Applebaum on what citizens who care about U.S. democracy can do

Pulitzer Prize-winning author and Atlantic writer Anne Applebaum, whose new book is titled “Autocracy, Inc.: The Dictators Who Want to Run the World,” discusses ways to think about autocracy and authoritarianism in a second Trump term with Ezra Klein on his New York Times podcast.

 

In response to Klein’s question on what members of the public can do, Applebaum says:

 

"The worst result or the worst consequence of this kind of government, if that’s what we’re going to have, and of course we still don’t know yet, is that people become apathetic. They say: This is all so overwhelming, it’s so huge. I don’t even know what’s true and what’s not true anymore, and I’m just going to stay home.

"Try to overcome that. And it almost doesn’t matter what it is that you do. Involve yourself in a local group, a discussion group. Join a political party. Run for local office. Try to be present in your community in some way. Do something that makes you active. And that makes you feel that you’re taking part in the governance of your country.

"Democracies were always meant to be political systems that involved ordinary people in all kinds of ways. And I think one of the other reasons our system has declined as far as it has, is that that has atrophied. Along with all kinds of other institutions. There’s the famous thing about Americans not being in bowling clubs anymore and not joining the Rotary Club and not participating in real-life institutions because they’re at home watching TV or playing video games. But there’s also been a decline in civic activity and civic engagement.

"And even if it’s just for your mental health, Even if it’s just to make sure that you don’t feel that you are isolated and alone and unable to affect anything, try to join some group or work with some group that is making change in your community, either politically or even apolitically. And that seems to me to be the best antidote."

Klein always asks his guests to recommend three books, and Applebum says she’s chosen books that describe "the secret world of money laundering and kleptocracy”:

— “Moneyland: The Inside Story of the Crooks and Kleptocrats Who Rule the World,” by Oliver Bullough
— “Offshore: Stealth Wealth and the New Colonialism,” by Brooke Harrington

— “American Kleptocracy: How the U.S. Created the World’s Greatest Money Laundering Scheme in History,” by Casey Michel