Ami Fields-Meyer

For more than a decade, it has felt to defenders of free society that we are peddling fruitlessly against the powerful current of authoritarianism. That current grew firmer, more dominant, as it swept in new nations from the shores of democracy and carried the world further toward illiberal abyss.

Allow them to embolden our visions for a more just tomorrow and to fortify us against the forces of illiberalism which will only grow less forgiving and more aggressive in the coming days.

For more than a decade, it has felt to defenders of free society that we are peddling fruitlessly against the powerful current of authoritarianism. That current grew firmer, more dominant, as it swept in new nations from the shores of democracy and carried the world further toward illiberal abyss.

1) The students who risked their futures and took to the streets; 2) the politicians who focused the public on corruption; and 3) the non-traditional coalitions that mobilized not around fine-grained policy provisions, but around the rejection of a common enemy.

For more than a decade, it has felt to defenders of free society that we are peddling fruitlessly against the powerful current of authoritarianism. That current grew firmer, more dominant, as it swept in new nations from the shores of democracy and carried the world further toward illiberal abyss.

The global democracy movement will be administered a new battery of tests in the coming days, first in Israel and then in the United States. We will see just how healthy our movement is.

For more than a decade, it has felt to defenders of free society that we are peddling fruitlessly against the powerful current of authoritarianism. That current grew firmer, more dominant, as it swept in new nations from the shores of democracy and carried the world further toward illiberal abyss.

India’s increasingly illiberal government was brought to its knees for the first time in recent memory -- and forced to change course on major policy -- in a wave of youth protests.

For more than a decade, it has felt to defenders of free society that we are peddling fruitlessly against the powerful current of authoritarianism. That current grew firmer, more dominant, as it swept in new nations from the shores of democracy and carried the world further toward illiberal abyss.

Many concluded, after 2024, as America selected a president who campaigned on a pledge to dismantle both domestic checks and balances and the postwar democratic order, that we were simply Victims of Events -- that history had caught up with us and this was our lot.

For more than a decade, it has felt to defenders of free society that we are peddling fruitlessly against the powerful current of authoritarianism. That current grew firmer, more dominant, as it swept in new nations from the shores of democracy and carried the world further toward illiberal abyss.

The producer of a radio show I went on this morning said the host wanted to talk about Ilhan Omar, so I went back and listened to a bunch of the press coverage from last week to refresh my memory on the details. And I realized that the US media still doesn’t know how to talk about authoritarianism.

The best context for understanding isn’t not the American legal system. We are talking about something else here. The comparisons are authoritarian countries. The intellectual and political lineage is Soviet thuggery: “Show me the man and I’ll show you the crime.”

The producer of a radio show I went on this morning said the host wanted to talk about Ilhan Omar, so I went back and listened to a bunch of the press coverage from last week to refresh my memory on the details. And I realized that the US media still doesn’t know how to talk about authoritarianism.

For one possible outcome of the coming years in the US, look to Brazil where Bolsonaro’s (third) wife is about to be a senator, his (minor figure) son is about to be a congressman, and his (major figure) son may well be president. Only part less likely here is that the father is under house arrest.