Autocracy = Corruption (And That Corruption Can Be Used To Defeat It)

 

The following is part of a post by Paul Krugman:

Autocracy and corruption aren’t separate issues. In practice they inevitably go hand in hand. They’re a natural pairing, like crypto and crime, because authoritarian rule removes accountability and opens the door for Grand Theft Autocracy. . . .

What Hungary has shown the world is that autocratic corruption can be a powerful mobilizing issue. . . .

What does the “new Hungarian Revolution” mean for the U.S. today?

An immediate lesson is the political power of highlighting corruption as we try to defeat our own home-grown autocrats. Corruption is something every voter can understand, unlike abstract principles in defense of democracy.

The self-dealing during Trump I was, in fact, unprecedented in American history. Recall how lobbyists and foreign potentates booked pricey rooms in Trump’s Washington hotel? But under Trump II blatant corruption has run wild at the highest levels of government, on a scale like nobody has ever seen before. Trump and his family have used his office to extract billions in de facto graft, through crypto deals with petro-state autocrats, investments in prediction markets and defense contractors, making sweetheart foreign real estate deals that line up with favorable tariff treatment, soliciting hundreds of millions for Trump vanity projects.

Oh, yes, then there is the Epstein affair…

While the average American voter may (unfortunately) tolerate some small-scale corruption by those in power, the level of corruption we are now seeing is so vast that it has become a cancer, that is eating away at the heart of the U.S. government.

Want to stop a data center in your community and impose common-sense controls on AI? Well, that’s a non-starter because the Trump family has invested in data centers and in AI firms. Want to regulate crypto and stop its use as a vehicle for crime? Well, um, no, because the Trump family has amassed billions from their crypto holdings. Want to rein in the pernicious effects of prediction markets. I don’t think so, because the Trump family invests in Polymarket. Want to shift America towards safe, clean renewable energy? Think again, because petrostate oligarchs have poured $500 million into Trump’s World Liberty coin.

I could go on, but I think you get the point. Trump promised to drain the swamp, but under his rule the swamp drains you.

And everyone can see it.

Like Orbán, Trump is trying to solidify his own version of soft autocracy by destroying the American system of democratic checks and balances – such as corrupting the Justice Department, bullying Democratic states, and delivering CNN into the hands of the Ellisons.

The possibility that should truly terrify us is that Trumpian levels of corruption and its accompanying authoritarianism will become normalized in America. And that’s the game plan of the autocrat: the public comes to believe that resistance is futile because the regime controls so many levers of power and has corrupted so many people and institutions.

The good news from Hungary is that blatant corruption doesn’t have to be normalized. In fact, public perceptions of runaway corruption can become a weapon in defense of democracy. The public understands corruption, hates it, and can be mobilized to vote en masse against it.

Hungary has shown the way. Will America follow?