Chapter 14: Reform, Resist, and Remember

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Chapter 14: Reform, Resist, and Remember

Tag, you’re it. —Thom Hartmann

Resist: How We Defeat Authoritarianism

The day after Donald Trump won the 2024 election, it seemed like every liberal and progressive friend I knew was either talking about moving to Canada or stocking up on canned goods, ready to hunker down for the inevitable descent into authoritarianism.

I get it. After reading the previous chapters of this book, you might feel a sense of hopelessness. The path toward autocracy sometimes seems inevitable because we’ve all seen the pattern repeated in countries that have already fallen. The machinery of oligarchy and autocracy is well-oiled, the morbidly rich are already largely in charge, the courts are captured, the media is under assault, and truth itself—particularly in the increasingly popular right-wing media and on billionaire-owned social media—is more often than not optional.

But here’s our mantra: authoritarianism is not our destiny. Once we realize what’s going on, it becomes a choice, and we can choose to reject it.

These aren’t empty platitudes or wishful thinking. History shows us that authoritarians are often defeated. Fascists can be stopped from within. Democracy, though imperfect, can revive itself even after periods of right-wing darkness.

Consider the examples of South Korea in 2016–2017 and again in 2024. When President Park Geun-hye’s corruption scandal broke in 2016, millions of Koreans took to the streets in peaceful protest. For months, citizens held weekly candlelight demonstrations that drew people from all walks of life. Those protests led directly to Park’s impeachment, removal from office, and later imprisonment. There was a similar reclaiming of democracy when, in 2024, President Yoon Suk Yeol tried to make himself a dictator with state-of-emergency and martial law declarations. Like Park, Yoon was jailed and impeached and democracy has now returned to South Korea.1

Or look at Chile. After seventeen years of Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship (installed by Nixon and Kissinger with the help of four American corporations), Chileans organized, mobilized, and ultimately voted him out in a 1988 referendum that he himself had arranged, confident he would win. They defeated him with something as simple as hope, embodied in their campaign slogan “La alegría ya viene” (“Joy is coming”).2

Similarly, in 2022, Sri Lankans from all walks of life—crossing previously unbridgeable ethnic and religious divides—united in peaceful protest to force out the corrupt and authoritarian Rajapaksa dynasty that then ruled their country with an iron fist.3

These aren’t isolated examples. They’re part of a pattern across history: ordinary people, fighting together with strategic focus and moral clarity, can and often do defeat authoritarians.

Understanding the Authoritarian Playbook

To defeat authoritarians, we must first understand their methodology. Their playbook is remarkably consistent across countries and eras:

· Divide the population into “real” citizens versus “enemies of the people.”

· Attack independent media as “fake news.” Corrupt the judiciary to serve power rather than justice.

· Capture electoral systems to ensure they can never lose.

· Militarize law enforcement to protect the regime, not the public.

· Rewrite history to create myths that support their power.

· Use economic anxiety to justify targeting vulnerable groups.

· Co-opt religious and patriotic symbols to present opposition as treason.

This playbook has been deployed in Russia under Putin, Hungary under Orbán, Turkey under Erdoƒüan, Brazil under Bolsonaro, and the Philippines under Duterte, among others throughout the history of the past century.4 And, eerily, these steps are precisely the strategy Trump and his allies tried during his first term and are now pursuing in his second.

But here’s the good news: because the authoritarian playbook is generally consistent, the strategies and methods to fight back can be as well. Successful resistance to authoritarianism, like authoritarianism itself, usually follows patterns we can learn from and appropriate for our own use.

Building the Resistance: Seven Strategies That Work

Looking at the history of successful anti-authoritarian movements around the world, here are seven proven strategies I’ve identified that can help us protect and revive what’s left of our own democracy:

1. Unite across Traditional Divides

Authoritarians often win when they successfully divide the opposition, like Trump is trying to do by getting Americans to hate on their queer, brown-skinned, and well-educated “liberal” neighbors. The most effective resistance movements overcome these kinds of traditional political, ethnic, and social divisions by forming democracy-focused coalitions.

In Poland, as Louise and I learned when we visited in 2024, when the hard-right Law and Justice Party (PiS) attempted to capture the judiciary and media, average people across ideological lines from left to right rose up and fought back. Civil society groups that had historically disagreed on policy set aside differences to defend what was left of their democracy. And it worked. As our guide in Gdansk proudly told us (he’d participated in the street protests and even endured gunfire), that coalition ended eight years of authoritarian PiS rule in 2023.5

And there are signs the same is happening here. Progressives and traditional conservatives are finding common cause in defending democratic norms and institutions as we see with the Lincoln Project and other efforts, embracing the ideals our Founders fought and died for in the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights. Urban and rural voters are increasingly coming together as we have seen in the regular anti-Trump, anti-fascism demonstrations that have shown up in virtually every town and city in America. All we have to do is set aside our policy differences so we can together preserve the system that makes possible the eventual policy debates we’ll revisit when full democracy is restored.

2. Protect Truth and Information Ecosystems

Authoritarians succeed, as George Orwell pointed out in 1984, when truth is subjective and facts are controlled by the state. Thus, Trump’s power, to a surprising extent, depends on his ability to control information and undermine independent sources of truth. This, of course, is why wannabe dictators always go after media early on.

Today, with right-wing-biased social media algorithms driving hate, polarization, and disinformation to hold eyeballs and increase profits, protecting truth requires both individual and systemic approaches:

· Support independent local journalism through subscriptions and donations.

· Promote media literacy in schools and communities (Finland has pioneered this).

· Create cross-partisan fact-checking organizations and websites that transcend political divides.

· Require transparency of social media algorithms that today profit from division and falsehood.

· Build and elevate media outlets that promote accuracy over eyeballs.

As philosopher Hannah Arendt noted, “Freedom of opinion is a farce unless factual information is guaranteed.”6

3. Defend and Reform Democratic Institutions

Institutions can’t defend themselves: people like you and me must defend our institutions. And to be worth defending, those institutions must serve the people.

For Americans, this means

· Organizing to protect voting rights at both state and federal levels

· Strengthening anti-corruption measures across all branches of government

· Modernizing the Electoral Count Act to prevent future attempts to overturn elections

· Rebalancing power between branches to limit executive overreach

As Justice Louis Brandeis wrote, “If we would guide by the light of reason, we must let our minds be bold.”7

4. Practice Strategic Nonviolence

Nonviolent resistance isn’t just morally superior to violence, it’s also more effective: just ask the followers of Jesus, Mahatma Gandhi, or Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Research by political scientists Erica Chenoweth and Maria Stephan has proven that nonviolent campaigns are more than twice as likely to succeed as violent ones.8

Nonviolent resistance works because it

· Allows broader participation across demographic groups

· Makes it harder for authorities to justify repression

· Causes security forces to question their loyalty to the regime

· Generates greater international support

· Builds stronger democratic foundations for the future

And don’t misunderstand: nonviolence doesn’t call for passive acceptance of authoritarian actions; far from it. Strategic nonviolence includes strikes, boycotts, mass demonstrations, disruption of normal life, direct confrontations with authority figures like ICE, and other forms of direct action that impose real costs on authoritarian regimes.

As civil rights leader Bayard Rustin observed, “The only weapon we have is our bodies, and we need to tuck them in places so wheels don’t turn.”9

5. Build Alternative Power Structures

Successful resistance movements don’t just protest; they demonstrate the future by building better models of governance and making communities more resilient against authoritarian control.

For Americans facing incipient fascism, this means

· Strengthening local groups that directly address community needs

· Building worker cooperatives that model small-d democratic economics

· Creating community media including websites, podcasts, and low-power FM stations that provide reliable local information

· Participating in local government in ways that increase participation and transparency

· Supporting faith communities and civic organizations that become local centers and thus foster social cohesion

· Fielding a “shadow cabinet” filled with Democrats and Republicans who are committed to democracy and positive governance

These structures serve two crucial functions: they meet immediate needs, making resistance sustainable, and they prefigure the democratic society we’re fighting to both preserve and create.

6. Engage Internationally

Authoritarianism is both an ancient and a global phenomenon, which is why resistance movements must be global as well. Successful efforts build international connections that provide support, resources, and can offer protection or even places to flee if necessary.

For Americans, international engagement means

· Building solidarity with democracy movements worldwide

· Learning from successful resistance strategies throughout history and in other countries

· Creating transnational efforts to regulate global platforms like social media

· Supporting international institutions that uphold democratic norms, from the UN to the International Criminal Court

The United States has often positioned itself as democracy’s defender across the world. Now, ironically, Americans need to learn from democratic defenders in our own history and elsewhere.

7. Prepare for the Long Struggle

One of the most important lessons from successful resistance movements throughout history is that defeating authoritarianism is not a one-off, single-­event victory but a long-term process requiring sustained sacrifice and persistence.

South Africa’s anti-apartheid struggle lasted decades. Poland’s Solidarity movement faced years of setbacks, including martial law, before achieving democracy. Chilean resistance to Pinochet suffered seventeen years of brutal repression before his removal.

Now that Trump and his allies are entrenched in our governmental, political, media, and economic systems, Americans must prepare for a marathon, not a sprint. This means

· Developing sustainable activism practices and communities that prevent burnout

· Creating intergenerational movements that pass knowledge to younger activists

· Building infrastructure for long-term organizing beyond election cycles

· Celebrating small victories to maintain morale during difficult periods

· Articulating a positive vision that sustains hope through dark times

As Czech dissident Václav Havel wrote during his country’s darkest period: “Hope is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out.”10