In the decades that followed, J. Edgar Hoover’s F.B.I. worked diligently to foster a sense of anxiety among Black civil-rights organizers...
- But the fear now is different in kind.
- The sweeping scope of Trump’s appetite for institutionalized retaliation has changed the threat landscape for everyone, almost overnight.
- In a country with a centuries-long culture of free expression, the punishments for those who express even the slightest opposition to the Administration have been a shock to the American system.
There is hope, though.
Political-science research reveals that autocratic leaders can be successfully challenged.
Erica Chenoweth, a professor at Harvard University, has analyzed more than six hundred mass movements that sought to topple a national government (often in response to its refusal to acknowledge election results) or obtain territorial independence in the past century.
Chenoweth found that when at least 3.5 per cent of the population participated in nonviolent opposition, movements were largely successful...
