Democracy and Authoritarianism-Richard Wolin, “Our Prophet of Deceit,” The Chronicle of Higher Education, (Oct. 2016)

"By depicting the current situation in the blackest of all possible terms, the agitator heightens the despair of his listeners to the point where they are putty in his hands".


- Richard Wolin, “Our Prophet of Deceit,”


This particular quote describes the first step an authoritarian takes when he/she is trying to gain the trust of the people he/she can easily influence.


I chose this quote, because I believed it is definitely something America witnessed during the presidency campaign in 2016. Many people were skeptical about the election and felt that both Donald Trump and Hilary Clinton were not very good candidates to choose from, many people felt that there was no way a woman can run the country and many people felt that Trump would be good for the economical crisis America was facing. All politicians try to influence their constituents during any election, but the approach Donald Trump takes really depicts the characteristics of a dictator. He makes it seem as though the solution to all America's problem is immigration. The economy is doing poor, schools are not properly funded, street violence, homelessness, infrastructure is all blamed on immigration. After the attack of the twin towers, it definitely makes the topic easier to target during an election. People are still afraid and still believe that immigration is the underlying issue of their post traumatic stress disorder. Terrorism is typically tied to foreigners, although an American is also equally capable of being a terrorist. Trump can speak about many different issues America is facing and promise to make America great again but his solution is vague.... He is the solution. Trump wants to govern and take away political freedoms that America has fundamentally built in society to make us function as a democracy. Our current situation will always seems really bad, but there are other countries that are really suffering in other ways because it's citizens allowed an authoritarian leader to take over. Russia and Cuba are two great examples, because there are people that fear defending legitimate rights, individualism and are stuck in a systematic government that constantly violates people’s privacy. If America falls victim to Trump or for that matter any leader that feels that excluding people or categories people is a recipe for disaster. American's forget history and the 13 colonies were established to escape tyranny... Why allow history to repeat itself?