Has the Age of American Authoritarianism Arrived?

“This was a conquering of the nation not by force but with a permission slip. Now, America stands on the precipice of an authoritarian style of governance never before seen in its 248-year history.” –Lisa Lerer

I’m still struggling to process what happened to America (and to the world and the planet) last week. While I’m trying to keep the modulated emotional response celebrated in the Taoist ‘May be’ parable, it is difficult to do so. Gone is the intentional pursuit of sustainability (as mediocre as it may have been), now instead we will “drill, baby, drill.” (Of course, if Trump’s defeat led to a civil war, that too would have ended the intentional pursuit of sustainability—ah, you wise Taoists.)¹

What’s most difficult to process is that 75 million Americans voted for Trump (compared to 71 million for Harris), choosing, most likely, to embrace an era of authoritarianism. One reflection I started but never published (but probably should now) was a complex dual book review of How Democracies Die and How Civil Wars Start. Both made complementary points, though the first is more relevant here.² In essence, democracies die today “less at the hand of men with guns and more by elected leaders.” This happens as the branches of power congeal—judges become no longer independent, legislative bodies irrelevant—whether through co-option, threat, or legal artifice. Trump is certainly poised to do this. He’s learned from his mistakes, has honed a cadre of likeminded allies, and will probably be more effective in getting executive bodies to follow his mandate. It’s going to be a tough four years, potentially crescendoing with the shocking (sort of) discovery that this post-democratic reality is the new permanent state of American government.

75 million Americans also chose the economy, migration, fetal rights, or whatever issue motivated them over the long-term wellbeing of the planet (which includes the United States last time I checked). This was especially stark in Florida, which, wracked by multiple hurricanes exacerbated by climate change, is only going to get more abused under this oil-centric Trump path. And yet, Trump won by 13 points, a larger margin than his first two elections and the largest in 36 years.

A Gaian perspective

What kind of Gaian perspective can I offer? The day after the election I was so dejected that the best I could do was retreat to nature in hopes I could glean a bit of solace there. A hawk went about her business catching a sparrow (she missed), centuries-old trees were unmoved, and the Connecticut River continued to flow. Earth and Life will carry on. No matter how bad an unhinged American empire gets.³

Perhaps there’s also space for compassion. As Americans get sicker (from both an increasingly toxic environment and toxic diet), more abused by wealth inequalities, more manipulated by the media, social media and now AI, they increasingly have and will have difficulty discerning their own long-term interests. They also see in Trump’s uncensored everyday-guy persona someone relatable (verses the intimidatingly intelligent foreign named mixed race woman who, let’s be honest, is nothing like most Americans), and desperately want to trust his promises that he’s gonna take care of them. It’s saddening but as Vu Le noted in Nonprofit AF, it’s ok to grieve:

“Grieve for the inequities that brought us to this place. Grieve for the difficult road ahead. Grieve for the lives that will be lost because of the malice and vindictiveness that will shape the policies our communities must further endure. Grieve at what could have been, the hope and optimism and the brighter reality we could have had.”

And of course, those lost lives include non-human ones, and the brighter (or at least less bad) reality that could have been a 2°C future, one where more biodiversity was sustained, more cities protected, more lives—of all species—saved, instead of a 3°C future or worse, one that could bring about devastating positive feedback climate loops, causing even greater ecological changes and suffering.

What should Gaians do now?

In our Gaian conversation last week, one participant mentioned a friend, an Earth activist who said, when asked how she was feeling about the election, that she appreciated the focus and clarity that it will bring to her work. That stopped me in my tracks. It feels almost kōan-like. I’m not sure I agree. In a Harris world, I feel it would have been pretty clear: push to inject degrowth into the eco-technic future vision. Now, it feels like even the very idea of sustainability is revolutionary. But perhaps therein lies her point. The people cannot sleepwalk towards a “sustainability” based on solar panels and climate treaties that pretend to solve the crisis but mask the realities with unproven carbon credits and future innovations yet to be determined.⁴

Instead, we must fight fully for any chance at sustainability. We are again in the resistance and have to treat our work in those terms (even if new Netflix shows keep coming out and distracting us). Maybe just for four more years, like in Trump Part I, but possibly more in the sense of Nazi Germany, where the outcome is not guaranteed and there is no end of the time spent resisting necessarily in sight. But that begs the question: If the American Democracy experiment comes to an end, in what way can sustainability be pursued? In what way can we reintegrate ecological literacy into this culture?⁵

I stand by the idea that as the world destabilizes, the cultivation of Gaian Guilds to connect people, to deepen their understanding of nature, to build shared resilience, to shepherd resources toward creating restorative human communities, is essential. Truthfully, I do not know how to do that (after five years of efforts, this seems as aspirational as it did in 2019). Though coming together for acts of protest and resistance might be a complementary step—or perhaps more effective will be to join other resistance efforts and inviting comrades there to participate in the nurturing space of a Guild. Again, to refer to Le’s essay, the fights against injustice (and for a sustainable future) are never easy:

“We knew this work would be hard. And while it seems insurmountable, there is hope as long as we don’t give up on one another and what we can achieve together.”

It may be that Trump’s second term, filled with injustices, broken promises, and outrages sparks a democratic renaissance (one that can be achieved because he failed to fully dismantle democratic institutions). Perhaps at that point America becomes a driver of true sustainability and bold transformation of the global economy. Or, more likely, the fractious nature of the American political and economic systems worsens and the democratic experiment winds down in the United States.

In either case, fighting for sustainability, and sowing the seeds for local ecological literacy and resilience are both critical. So once you’ve gotten into nature and healed from the initial shock of the path Americans elected, shake yourself off and get to work, in the ways you can to bring about an ecocentric, restorative future.

Endnotes

1) Or perhaps this accelerates the decline of the American empire, reducing global growth and consumption and the deep ecological damage these drive. We do not know what this moment will lead to.

2) Though, a key point from How Civil Wars Start is that the U.S. was, for the first time since around the U.S. Civil War, in a state of anocracy (a partial democracy), receiving a +5 out of a 20-point scale (-10 being autocracy, +10 being democracy).

3) Of course, lives will be lost. Species too. So my point is not to diminish the scope of suffering, but accept that in the deepest oceans, in the darkest caverns, the wildest of Gaian life will thrive, adapt, evolve, and populate whatever remains of Earth’s surface.

4) I explain this in many other reflections like this one on the energy transition and this one on hydrogen.

5) In a world where perhaps it’s illegal to even teach about climate change, where instead climate denial is readily introduced in schools, as in Florida.