Archives
Weekly Lists
Experts in authoritarianism advise to keep a list of things
subtly changing around you, so you’ll remember.
December 18, 2024
Week 6 — The Return
This week’s theme is the gross capitulation by members of the media and corporate chief executive officers, and how the two have triangulated to pose a real danger to the media landscape during this second regime.
December 11, 2024
Week 5 — The Return
This week’s major theme is the return of nepotism and kleptocracy. The Trump family is continuing to profit and be awarded plum positions in the regime. Trump is also stacking senior roles with a record number of billionaires and centi-millionaires, many of whom will also feast off of an unprecedented amount of conflicts of interest. Kleptocracy runs counter to his campaign’s populist messaging, and could put Trump on a collision course with the country’s zeitgeist: widespread outrage against the vast inequities and extreme concentrations of wealth and power.
December 04, 2024
Week 4 — The Return
This week we saw a continuation of last week’s theme of pushback against Trump. The amount of resistance to Trump’s whims, and its depth and breadth, I suspect surprised us all, including Trump. There was continued opposition to Trump’s nominees, and his process for advancing them. We also saw bold moves from a government worker’s union, Democratic-appointed judges reversing plans on retiring, and President Joseph Biden granting a historic pardon to his son.
November 27, 2024
Week 3 — The Return
The theme of this week’s list is undoubtedly pushback. For the first two weeks after the election, Trump seemed to be steamrolling through his agenda and desires — threatening and intimidating anyone and anything that got in his way, and encountering little hindrance. This week, in a dramatic shift, guard rails started to appear.
November 20, 2024
Week 2 — The Return
This week opened with President Joe Biden meeting with Trump, after inviting the incoming president to the White House. This transitional meeting had been a normal part of protocol up until 2020, when Trump refused to concede his loss and invite Biden to the White House. Although former President Barack Obama had invited Trump in 2016, it was at best an awkward and visibly uncomfortable meeting. Biden drew criticism for smiling alongside Trump - seemingly acting deferential to a man who had sullied the tradition.
November 13, 2024
The Return — Week 1
Donald Trump is returning to power. These are words I never imagined I would be typing again! This week’s digital cover of Vanity Fair summarizes it best: 34 felony convictions, 1 conviction (criminal), 2 cases pending, 2 impeachments, 6 bankruptcies, 4 more years.
Dear America, how could you? Why would you? Did you not know better?
December 06, 2022
I Look at Elon Musk, and I See a Failing Autocrat
I look at Elon Musk, and I see Donald Trump.
I tracked broken norms and our near descent into authoritarianism during the Trump era, and I find the similarities between these two men astounding.
November 12, 2021
I sounded the alarm for authoritarianism in 2016, and I am sounding it again
On January 20, 2021 we were finally able to exhale, believing our near brush with authoritarianism was behind us, and that with President Joe Biden taking office, our country and political system would return to normalcy. The ensuing months proved otherwise. Elected Republicans continually questioned the 2020 election results, and attempted to rewrite history, including casting the January 6th insurrection at the Capitol as a mere “tourist visit.” Rep. Liz Cheney, a critic of former President Donald Trump, was removed from House leadership and replaced by a loyalist, Rep. Elise Stefanik.
January 20, 2021
AFTER (January)
I am grateful, with all your input, to have continued this project through inauguration. Since I started tracking Donald Trump in November 2016, I have posited that he cared about two things: making money and staying in power; admittedly, events in this final list caught even me by surprise.
December 31, 2020
AFTER (December)
In December, Trump continued to push lies and conspiracy theories about the election, not only failing to concede, but pushing efforts to overthrow the election results. During this month, Trump became increasingly isolated as even loyalists pushed back on his false allegations or resigned, leaving an inner circle composed almost entirely of his family members and conspiracy theorists. Trump continued to avoid the press and the American people, seeming to hide in the White House, other than a brief holiday trip to Mar-a-Lago.