What factors would be needed to turn the United States into a dictatorship?

Great Debates
28

We’re well on the way.

  1. A Leader willing to publicly demonize “others” and use them as scapegoats for national problems, real and imagined.

  2. A critical mass of citizens who cannot tolerate any criticism of this Leader and regard themselves as the only true citizens. This does not have to be a majority, just a large enough of a minority to dictate the policies of a political party by threatening to primary them out of office and replace them with true believers should they stop toeing the Leader’s line.

  3. The Leader’s party behaves without any scruples whatsoever, meeting behind closed doors to draft legislation and ramming it through without debate- then accuse the other party of doing the same thing earlier when in fact they hadn’t.

  4. Demonize the news media and restrict their access to the halls of Congress and the White House. Either refuse to answer reporters’ questions or simply lie.

  5. Pack the judiciary with party loyalists, where vacancies occur simply by refusing to confirm nominees of the Leader’s predecessor.

  6. Fill the cabinet with people dedicated to the destruction of the agencies they will be in charge of.

  7. Concentrate the wealth into a few people at the top and make it more difficult for working class citizens to go to college.

  8. Brazenly use nepotism to fill key advisory roles in the executive branch.

  9. Constantly accuse others of corruption and unlawfulness.

Now all that is lacking is:

  1. Orchestrate an act of violence (to blame on one of the demonized “others”) to convince the people that their lives are in danger and that it is the democratic process that allows these things to happen and it must be abandoned “temporarily” for the sake of public safety.