How a Strongman Gets Stronger
The downward spiral of small compromises.
Enough time has passed since the initial shock of the presidential election that the thoughts of the political worlds are shifting from “How the hell did that happen?” to “How do we live with this guy?” Right now, an entire universe of political institutions that, a few months ago, were pledging to help defeat Trumpism are all contemplating how to carry on for the next four years. Democratic politicians must reckon with their role as the uncertain opposition, but that is only the most obvious example. All of the nonprofit groups and lobbyists and Washington journalists and universities and political staffers and labor unions and professional activists who make up the permanent class of satellites orbiting the federal government are strategizing about how to continue doing what they do in an atmosphere that just got much less friendly.
There is a wrong answer to this conundrum. Let’s name it right now, before a huge portion of those people begin doing it in earnest.
Trump is a classic strongman. (A term of art, since all he does is play golf and eat chocolate cake and whine like a baby, but still.) He is not ideological, except to the extent that narcissism can be considered an ideology. Like all political strongmen, he governs in the manner of a mob boss. He prizes loyalty above all. Exaggerated deference to him is rewarded, and anyone who fails to show that quality is purged. Comparing his first term cabinet to his current one illustrates the point. After four years of practice, he has now selected a group composed of 100% bootlicking loyalists. His inner circle is now all people who consciously practiced deference to him in order to achieve their positions. Lesser Republican politicians, most of whom despised and dismissed Trump as he rose to power, have now had years of practice in loudly kissing his ass in order to be allowed to advance their priorities. Trump has fully captured the Republican party through the simple mechanism of insisting that nobody can hold power within it unless they demonstrate publicly that they are willing to scrape and bow before him. All who refused to do this have been viciously attacked and frozen out and, by now, have drifted away from politics altogether. North Koreans, for example, would be very familiar with this method of leadership.
None of this is surprising, given the fundamental odiousness at the heart of the Republican Party. The more relevant question is what this dynamic means for “the opposition.” Everyone who still needs to get stuff done in Washington—Democrats in Congress hunting for bipartisan legislation, Democratic governors and state legislators and mayors who depend on federal money, union leaders and liberal-coded business leaders and NGO leaders who still have issues they need to lobby on—are faced with a situation in which the price of entry to operating in the political environment is to kiss the strongman’s ring. The incentive to do so is overwhelming.
“What’s the big deal?” the political consultant’s voice says in their ears. “It’s just a little kiss. A small price to pay for all the good things you want to do.”
Here is the strongman’s trap: In order to do anything in his world, you have to bow to him. Everyone bows to him, and writes this off as a practical decision. But in doing so, you make the strongman stronger. Meeting his demand for loyalty, for not speaking plainly about his outrages, for flattery and obsequiousness—all of this serves to reinforce the unhealthy dynamic he has built. By paying the price to enter the halls of power, you ensure that the price will get higher. By agreeing to his rules, you cement his supremacy. The willingness of savvy and practical and realistic people to write off that kiss of the ring as a small matter is what creates the absurd, surreal conditions that characterize strongmen governments. What you look at the bizarre spectacle of a nation of millions all cowering with pasted-on smiles before a flawed leader and wonder to yourself, “How did that happen?”, the answer is, it happened more or less like this.
What am I talking about here? I am talking about the president of a major union flattering Trump on stage at the Republican convention, then patting himself on the back that he was able to wrangle the appointment of a decent Labor Secretary, who will do nothing to stop to overwhelming assault on workers’ rights that is coming. I am talking about a liberal Congressman going out of his way to praise Elon Musk’s cost-cutting commission of idiots, because he thinks that by flattering his way into the room he may be able to get some Democratic priorities included in the devastating cuts that are coming. I am talking about the corrupt Democratic mayor who sees flattering Trump, and selling out his own city, as a way out of his own legal predicament. I am talking about every corporation and nonprofit hastily scrubbing references to DEI—a value they claimed to hold dear just a few months ago—off their websites, so as not to upset the new leaders. I am talking about the civil servants scheming on ways to ensure that it doesn’t look like they have ever claimed to believe in climate change or civil rights. I am talking about every single person in every single staff meeting at every single Congressional office or union or nonprofit or activist group who has already suggested that a little bit of flattery, a little less abrasiveness towards the fascist in charge, will go a long way towards making the next four years a little bit easier.
After all, you are trying to do good things. The pantomime of flattery towards the boss is worth it, right?
No. This is not the way. This is the downward spiral of life under the strongman. The calculation of doing what is necessary to keep your head down, the small compromises of staying quiet when you otherwise would have spoken up, of smiling at things that would have otherwise made you gag—all these things make him stronger. Accepting the proposition that you should not make him dislike you makes him stronger. This is how the opposition weakens and dies. Small compromises that paper over the big compromise of pretending that the strongman is normal. How do nations become fascist, even while most people go about their business as usual? Just like this.
The man whose ring you are kissing today because it will help you advance your position on a specific issue today is the same man who was a racist yesterday and who will deport your friends tomorrow. How has Trump managed to do so many awful things and carry on with no apparent political damage? Just like this. By making loyalty more important than policy, more important than science, more important than truth, more important than anything, he forces you to wave away all of the outrages of the past in order to do the work in front of you today. It is not at all hard to see why people in the political world decide to make these compromises. In isolation, each handshake or smiling picture at his side or tossed-off compliment that he sure is “one tough S.O.B!” does not seem all that consequential. These things all seem like just slightly more exaggerated versions of the normal level of political schmoozing. Yet they add up to a strongman who has forced the opposition to its knees, induced them to accept the premise that begging is the only route to power.
You have to oppose this motherfucker. You have to remember the Central Park Five. You have to remember the hundreds of thousands of people who died because he wouldn’t tell them to wear masks. You have to remember the vows to brutally deport millions of your neighbors. You have to remember the determination to allow the wholesale looting of the government by billionaire pals while simultaneously stepping on the necks of working people. You do not need to go to the White House Christmas party and smile at him and say you value bipartisanship. You do not, under any circumstances, gotta hand it to him.
You need to punch this motherfucker in the face with your last bit of strength even as he piles the weight of the entire federal government on top of you. The political opposition in America is not fighting for itself right now—it is fighting for the millions and millions of working people and poor people and immigrants and women and others who are going to be oppressed more than usual beginning on January 21, 2025. The opposition is, right now, a minority. It is not in control. It is on the back foot. It is in a hard spot. And that is the time when you fight harder, or you take a knee. Don’t make the wrong choice.
Don’t be nice to this guy. He gets stronger when you do that. Then it’s harder to fight him the next time. Fascism rides in on the wings of flattery and flourishes by making itself an immediate practicality. Recognize that and don’t fall for it. The strongman, addicted to praise, is fragile at his core. Our job is to rip his weak heart out of his chest and send him to the political graveyard. The heroes of history are not the ones who kissed the ring.
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Related reading: Lean Into the Punch; You Patsy; Donald Trump is Personally Responsible For Hundreds of Thousands of Covid Deaths; Onward, Christian Soldiers—To War!
If you wonder what a fighting labor movement that could actually muster enough power to lead the opposition in this political moment would like, you might like my book “The Hammer,” available for order wherever books are sold. We need leaders that are as strong as the grassroots are. If you want to talk about this in person, come by my book event at The Lynx in Gainesville, FL on Saturday, December 28. If you want a signed copy of the book for Christmas, I’ll send you one for $40. Email me. If you want to organize your workplace and join the labor movement, contact EWOC.
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Good piece that I wish public figures would read. But I have to say I have vastly more sympathy for civil servants than for business leaders or congress members here.
𝘐 𝘢𝘮 𝘵𝘢𝘭𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘳𝘳𝘶𝘱𝘵 𝘋𝘦𝘮𝘰𝘤𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘤 𝘮𝘢𝘺𝘰𝘳 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘴𝘦𝘦𝘴 𝘧𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘛𝘳𝘶𝘮𝘱, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘰𝘸𝘯 𝘤𝘪𝘵𝘺,
It should be embarrassing how little extra context is needed beyond these words to know EXACTLY who this is about.