By Robert Reich
1.
Exaggerate their mandate to govern – claiming, for example, that they won
an election by a landslide even
after losing the popular vote.
2.
Repeatedly claim massive voter fraud
in the absence of any evidence, in order to restrict voting in subsequent
elections.
3.
Call anyone who opposes them “enemies.”
4.
Turn the public against journalists or media outlets that criticize them,
calling them “deceitful” and “scum.”
5.
Hold few if any press conferences, preferring to communicate
with the public directly through mass rallies and unfiltered statements.
6.
Tell the public big lies, causing them to doubt the truth and to
believe fictions that support the tyrants’ goals.
7.
Blame economic stresses on immigrants or
racial or religious minorities, and foment public bias and even violence against
them.
8.
Attribute acts of domestic violence to “enemies within,” and use such
events as excuses to beef up internal security and limit civil liberties.
9.
Threaten mass deportations, registries of
religious minorities, and the banning of refugees.
10.
Seek to eliminate or reduce the influence of competing centers of power, such
as labor unions and
opposition parties.
11.
Appoint family members to
high positions of authority
12.
Surround themselves with their own personal security force rather than a security detail accountable to the
public.
13.
Put generals into top civilian posts
15.
Draw no distinction between personal property and public property, profiteering from their public office.
Consider
yourself warned.
ROBERT B. REICH is Chancellor's Professor of
Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley and Senior Fellow at
the Blum Center for Developing Economies. He served as Secretary of Labor in
the Clinton administration, for which Time Magazine named him one of the ten
most effective cabinet secretaries of the twentieth century. He has written
fourteen books, including the best sellers "Aftershock", "The
Work of Nations," and "Beyond Outrage," and, his most recent,
"Saving Capitalism." He is also a founding editor of the American
Prospect magazine, chairman of Common Cause, a member of the American Academy
of Arts and Sciences, and co-creator of the award-winning documentary,
INEQUALITY FOR ALL.
