This is part one of a quick two-part post. It’s about the short term political future of the US in the turbulent, depressing 2020s.

In the years ahead, I will always ask questions about why the Republicans chose to burn this republic down. I get their objective since 1980, which was to make this nation comfortable for the rich and miserable for everyone else. But why the autocracy? Why make it miserable for even the affluent?

What did we affluent, college educated liberals do to deserve a crushing autocracy? We went to a gay wedding a few times? We voted for Obama? We said repeatedly that minorities should be treated with respect? Holy shit we're being given the death sentence, here. What was the infraction? If the infraction can't be explained, then the GOP is more evil and destructive than even I ever imagined.

The GOP has long been the party of the rich. Their mission is still to make the rich richer. But now it is intertwined with winning votes over a fierce and angry backlash to a changing culture. No political party in any democracy can change culture. Human culture is always changing. As Professor Sut Jhally frequently lectures, “culture is always up for grabs.” Once something becomes commonplace in culture, it cannot be forcibly removed from a society.

There is one extreme way to suppress culture, however, and that is to suppress the society. A nation can transform from a democracy to an authoritarian state. An autocracy closes itself off from the rest of the world, while forcing propaganda and ideology onto the people in an effort to tame them and reduce dissent. We see it in North Korea, Belarus, Russia, China and Burma.

Now transforming the US into an autocracy would be a steep hill to climb. The GOP would have difficulty selling authoritarianism at the national level. Some people in this country are intelligent, and would not stand for it. But thanks to the multi-layered setup of our republic, the GOP is having much success taking away freedoms at the local level. States are pushing the boundaries of the 14th Amendment, to see how far they can restrict personal liberties in the name of “protecting children.” Leading a backlash against cultural change is also a tactic to motivate Republicans to vote. And they sure are furious, vocal and motivated.

Laws have been passed banning reproductive health clinics within a certain distance of schools. Tennessee will enact a law this July banning any public performance that includes a performer in drag that is vaguely close to children, which is technically everywhere. The next logical step would be for states or localities to ban public Pride events, because they always include men in drag and well as transgender people. This angle of attack -to force queer people out of public life under the boilerplate justification of preventing children from seeing them- is catching on like wildfire, and will eventually be brought before the Federal courts, which are packed with right-wing judges.

The US has been in a measurable state of decline since 1973. The empire is in decline. The prestige of the US is ruined. But most important is what’s happening at the granular, individual level. Liberty and freedom are now under attack by the minority political party. The GOP has decided that it would rather burn down what’s left of the republic than share it with everyone equally in a society that is based on freedom and respect.

The 14th Amendment is under attack. That means that authoritarianism is coming. How will you live with it in the coming decades? Will you fight back? Will you go underground? What is the plan?