By Chris Kremidas-Courtney
Authoritarianism doesn’t arrive wearing jackboots and carrying flags, at least not at first. It seeps in quietly, normalized by a thousand small betrayals and the silence of those who should know better. In America, this silence came from those perched highest: our political, corporate, and cultural elites. While some point fingers at populist anger or partisan dysfunction, there is a deeper truth we must face; democracy’s rot began not on its edges, but at its core, when those entrusted to defend the republic choose convenience over courage. This slow collapse was decades in the making, driven not just by power-hungry oligarchs, but by the systemic failure of those entrusted to protect democracy, equal rights, and the rule of law. Fascism didn’t knock, it was ushered in.
America’s elites: political, corporate, media, and academic, have failed not just to lead, but to be accountable. Since the 1970s, they’ve shielded themselves from consequences while imposing accountability on the rest of us. They sent young men to prison for petty crimes but pardoned presidents. They punished whistleblowers but promoted those who cheated the system. They bailed out banks but left workers behind. This deep hypocrisy hollowed out trust, seeded rage, and ultimately created the perfect storm for a demagogue to rise and say: They’ve lied to you. Follow me instead.
He wasn’t wrong about the betrayal. Just wrong about the solution.
The turning point came early. After the Watergate scandal, President Gerald Ford’s decision to pardon Richard Nixon in 1974 set the tone for decades of elite impunity. Nixon escaped justice, and the political class told itself the nation needed to “move on.” But the people didn’t forget. When Ronald Reagan’s administration illegally funneled weapons to Iran and funded death squads in Central America, few were held accountable. When Bill Clinton deregulated Wall Street and decimated welfare, it was called pragmatism. When George W. Bush launched the Iraq War based on false intelligence, leading to the deaths of hundreds of thousands, there were no resignations, trials, or national reckoning. And when Barack Obama took office promising change, he instead chose “looking forward, not backward,” allowing torturers, corrupt bankers, and those who launched a war based on lies to walk free.
Ordinary Americans saw it all. They lost homes and jobs and watched family members fall to opioid addiction while those at the top were promoted or pardoned. During the Covid pandemic, they watched the Trump administration bungle the response, costing an additional 760,000 lives and were forced back into offices and classrooms while the virus raged on. This caused mass trauma by what sociologist Nicole Bedera attributed to institutional betrayal, which “really broke people’s trust in collective action and community care.”
More recently, the Justice Department’s failure to convict Donald Trump for the insurrection he led on January 6th, 2021, was an epic failure of the governing elite’s ability and willingness to protect democracy and the rule of law.
During those same years, corporate elites accumulated unprecedented wealth and power. They funded think tanks to rewrite tax codes, crushed unions, and lobbied for trade deals that gutted local economies. They created a digital surveillance economy that monetized division. They bought newspapers and broadcasters and turned the news into noise. And they did it all while preaching innovation, merit, and free markets, ideas that now ring hollow to the millions of Americans living paycheck to paycheck in towns hollowed out by offshoring and neglect.
Meanwhile, defective Boeing airplanes killed hundreds but the US Justice department decided not to seek prosecution. The clear message is that consequences are for little people.
Media elites did little to challenge the system they were part of. Instead of holding power accountable, too many networks became PR arms for it, worshipping at the altar of access journalism. When the Iraq War was sold on lies, media leaders parroted White House talking points. When inequality surged, they covered billionaires like celebrities. And when Trump emerged, they treated him as a spectacle rather than a threat, airing his rallies nonstop because the ratings boost was good for business.
Even the intellectual class of academics and cultural gatekeepers failed to turn insight into action. They could dissect authoritarianism abroad, but most missed its early signs at home. While democracy frayed, they argued over definitions, detached from the growing economic and social despair that was driving the crisis.
And so, when Donald Trump called the system rigged, many Americans nodded in bitter agreement. They knew it in their bones. They had watched the elite class write rules for themselves while enforcing full accountability on everyone else. Trump weaponized that resentment, turning it not toward reform but toward vengeance, spectacle, and grift. He didn’t create the crisis, he merely capitalized on it in more ways than one. And even for many of his voters who did not always support his lawlessness, he remained the avatar of their anger; their wrecking ball against a system they’d lost trust in and the vulnerable people they were told to blame. So, millions on the right held their noses and voted for him again in 2024.
And now that he is back in power, he is tearing down the system as promised but not building anything new. Instead, he is making inequality worse and stripping away the last remaining protections and support systems people at the bottom need most.
Today’s elite class has failed and the time has come to raise up a new group of leaders made of people in our communities who lead with courage and conscience. We can’t take on the side bent on demolition and dismantlement with soft-spoken defenders of the status quo. Instead, we need builders.
We need people who build communities, programs, and civic trust from the ground up. They are the small business owners who lead efforts to improve neighborhoods, teachers who fight disinformation and protect libraries, and the public servants who innovatively stretch tax dollars to deliver for the people. The kind of builders we need are known for their deeds, not just words. They are not defined by wealth or connections, but by courage, moral clarity, and a willingness to act. They are also the leaders we need to help rebuild a system of accountability in the United States.
America does not need another ruling class. It needs a responsible one. One that is visible, accountable, and answerable to the people. If 2025 is to be a turning point rather than a descent, it will be because we chose to elevate new kinds of leaders; those who tell the truth, take risks, and reject the hollow comfort of silence.
History doesn’t ask us to be perfect. It asks us to be brave.
