Earlier this week, the Facebook page of the Scott County GOP compared Governor Walz and the DFL’s legislative majority to to Hitler and Stalin.
Silly Republicans. Only Democrats get to make specious, scabrous, historically-void comparisons to dictators.
Now, as someone who studies history – especially the history of tyranny – very seriously, I’d like to make two points:
- I hate willy-nilly dictator references. Calling people “Hitler” or “Stalin” is lazy. The only thing I hate nearly as much is…
- Dismissing legitimate claims of tyrannical behavior as if the claim itself, rather than the aptitude of the facts presented, is the joke.
Because it’s not like tyrannies generally drop in on society unannounced.
Tyranny, like cancer, has four stages. There is no stage five.
(Definition of terms: “Regime” is used in the original French sense of the term; it means the person, people or parties running the government).
| Stage | Characteristics | Examples |
| Stage I | Regime uses populist means to expand government power to the detriment of citizens individual rights. Key institutions – media, education, the bureaucracy – find it in their interest to scratch the regime’s back, politically and socially. | ??? |
| Stage II | The regime is part of an open coalition with the state’s bureaucracy, news media and social institutions, and are weaponized against the opposition. Opponents are actively targeted by the media, law enforcement, education and academia. Opposition parties and uncoopted institutions are actively harassed, either legally (via a legal system whose interests largely coincide with those of the regime) or via direct action groups “secretly” affiliated with the regime – who are able to operate fairly openly. Peaceful change of power is subject to a process controlled by the regime; being an opposition politician frequently results in harassment. | Orban, Erdogan |
| Stage III | All institutions of the state are more or less openly and directly controlled by the regime. Opposition is harassed to the point where it largely or completely exists underground. Opponents are eliminated in ones and twos, using a co-opted version of the judicial process or, sometimes, direct action; the direct action groups are either tightly affiliated with the state, or are actually stage agents (the police). Peaceful change of power depends on the good will of the regime (as with post-Franco Spain); being an opposition politicians runs a very high risk of exile, prison, disappearance or death. . | Franco, Mussolini |
| Stage IV | The Regime, it’s power and society as a whole are indistinguishable. All institutions are subsumed by the regime, which has an absolute monopoly on information and force. Opponents – or those perceived as opponents, or scapegoats – are eliminated in boxcar lots, sometimes literally; being “underground” is profoundly dangerous. Change of power is a lethal matter; the regime recognizes no power but itself. | Hitler, Stalin, Saddam Hussein, Lenin, Mao, Pol Pot, Kim Jong Un. |
I’d say the Walz administration is a solid stage 1.
Thoughts?
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