Anti-Authoritarianism & Us: What We Do Next

If you listen to Leah & Ezra’s Podcast, What’s the Plan? The founders of the Indivisible movement, generally sport sunny, upbeat dispositions. You’ve perhaps noted a change. There’s a sudden subtle shift toward a serious, concerned and directed approach: it says “there’s no time to lose.” 

Many experts on autocracy and authoritarianism are sounding alarms and stating that the US is currently experiencing “Authoritarian Breakthrough” a key step of power consolidation by a regime working to undermine a current democratic system.

Last week’s broadcast featured What’s the Plan’s first-ever guest speaker, none other than Erika Chenoweth, the researcher behind the 3.5% threshold concept (see our blog post for details and sources on this topic). The questions posed by the audience were deeply specific and serious: 

”How should we think about power itself in this context [of power consolidation]? What are the sources of authoritarian power and how can non-violent movements challenge…