Never before in U.S. history have prospects seemed more dire for continuation of democracy. That form of government of the people, by the people and for the people has been an aspiration for millions of people across the globe for more than 200 years. Yet leaders of our national government and legions of their supporters have given top priority to instituting an all-powerful executive branch, the presidency.

It is no longer government by the people, but rather government by an autocratic president, apparently for himself and his cohort of wealthy colleagues.

Other nations have gone through such authoritarian periods, and a few have emerged with strengthened democratic institutions following years, even decades of repression. The most common way an authoritarian regime grasps and maintains control over citizenry is imposition of police state mechanisms, characterized by all-pervasive surveillance, paid or intimidated informants and political and economic repression. The latter mechanism, repression, can be through imprisonment and assassination or by economic strangulation, such as coercion to cancel business contracts, elimination of social services and deliberate damage to a resistor’s reputation.