The dead hand of the executive order substitutes for a collaborative style of leadership. These orders form a pattern of authoritarian overreach by a President quick to identify domestic enemies. 

German academic T. W. Adorno was the lead researcher of the first major analysis of social conditions that give rise to populations overly enamored with authority figures.* The researchers, some of whom had escaped from Europe at the start of World War II, traced the origins of a multitude of personality traits, including anti-Semitism, “susceptibility to antidemocratic propaganda,” ethnocentrism (judging others by one’s own values), and predispositions toward fascism. The rise of the Nazi Party and its wide acceptance even among well-educated Germans was the puzzle they wanted to solve.  Are certain kinds of citizens overly susceptible to appeals based on authority, especially “official” sources? Are some types of audiences too willing to ignore the natural ambiguities of everyday life in favor of the rigid ideological certainties of a demagogue (i.e., Hitler’s stereotypes of Jewish “failings”)? And what psychological needs are satisfied when total allegiance is given to such a leader?

One product of their work was a paper and pencil questionnaire called the F-Scale (Fascism) inventory probing for signs of “authoritarian submission” and “uncritical attitudes toward idealized moral authorities.” It consisted of claims, such as the ones listed below, to which a respondent would be asked to agree or disagree.

Obedience and respect for authority are the most important virtues children should learn.

Every person should have complete faith in some supernatural power whose decisions will be obeyed without question.

What this country needs most, more than laws and political programs, are a few courageous, tireless, devoted leaders in whom the people can put their faith.

Authoritarian leaders typically go beyond their formal powers, distrust the press, and incite citizens against alleged internal enemies. Countless acts of hubris are now part of the official record: everything from renaming whole regions to destroying government property under the guise of making it better.  The man the seems to love gaudy monumentalism as if he were channeling Albert Speer, Hitler’s architect.

The researchers found that anti-Semitism, rigidity, ethnocentrism, undue respect for power, and other traits tended to cluster within many of the same people. They theorized that the clustering was tied to styles of family life. They also learned that authoritarianism can be identified in segments of almost any population. Some people may be psychologically hardwired to seek a “place” in a clearly defined social order led by a dominating leader.  It also seems clear that many authoritarians–who can be followers or leaders–want to take ambiguities and uncertainties out of their lives.  They prefer simple answers to complex problems.  As with Adolph Hitler and many others since, authoritarian leaders typically overreach their formal powers, distrust the press, and incite citizens against alleged internal enemies.

Our current political turmoil is a reminder that many among us also want simple and magical answers to entrenched problems: all the better if the explanations include scapegoating others.  We have lived through a seemingly endless number of false alternate narratives told and retold about stolen elections, pedophile Washington elites, dead voters who managed to cast a ballot, and more. Presently, what is left of the MAGA right simmers with fantasies of these fears, as is evident from the compliant silence of his staff.  More alarmingly, it is clear that our unexpectedly frail constitution and a supine Supreme Court has made this political nightmare a reality.

Americans need to be smarter about weighing the claims of leaders who are willing to trade accuracy for certainty. We have let down previous generations by allowing American leadership and respectability to be eroded by a criminal president.

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_{*The Authoritarian Personality. New York: Harper and Row, 1950.}