Apparently, a whole lot of our fellow Americans have come to believe that living in a dictatorship will bring them greater joy and more rewards than a functioning democracy.
Our Constitution, meanwhile, with its rule by law and personal freedoms – those that built a nation founded on establishing human rights – is now threatened. It has survived almost 250 years of rough and tumble wear to its destruction, underway now in 2025.
These folks who seek its demise would be well served if they spent time getting in touch with what it’s like for the average citizen in nations with autocratic dictatorships, such as China, Hungary, Iran, North Korea, Russia, and Turkey, to name a few.
In autocratic dictatorships, all private and public activity is overseen and ruled by one “strong man” and his collection of dedicated enforcers, cult members who spare no one who questions the ruler. Under such regimes, a single word of criticism, questioning the ruler’s power or insulting his genius will result in dire consequences, often death.
Having been born and matured to adulthood in an American family, though my original family did not enjoy the advantages of wealth and power, I was able to work and save, thereby having freedom enough to go to college, choose the major of my choice and proceed through my life with opportunities and rewards, greatly appreciated. These, I hasten to add, would not have been possible in a totalitarian or authoritarian nation where subservience and devotion to one-man rule would have denied me because my family lacked wealth, social standing and power.
That path will be predictably circumscribed to all members of the U.S. working class should President Trump become King Donald I!
Now we have a daily-declaring, self-appointing monarch and his wealthy pals, members of the U.S. oligarchy, who have already substantially taken over the U.S. government with huge loss of jobs and public service careers. These eliminations will result in reductions of our ability to fight wildfires and preserve our national forests, just one negative consequence.
It was also disappointing to hear our local Oregon state senator on a TV news broadcast praise the Trump-Musk cuts and layoffs as long overdue, apparently examples of waste, fraud and financial abuse, and which will end the careers and public service roles of tens of thousands of federal employees.
An interesting fact from recent Oregon history (2014): “Records (the Statesman Journal, Oct. 14, 2014) show state officials accused a construction company owned by state Representative Kim Thatcher of destroying evidence and engaging in a cover-up to thwart an investigation of contracting fraud” for which “her firm, KT Contracting, Inc. was (ultimately) found guilty and fined $60,000.” Hence, her sentiments regarding federal employees resemble hypocrisy. Nevertheless, this did not cost Thatcher her job, a business, or loss of power. She’s been a member of the Oregon Legislative Assembly ever since, though she’s also chosen at times to ignore her oath of office by taking unauthorized and disruptive leaves from scheduled sessions.
Cheering on the actions in Washington, D.C., where control is given to the strong man and his oligarch friends, supports a rule where the ONLY good, right and true way to live and do anything here is his way. Many of us who’ve grown up in a democracy will find it extremely difficult to endure strong man rule. However, if the past is a guide to our future, once despotism is installed and cemented into place, it rarely if ever diminishes with time but gets more oppressive.
Not fashioning myself a modern-day Nostradamus, I’ll nevertheless close with a prediction. Once we’ve accepted one-man/oligarchy rule – where only the rich and powerful are fully honorable citizens of the United States–no child or youth from a working-class family will be allowed success beyond the social level into which he or she is born: My story thereby will become sentimental fiction.
Gene H. McIntyre is a Keizer resident and writer.