Watch The Hands

A historian called it a cult this week.

You’ve heard the word before, and you’ll hear it again before Tuesday. It’s a strong word. It feels good to say when you’re angry. But I want to slow down and ask whether it’s the right word. Words matter most when the stakes are high.

A cult is about what goes on inside people’s heads. It says the followers have been captured. Their minds aren’t their own anymore. That’s a heavy charge to lay on tens of millions of your neighbors. And here’s the trouble with it. Nobody can see inside another person’s head. You can’t prove it, and they can’t disprove it. It just becomes one more thing to shout across the fence.

A man named Jonathan Hirsch grew up inside a real cult. He knows the thing from the inside. He used a well-known three-part test to check the Trump movement. First, is there a charismatic leader? Yes, he said. Second, is there a process that pulls people in and holds them? Maybe, but it’s a stretch. Third, is there abuse, with people forced to act against themselves? Not while the courts and Congress still have their say.

So even a man who lived it says the word doesn’t fit. Not yet. That’s worth remembering. Calling people brainwashed doesn’t win them over. It makes them dig in. And it lets the rest of us skip the harder work of naming what’s actually wrong.

So what should we call it? There’s a better tool, and it comes from the people who study how democracies get worn down. Two scholars, Steven Levitsky and Lucan Way, gave it a name years ago. They called it competitive authoritarianism. It’s a mouthful, but the idea is simple.

In that kind of system, elections still happen. Courts still sit. Newspapers still print. But the people in power tilt the field. They use the government as a weapon against critics and as a shield for friends. Little by little, it costs more to oppose them. Levitsky argues this country has been sliding that way. He points to the January 6 pardons. He points to the Justice Department going after critics. He points to the lawsuits against the press and the pressure on universities.

Not everyone agrees. The president says he’s no dictator. Other scholars point out that people still protest in the streets, and critics are still on the air. That argument is real, and you’re free to weigh it yourself.

But here’s why this way of seeing things is better than the word cult. It doesn’t ask you to read anybody’s mind. It asks you to watch what they do with their hands. Acts can be written down. Acts can be checked. Acts can be answered in court and at the ballot box.

So let’s talk about what to watch in the next five days. I’m not going to make predictions. I’ll tell you what responsible people have actually said out loud.

The Washington Post reported last week that a group of about ten current and former national security officials has been quietly advising ten states. Many of them have spent careers watching democracies fail overseas. Here’s what they told those states to be ready for. Federal troops or immigration agents showing up at polling places. Federal agents demanding ballots, voting machines, or records. Results being challenged, or thrown out, on claims of fraud.

Some states have already rehearsed what they would do if federal agents showed up asking for machines. One longtime election expert, Tammy Patrick, says federal interference is now the top worry among the election officials she talks to. These aren’t people who scare easy.

Now, fairness matters here. The White House says these fears are partisan noise and that it’s protecting the election. The top general in the country wrote to a senator in August that there are no plans to send troops to polling stations or seize voting records. Homeland Security says it’s not planning immigration operations at polling places. Those are statements on the record. Hold them to it.

That’s what watching the hands means. You don’t have to guess at anyone’s heart. You write down what they promised, and you check it against what they do.

So here’s what you can do. Know where your polling place is before you go. Know your county election office’s phone number. If something looks wrong, don’t argue in the parking lot. Write down what you saw, when you saw it, and who was there. Then call the people whose job it is to fix it.

Calm is a weapon too. People who want to rattle an election count on folks getting scared and staying home. Don’t give them that. Show up steady. Vote. Help your neighbor do the same.

And one more thing. Remember that this road runs both ways. Levitsky’s own work shows these systems aren’t forever. Just this year in Hungary, the man who perfected the model lost in a landslide. He lost because ordinary people stopped being afraid and turned out together.

So don’t spend your breath calling anybody a cult. Spend it watching. Write down what you see. Hold the people in charge to their own words. Then go vote like the country depends on it.

Watch the hands. Five days.

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This post was drafted with AI governed assistance and reviewed and directed by Michael S. Faust Sr. before publication.

” Attic Thoughts”-library – Intelligent People Assume Nothing