Let’s talk about the enablers of autocracy: those who accommodate the slide from democracy into autocratic, quasi-totalitarian states.
Who are the Accommodators of autocracy and why do they make this grave mistake?
The Accommodators of autocracy tend to be highly successful, highly intelligent leaders in whatever they do. They tend to be upper middle class or lower upper class - wealthy enough to imagine they’re insulated from most calamities. In our current crisis, the enablers are mostly white males close to my age. For many, the only threat they fear is higher taxes.
Why are enablers blind to the real threat the autocratic attempt presents? I’d cite two factors.
We were born at a time after WWII when no other nation could match America’s industrial might. Middle class males like me grew up in a time when the formula for flourishing was crystal clear: go to college, start a business career or profession, invest 10% of your earnings for multiple decades, and you’ll be a millionaire by the time you reach retirement age.
It was like a law of nature: you could express it simply as the Rule of 72 and graph it as the exponential accumulation of capital over time.
Capitalism was for us like a religion, and we had more faith in it than that stuff the preacher says at Church. We were taught and believed the markets function according to known laws almost by magic and lift all boats. As long as capitalism’s invisible hand is free to do its work and we work our butts off, not just our personal prosperity but the flourishing of our republic is assured. And being American means that’s true for every American who’s willing to hustle. So as long as no one interferes, the future is assured. The future’s just a more restful and affluent version of the present.
But here’s where the blindness comes in: when we see the future as just a better version of the present, history’s lessons don’t seem to apply to us. Why study how others lost their democracies when we can achieve a bright future simply by being savvy investors in the present?
So, my generation didn’t pay attention to history’s lessons. We thought we didn’t need to. We remember events, but not lessons learned because we believed our distinctive form of capitalism means those lessons don’t apply to us.
But there was a second pragmatic reason. We didn’t have time to reflect on such things. Building a business and mastering the skills of a profession sufficiently to excel takes near total focus. Our educations are highly specialized. What little time we had leftover, we spent coaching your Little League teams, attending your recitals, hunting, fishing, and golfing with friends, and going to Church. Our lives were so fast paced that we had little time left over for luxuries like studying why other peoples failed to preserve their democracies when faced with autocratic attempts.
Those lessons didn’t seem to apply to us, and we were too busy excelling to focus on them.
Yet, today, the USA and other Western nations are under attack: we face today an effort to displace our republic with a Putinist franchise. And, as you know, an autocratic attempt only succeeds if enabled by those who would stop it in its tracks if they weren’t blind to it.
So, Gen X, Millennials, and Gen Z voters: it’s up to you to defend our republic against this autocratic attempt.
Too many males my age have political astigmatisms that blind us to the threat.
Too many males my age think we’re different from the nations who’ve lost their republics to kleptocrats.
Too many males my age make the grave mistake of thinking short-term policies matter more than character.
Too many males my age don’t know or don’t see as relevant the history of Strong Men so weak they pillage the republics they’re called to serve.
To you younger generations:
This is your time to stand firm for good.
This is your time to define yourself as one of the great generations that carried on the grand American experiment our forebears bequeathed to us.
This is your time to lead the resistance.
Dare to stand up now for character,
And the blessings God bestows on America through you will be celebrated by your children, your grandchildren, and their grandchildren. Thanks be to God.
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