Thread by @Teri_Kanefield

I finished reading NYU prof. @ruthbenghiat’s book Strongmen: From Mussolini to the Present.

I’m ready with a Twitter Book report, which I combined with this week’s video.

I'll also talk about how to weaken the Trump-Fox-Republican cult.


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[Edited] transcription here: terikanefield.com/how-to-weaken-……

I’ll also do a Twitter summary.

The book is detailed and complete and there’s no way to do it justice in a Twitter thread, but (after I fill my ☕️) I'll try to hit a few main points.

Ben-Ghiat, a historian, tells the stories of an impressive list of strongmen👇 Patterns emerge.

🔹They all use their public office to enrich themselves.
🔹Most come to power with a history of lawbreaking.
🔹They act like gangsters.
🔹They encourage violence.

No matter which strongman Ben-Ghiat is describing, she could also be describing aspects of Trump

An example👇 , sons in law.

(Someone should warn Kushner! Mussolini's son-in-law did not come to a good end.)

Their sex lives are generally disgusting. Mussolini used Italy as his harem. "When you're a star they let you do it," was par for the course.

Sound familiar?👇 @MichaelCohen212 knows all about it.

After Trump’s strong-arming of the Ukraine president, “I’d like you to do us a favor, though,” and the way he incited the Jan. 6th riot without explicitly saying what he wanted to happen, I was struck by this Mussolini incident.

See how Mussolini has deniability?

Not long ago, strongmen often came to power through military coups.

More commonly they come to power through elections or other democratic means, and then they find ways to stay in power.

This is key: They retain power with the support of conservative "elites."

This explains what we're seeing with people like McConnell. It's part of the pattern.

Germans conservatives thought Hitler would be their tool.
In the early 1930s, powerful conservatives courted Hitler, thinking he could help them subvert the left's growing electoral strength.

Here’s what conservative industrialist Thyssen, who helped prop up Hitler, said later👇(Screenshot #1)

Ben-Ghiat offers this chilling warning👇(Screenshot #2)

Another thing that is striking: The extent to which right-wing America influenced the rise of far-right-wing European parties and dictators across the globe.

Ben-Ghiat marches through a head-spinning number of examples. Is it any wonder that they are in love with Trump?

I knew (of course) that Kissinger helped propped up Pinochet. But I didn't know this 👇(Screenshot #1)

There you go. William F. Buckley.

Here’s a chilling comment from a member of the Nixon administration (Screenshot #2)

For the record. Pinochet wasn’t “terrific” in 1973 when he pulled off a military coup that left the legitimate president dead.

But evidently, 10 years later, Pinochet "outlived his usefulness."

Which brings me to this point: Strongmen retain their power backing of conservative elites, and they lose power when they lose the backing of conservative elites.

Daniel Ziblatt, co-author of How Democracies Die, agrees:
washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2…

So what can we do?

Levitsky (author of How Democracies Die) says the greatest danger to democracy is the government slipping into dysfunction because when the government is dysfunctional, people are more vulnerable to the appeal of strongman tactics to get things done.

What Biden needs to do (and what he is doing) is make government work, which includes strengthening institutions like the DOJ.

The judges Biden will appoint in the next four years will help.

The idea is to strengthen our institutions to withstand another Trump.

Criminal prosecutions can help, but it’s not like these guys are going to say, “Trump was prosecuted so we'll fold up shop and learn to play nice.”

Remember that most strongmen come to power with criminal backgrounds. People who like strongmen like the fact that they break laws.

It's hard to run for office from prison, but that won’t deter another Trump-like figure from stepping up.

In fact, right now we see lots of elected Republican leaders trying to position themselves as the next Trump.

And opportunists like McConnell will shield them.

Pressure campaigns work. From Ben-Ghiat 👇

Big corporations like the tax cuts they get from the Trump Party, but if their sales drop off and people stop using their services, what good are tax cuts?

We need to show these corporations that it’s in their financial interests to support democracy, not autocracy.

Let them whine about cancel culture (cry me a river).

Also, see this thread from @page88:

A few Tweets back: Reagan administration, not Nixon.

If that's the only big one, and if I pronounced Ben-Ghiat correctly, I think my Book Report should still get a good grade.

Back when I taught college English a student asked me, "Does spelling count?"

Now, on Twitter: No!

I was thinking of DeSantis among others. Rubio, Cruz, Pompeo, Hawley, and a lot of others would love to be the next Trump.

When I saw Hawley's fist bump, I thought, "Now he has no choice but to go full-on MAGA or give up politics."

I think this is partly how they get trapped. When they do anything to support the "strongman" they lose credibility with most of the population. They can either give up politics (power and all that goes with it) or get behind the strongman, which entraps him forever.

Max Weber calls such leaders "charismatic," which is sort of worse.
@ruthbenghiat is so thorough, she even has a passage in her book addressing that "strongman" or "charismatic" is in the eye of the beholder. (I'll put a link in the next tweet.)

The idea is there are 3 forms of authority for government:

Traditional (monarchies)
Rule of Law (democracies)
Charismatic leader (fascism/autocracies)

The 3rd is less stable because authority is the force of personality . . .

. . . so when the strongman starts to lose, or seem weak it's over. That's why Trump can't admit defeat.

"Charismatic leader" is the more fragile of the three forms of government, which is why Strongmen need the backing of elites, and why pressure campaigns work.

I think the answer is in psychology.

These strongmen all suffer the same disorders.

But without their followers and enablers, they would just be pathetic, delusional madmen.

Political psychology (and opportunism) explains their followers and enablers.