Yes. The leader of an autocratic regimes have to reward the key holders to keep their support. Those key holders might have a layer beneath them where you also

Yes. The leader of an autocratic regimes have to reward the key holders to keep their support. Those key holders might have a layer beneath them where you also have loyalty as the prime driver. Democracy and the rule of law looks like chaos in the eyes of strongman. " Let some strong iron man rule us, screw human rights". You get: Hitler, Mao, Stalin, Putin, Xi, you name it. Make no mistake, the tendency to have yearn for someone to fix the country is very human. We can talk about Trump for days, but he was chosen because he appeals to exactly that idea. To be honest, I had misjudged Trump myselves early on too. We have to be honest with each other: in American politics there have always been a current that strives in the direction of an autocracy. It is backed by some of the most wealthy conservatives, they seem to look at the Russian oligarchic model as an inspiration, it seems. Not illogical, as for those select few people, the law, the trias polica, human rights and those things we collectively obtained after centuries of struggle are just brakes on their quest for more power. That political gremium is successful in diverting attention from what they are aiming at. People are now convinced they should be afraid of transgenders and Mexicans it seems. Why? Because the support of conservatism is crucial for implementing the overthrow of democracy. Meanwhile the self-coup on the Witehouse was almost successful. The Republican Party has been taken over by people that don't believe in democracy. If you know you have lost the elections, but instead you declare the democracy dead by telling the people they shouldn't trust it, you have given a very clear signal about where things are heading. I fear many Americans live in denial, because it sounds too extreme. We should remember that Hitler did not win the elections in the Weimar Republic. We are getting used to more and more extremism and corporatism, which paves the way to anacracy -> autocracy+oligarchy. But apparently we have to learn that lesson every century. Getting rid of non-democratic elements usually takes lots of blood. The Ukranians can tell you something about that. As do the Iranians. Keep dictatorship away with a large middle class, education, decouple journalism from corporate interests [1], trias politica (esp seperation of law making and jurisdiction!) [2], consequence culture, keeping wealth concentration in check, making any political donations punishable by life sentence and hefty trade barriers for autocratic regimes. You see, those are good things for society and horrible things for the few. ________ 1) In a case Fox News defended themselves (case of Tuckerson) in court that they could not be convicted as it should be blatantly obvious that they were not telling the truth all the time. 2) See the supreme court of the train wrecks you get when you don't have this in place.