Being a dictator is actually hard work.
During the rise of any dictator, the climb to power tends to happen quite fast, and usually with either little resistance or with a whole lot of violence. In both paths to becoming a dictator, the main protagonist—i.e. the person becoming the dictator—typically makes a whole mess of “friends” along the way. These are the people who support the dictator-to-be, and enable them to maneuver their way into power, and to stay there.
Like every human on planet Earth, even co-conspirators have aspirations of greatness or their own motivations for joining our main protagonist along their dictatorial journey. Whether for power, or glory, or whatever motivation inspires them to tag along, everyone involved usually makes a few enemies along the way, too.
Then you have to deal with those pesky citizens that just won’t fall in line. Maybe you hunt some down, you might throw some in jail, make a big show of their rigged court hearings—but at the end of the day, you’re going to sleep with one eye open.
Throw in some human rights atrocities here or there and now you’ve got the world’s attention. Nations start talking about sanctions, and seizing your assets. Now you can’t procure resources for yourself or your people that aren’t produced domestically.
With your assets seized, and no easy way to get base materials, it can be very difficult to scale up domestic production.
The worst part is that it’s only 9:00 AM; and you can’t tell if the coffee in front of you has poison in it.
Trump is Really Just the Distraction
Dictators stay in power by being smart, cunning, and highly charismatic.
Vladimir Putin, arguably one of Donald Trump’s greatest personal heroes and aspirational muse, was previously with the KGB. It was his job to see people coming after him from a mile away; and he was trained in the art of manipulation. Putin seems untouchable because he is meticulous, highly intelligent, trusts nobody, and is quite the recluse. It also helps when you have 80% of the country behind you.
Trump, on the other hand, is the exact opposite. This dude couldn’t see a train coming right at him. He also can’t go more than five minutes without someone patting him on the head and giving him a milk bone. He is careless, aloof, abrasive, and about as sharp as a stump; the exact opposite of charismatic.
Think about it for a moment: Donald Trump legitimately has trouble with simple sentences. He’ll focus on a single word, pause, and then that word will trigger him to delve into another tangent, and eventually it happens again, and again. Then when he knows he is confounded by his own ramblings, he throws out the classic Trump zingers: “Illegal immigrants! Rigged elections! Poisoning the blood of our country! Trump 2024 or apocalypse!”
The truth is though, Trump couldn’t find his way into a paper bag to even begin to try to find his way out of one.
Most people—MAGA excluded—can see this for themselves. Would you actually believe that Trump could mastermind, orchestrate, and initialize any grandiose plans for how to become a dictator on his own?
I don’t think so.
Trump is really just the face of this; he takes the attention off of them—and by them I mean the people around him. That allows those with the wherewithal to operate a little more discreetly. After all, Trump is no stranger to drama, and as long as he keeps the drama flowing, he keeps the spotlight mostly off of them.
This is precisely why Project 2025 wasn’t even on the radar of any corporate media outlets until very recently, despite being publicly available for months. Or how the state lawsuits being led by the RNC are attempting to steal your voting rights, but they are going mostly unreported. How they quietly influence the Supreme Court through “donations” and “gifts” even as they have cases before the court.
Donald Trump may be repugnant, but it’s the people around him that we need to watch.
Democracies Have Fallen Before
It’s easy for people to think of democracy as this mythical thing that can never be undone. Especially in the United States, there has always been this sense that no matter what, our institutions will hold, and our so-called guiding principles will rise above.
The fact of the matter is, these institutions only hold because of the people that are running them. Should Project 2025 succeed, these very same protections could instead work as prisons, laboring against the people to keep them down.
That might have been seen as hyperbole a few years ago, or perhaps even alarmist degeneracy, but with them laying out their plans in plain view to replace the government with loyalist yes-men, and the Supreme Court granting presidents immunity, the American people really can’t afford to gamble with the nation’s future.
Are you certain, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that a vote for Trump is not a vote for authoritarianism?
We often hear about how the so-called “deep state” is secretly running everything from the right. The irony here is that their Project 2025 agenda plans to unapologetically install one, with the intent to make everyone live in their idea of America.
You still have a choice this November. You can stop this entire process in its tracks, and all you have to do is vote for Joe Biden. America is currently divided and polarized; that’s no secret. But America has always risen to a challenge. We have always stood against tyranny, against dictators, against authoritarian trash.
The best version of America is still here; it needs to rise up this November and show the world that the American people can never be tamed, we cannot be intimidated or coerced by imaginary problems that simply don’t exist. We cannot be ruled; we will never be ruled.
If you still believe that all men and women are created equal; that everyone deserves liberty, justice, freedom and compassion; if you still believe in the huddled masses looking to America as the shining beacon of freedom and opportunity—then any attack on our democracy should be extinguished with a loud and resounding “HELL NO!” this November.
