My WIRED Videos on Corruption and the State of U.S. Democracy
Where civic education takes me, and a photo of Polish PM Donald Tusk reading Strongmen on his way to Paris
Civic Education Initiatives
I am pleased to attend the American Federation of Teachers annual meeting. It is an honor to speak to so many dedicated professionals who are instructing our children with caring and rigor in difficult circumstances.
My panel also features former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, political philosopher Danielle Allen, who directs the Allen Lab for Democracy Renovation at Harvard, and political scientist and nonviolent civil resistance authority Erica Chenoweth. It is moderated by AFT President Randi Weingarten, whose book, Why Fascists Fear Teachers, is essential reading.
I started Lucid five years ago to provide clear and cogent big-picture analysis of authoritarianism and democratic backsliding in the United States and globally. My mission of civic education has also led me to advisory work for businesses and civil society organizations, and to collaborations that reach a variety of audiences: historical consulting for film and television, a 2025 op-comic, “How Authoritarianism Creeps In,” for the Los Angeles Times with cartoonist Ivan Ehlers (one of two works that made the talented Ehlers a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize), and an ongoing collaboration with WIRED.
WIRED
My 2025 WIRED Tech Support video on dictators has 3.6 million views, and I was glad to join WIRED’s superb writers and editors again for a new Tech Support video on corruption.
WIRED also asked me to make the inaugural video in a new series, Top of Mind, on a sadly topical theme: “Is American Democracy Going to Die?” We identified five key indicators of democratic erosion: electoral manipulation, weaponized government, press intimidation, normalization of extremism, and transfer of power crises. For each one, I evaluate the United States alongside countries where authoritarianism is now entrenched or in a phase of advanced consolidation.
I hope you find these WIRED videos helpful. All of the links have transcripts if you prefer to read.
I also occasionally make my own impromptu videos to clarify issues in the news. Here is a 90 second video on how the authoritarian mania for building monuments and ambitious public works is not just about ego and personality cults, but also a fuel for corruption. We in America are living through an example of this now.
Strongmen: The Past and Present of the Authoritarian Playbook
Finally, civic education also led me to write my first book for the general public, Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present. It unpacked the “tools of rule” of authoritarianism (corruption, virility and sexual predation, propaganda, violence, and the myth of national greatness), looked at how they have been used over a century of right-wing regimes, and warned that Donald Trump (then in his first term) was following a version of this playbook.
It became a New York Times bestseller soon after the 2024 election that fatefully allowed the coup-plotter Trump to return to power.
There are now numerous foreign translations, and also a UK edition with a different cover and subtitle. That is what Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk was reading today while he flew to Paris to attend a “Coalition of the Willing” meeting where enhanced support for Ukraine and shared defense capabilities for Europe were under discussion.
Prime Minister Tusk has an appropriately grave expression: perhaps he is reading about Europeans appeasing the imperialist warmongers Mussolini and Hitler in the 1930s, or about Putin’s obsession with domination and taking down democracies, or Trump’s fawning over dictators and authoritarian ambitions for America, which have exponentially increased in his second term.
Knowing history allows us to understand what is happening in the present and how we may act to create a better future for ourselves. That’s the subject of the resistance chapter, and the new book, Resisting Autocracy, that I am now writing.
I am fairly new to Lucid. I didn't know about the WIRED series. I applaud you for all your work on it and your new series. Thank you for all you do here and for raising awareness. It is necessary.
French Revolution 2.0, 21st Century American Style
WE the People have the chance to take back our country and demand the wealthy pay their fair share. As Thom points out in every revolution, the People rise up and protest the inequalities within the societal system in which they participate. Whether it's the inequality with $$ or it's about taxation without representation/vote, the script boils down to what WE the People expect of the governance they entrust to representatives they elect.
The current governance that was elected lied to stay out of jail and now the lies are obvious as well as the morally bankrupt, misogynistic, lawless, and racist characteristics that make WE the People nauseated and intolerant of such governance. Yes policy gambits are good on the campaign trail but there has to be in these days emotional anger and revulsion as to what's happening politically.
With the known past tax codes that properly taxed the wealthy, WE the People are fed up with the bloated arrogance of such scum, wishing to control their financial destinies and want them to help pay off our financial national debt, lest WE fall into a debt trap WE face. This November WE the People have a choice and it's not a difficult one....WE just have to be angry.