Recipe for Democracies Tipping Towards Autocracies

"Every dictatorship has ultimately strangled in the web of repression it wove for its people, making mistakes that could not be corrected because criticism was prohibited." ~ Robert Kennedy

"The true essence of a dictatorship is in fact not its regularity but its unpredictability and caprice; those who live under it must never be able to relax, must never be quite sure if they have followed the rules correctly or not." ~ Christopher Hitchens

"I have often thought that if a rational Fascist dictatorship were to exist, then it would choose the American system." ~ Noam Chomsky

Use of mass propaganda to spread fear, ultranationalism and scapegoating specific groups of people or nations.

Blaming economic woes on other nations and ethnicities, presenting a leader as the only leader who could restore a Nation's greatness.

Use of military and special police to intimidate political opponents and suppress dissent.

Suspending civil liberties like free speech, free speech/ideas on social media, and press.

Allowing mass arrests and deportations of ethnic groups or nationalities.

Rule by decree without legislative (Congress or Parliament) approval, effectively end democracy.

Schools and universities and traditional news outlets are forced to spread the ruling administration ideology.

Independent youth groups, and churches are pressured to align with ruling administration policies.

Many judges are threatened and intimidated and fired and replaced with ruling administrative loyalists. Lawyers and judges who remain face pressure to align with loyalists or risk being removed.

Laws are rewritten to criminalize political opposition, specific businesses, and any form of dissent.

Individuals who disagree with ruling administration ideology, national loyalty laws are enforced to legally strip permanent residency, green card residency, and basic rights from naturalized citizens and born birth right citizens.