Trygve's Rules for Fighting Autocrats Pt. 3: No battering rams for the autocrats
Ditch the in-fighting and realize there can be no more internal squabbles in this game, it's an existential fight against autocracy
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In our third installment of Trygve’s Rules for Fighting Autocrats, Trygve Olson (TRIG-vee) outlines his third rule, gleamed from years of working with pro-democracy forces in Eastern Europe after the fall of the Soviet Union — Inside the big tent of democracy, don’t let internal battles distract from the existential fight to stay free. Or, as Trygve says, don’t give autocrats the battering ram or hammer to pound you with (which they gladly will.)
Trygve, who just launched his Substack
(which you should sign up for to get additional insights from the battlefield), states that it’s easy for autocrats to divide the opposition by bringing up issues like LGBTQ+, healthcare, taxes, etc, because autocrats don’t do policy or ideology, it’s all about keeping power.For the the pro-democracy center, center right and center left forces, Trygve says this means understanding that autocrats will use wedge issues to split apart their coalition, so what is required is new discipline and comity in understanding the bigger fight at hand.
“Fighting about things that are irrelevant when you don’t have a democracy is a waste of time,” Trygve says.
In case you missed our discussion of Trygve’s first two rules, catch them here.
Part 1 is the first and most important, Realize the game you’re in: Rampant corruption, weaponizing the Justice Department to attack political opponents (and drop cases for allies), attacking judges and pressing law firms to pay millions. We’re on a new playing field, which requires accepting that and adjusting properly.
And Trygve’s Second Rule of Fighting Autocrats: Speak Truth to Power. I call this The Beatles 10,000 hours rule — each truth builds, and you won’t know which one breaks the dam until it happens. So keep speaking truth to power.
For more on this
Read Reed Galen’s writing on these rules and what they mean here. Trygve and Reed co-founded The Lincoln Project and have long traded insights on the worldwide fight against autocrats and the return of fascism.
Rule #1: Play the game you’re in, not the one you wish you were in
Rule #3: Don’t hand them the hammers to hit you with
Rule #4: Autocrats want a truth-free present, accurate history and talk of the future undoes this
Rule #5: Use autocrats’ tactics against them (the Judo rule)
Rule #7: Restore faith in each other, rebuild trust, one person, one day at a time. Autocrats use fear, pro-democracy coalitions must use hope and faith in one another.
And make sure to read this piece from Reed on What it means to actually fight.
And, of course, the OG himself, Trygve in his original longtweet on this here.
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The seven rules are important … but I wonder if they’re just reactive as opposed to proactive. Recognizing the danger is pre-eminent; fighting it, a step beyond.