember. Just like DEI, BLM, CRT, etc… If the acronym is a threat, they’ll beat the living shit out of it. Figure that out, and you win a noble peace prize.
I’d rather get a Nobel.
