The Road to Unfreedom

 The Road to Unfreedom

I just finished reading Timothy Snyder’s boot The Road to Unfreedom. Snyder is the most impressive historian I’ve ever read, but he is transitioning from history into political theory. His explanation in The Road to Unfreedom of what’s going on in the United States is bone chilling. It is immensely depressing, and the problem is that he is right. He says we are following the path of Russia to even greater inequality of wealth and the death of democracy. The Russians are pushing us along that path. They made Trump president in 2016, and they may well do so again in 2024. Snyder says, I think, that the only way to reverse the direction we’re going as a nation is to restore the notion that there is indeed truth. That’s because one of the foundational tricks of fascism is to convince the people that there is no truth. So just follow the leader. Believe the leader because his lies are not different from anyone else’s lies except that they play on your fears and your bigotries. We may or may not reelect Trump next Tuesday. If we do, American democracy is doomed. It may be doomed even if we don’t. Do Kamala Harris and the Democrats really understand what’s going on in this country? I doubt it. If they don’t, there’s no way they can lead a reversal of the country’s direction. Even if they do, they may not be able or willing to lead a reversal because the needed reversal would, at first, encounter massive and probably violent resistance. Snyder’s right, and we’re in bigger trouble than all but a very small handful of Americans understands.