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First Comes the Crisis, Then Comes the Coup
Behind every great dictator’s rise to power is a greater manufactured crisis.
Let’s say you’re an aspiring authoritarian. You’ve got the suits with too-long ties, the menacing scowl, the orange makeup you don’t blend, the inflammatory tweets, and you sometimes manage to board your plane without tripping.
But alas, no crisis.
And without a crisis, you’re just a megalomaniac shouting into a microphone in a sad little red hat. No, if you want the people to hand you the keys to democracy — and thank you for the wreckage — you need fear. Big, juicy, flailing-panic fear.
You need to manufacture a crisis.
Not a real one, silly goose. Real crises are unpredictable and messy, and lack a clear scapegoat. You want something you can stage-manage — a fire you lit, preferably under someone else’s chair.
Trump, game show host extraordinaire and aspiring dictator, knows how to get those TV ratings. He just treats every protest in a blue state as if it’s Fallujah, the director’s cut. Scenic Venice Beach? Storm it like it is Normandy.
And if the Governor of California politely responds, “Thanks, but our 9,000 cops have this handful of protestors under control,”…ignore that liberal…
