It Can't Happen Here... Oh Yeah? By James Bruno

I'm not interested in preserving the status quo; I want to overthrow it. ~ Niccolo Machiavelli 

Frau Günther, my third-year college German instructor, once assigned us to explain before the class "how to do something" in our best Hochdeutsch. Doug described how to start up a motorcycle. Kathy explained how to bake a cake. My pal Steve talked about the best way to fish for trout. Replete with diagrams on a white board, I expounded on "Wie Man eine Regierung Stürzt" - "How to Overthrow a Government.” First, seize broadcast stations. Next, quickly disseminate your propaganda. Neutralize or isolate the military and police. Then arrest opposition politicians, etc., etc. My topic, though a bit extreme, was a hit.

Fast forward a few years to my service as a diplomat overseas during which I lived through a couple of coups d'etat and witnessed politically motivated violence, arrests, guerrilla attacks, fatwas, invasions and assassinations. I learned first-hand how strongmen ruthlessly manipulate citizens and hold onto power. Thank God I was an American. It couldn't happen here. Or, so I thought. Fast forward to today. Donald Trump is ripping pages out of the Machiavelli-Lenin-Mao-Hitler-Peron playbooks. 

In the autocrats' playbook, power seizure begins with the Big Lie. Trump has been pursuing his false narratives accordingly:

·        Deny the truth

·        Build the lie

·        Repeat the lie over and over

·        Spread the lie via willing rightwing media & congressional toadies

·        Smear the opposition daily with fabricated charges of wrongdoing

The main thrust is to bamboozle masses of "low information" citizens and confuse them until they lament, "I don't know what the truth is." This makes it easier for the strongman to manipulate large segments of the population. Trump "seized" the country's most viewed tv broadcaster four years ago. Fox News has been parroting Trump's reality-defying propaganda and defending him at every turn ever since.

Photo by U.S. Embassy

After planting the Big Lie, the next step is to neutralize all opposition. Trump has neutralized - or more aptly, neutered - the Republican Party as well, forced out of office the few GOP members of congress who dared to speak up against him. The GOP now more resembles the marionette Workers Party of his love letter pen pal, Kim Jong-un. The president furthermore, through his very own Nikolai Krylenko - Bill Barr - has suborned justice to his will and recruited reactionary elements of law enforcement to spearhead violence against peaceful protestors. This week, in a mass purge of the Defense Department that Stalin's doomed justice minister Krylenko would admire, Trump is clearly out to weaken the military apparatus to make it easier for him to use troops to quell any coming mass protests. The unqualified brain-dead toadies he's put in place are his willing catspaws. Again, from the autocrats' playbook:

·        Refuse to cede power

·        Declare victory

·        Destroy the opposition

These measures fit neatly into Trump's goal to stay in power, Constitution be damned. I fear too many in Congress and the media are pooh-poohing Trump's nefarious ambition to hold onto power. Just because America has never experienced a putsch doesn't mean it cannot happen given the right political, social and economic circumstances.

One glimmer of light is Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley's announcement the other day: "We do not take an oath to a king or a queen, to a tyrant or a dictator."

One top military official's bold statement is encouraging, but is it enough to stave a collapse of democratic institutions?

Frau Günther passed away six years ago at age 87. Teaching German was only a sideline for her. Margaret Günther was also a theologian, a leading thinker and writer on ethics and morality in the Episcopal Church. Were she alive today and again assigned me to explain how to do something, my topic would be "Wie Man eine Demokratie Verwirkt" - "How to Forfeit a Democracy."

James Bruno (@JamesLBruno) served as a diplomat with the U.S. State Department for 23 years and is currently a member of the Diplomatic Readiness Reserve. An author and journalist, Bruno has been featured on CNN, NBC’s Today Show, Fox News, Sirius XM Radio, The Washington Post, Christian Science Monitor, Huffington Post, and other national and international media.