It is said that an ominous silence prevails at the eye of a hurricane just before it smashes a community to bits. A similar ominous silence has prevailed during this election season: A few days from Election Day and not a single debate has taken place between Elise Stefanik and Matt Castelli here in NY-21.

Instead of the customary public forums where candidates can present their views and positions on important issues facing the region and the nation, we have been treated to a series of obviously false pronouncements from Ms. Stefanik while she stonewalls Mr. Castelli’s efforts to meet face to face, effectively (and cynically) neutralizing his campaign. Typical of those pronouncements are those reported in the Enterprise of Oct. 5, where she is quoted as saying “Voters know that I am the only choice for Congress who is from upstate New York, shares our values, and has a proven record of defending them.” (p. A1) The same article goes on to quote her senior campaign advisor Alex DeGrasse: “DeGrasse described the Glens Falls resident [i.e., Mr. Castelli] as a far-left Democrat with ties to downstate. ‘That’s all upstate voters need to know,’ De Grasse said.” (p. A11) This is nonsense. What “voters” are these people talking about? Certainly not the hundreds of her “constituents” in the area who voted for Matt Castelli and who have been sending a steady stream of anti-Stefanik letters and guest commentaries to the Enterprise ever since his victory in the Democratic primary, The message is clear: Ms. Stefanik has written these citizens off, airbrushed them out, and couldn’t care less what they think. They are invisible to her, expendable in her drive to retain power.

This message is reinforced by her arrogant claim to embody “upstate values.” What makes her imagine that she can unilaterally define what they are in the absence of any conversation with the many residents who obviously find her moral attitudes and “proven record” repulsive? One has only to recall her abortive effort to bring the anti-Muslim hate-monger Scott Pressler up to Glens Falls a year or so ago. The widespread outrage forced her to cancel the planned event. The same arrogance is reflected in Mr. DeGrasse’s false assertion that Castelli is a “far-left” candidate. He is hoping that we will simply accept the lie without question and ignore the fact that he is actually running as a moderate centrist.

All this arrogance, lying, distortion, and stonewalling (her idea of “upstate values”?) is, unfortunately, not confined to Ms. Stefanik and her campaign. It is symptomatic of a much larger national and worldwide pattern described in Moises Naim’s important book “The Revenge of Power” (2022), which should be required reading as we lurch toward Nov. 8.

Naim provides an astute analysis of the common strategies used by all authoritarians whether of the right or of the left, namely “the three P’s”–Populism, Polarization and Post-Truth. We can see these clearly in Vladimir Putin, for example, whose extreme Russian nationalism, efforts to divide Ukrainians through illegal annexations and referenda, and massive internal disinformation campaign concerning his “special military operation” have dominated the news for nearly eight months.

Exactly the same tactics are used by another prominent authoritarian, Donald Trump. We see his appeal to Populism in “America First,” MAGA, and “Save America,” we see Polarization in his railing against immigrants and religious minorities, usually accompanied by vicious name-calling; and Post-Truth (i.e., the blurring of the boundary between truth and fantasy) is epitomized in the firehose of falsehoods from his “Truth Social” platform.

As Mr. Trump’s devoted authoritarian acolyte, Elise Stefanik has brought these same techniques into NY-21. Her appeal to “upstate voters,” for instance, is a Populist ploy, implying that we are far superior to those decadent downstate types. Polarization appears in her predictable dismissal of any views other than her own as “far-left.” And Post-Truth underlies her claims to be working on behalf of veterans and women while her voting record says exactly otherwise.

One can draw a straight line between Putin, Trump and Stefanik–a line that includes other dangerous autocrats like Viktor Orban, Jeir Bolsonaro and Kim Jong Un. All are cut from the same cloth. All are feeding the hurricane of authoritarian rule sweeping through the world destroying democratic governments on all sides. The recent fascist takeover in Italy is but one example.

Like any hurricane, this one has devastating consequences. As John Nichols, writing in the current issue of The Progressive, bluntly puts it: “The GOP that Biden knew … has been remade into an authoritarian cabal that seeks power in 2022 and 2024 for the purpose of remaking the American political system so that it will never again be forced to cede power … These are people who see Hungarian strongman and Prime Minister Viktor Orban as such a role model that they made him the star of this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Dallas, Texas. Orban’s party never loses. And, if their American cousins get their way, neither will Trump’s. That’s where all this election denialism, voter suppression and diminishment of democracy ends. To think otherwise is absurd, to say otherwise is dangerous. What’s at stake in 2022 is electoral democracy as we know it.”

Nichols’ stark assessment is confirmed by scholars of recent American history such as Nancy MacLean, Anne Applebaum, Kurt Andersen and Thomas Frank who have chronicled in detail the 50-year erosion of our freedoms under the stealth program of the far right. These “evil geniuses,” as Andersen calls them, seek only power and control. If you believe that you are “saving America” by supporting and colluding with their program, whether eagerly or unawares, think again. Unless we change course, we are on a trajectory toward becoming an “America” that within five years will look like Putin’s Russia. Look around at our oligarchs, our book banning, our rollback of voting rights, and connect the dots. We have sown the wind. We are about to reap the whirlwind.

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John Radigan lives in Saranac Lake.