Originally published on 22CI’s Anti-Authoritarian Playbook Substack on April 7, 2025. To receive every new edition of this free newsletter directly in your inbox, subscribe to the Anti-Authoritarian Playbook here.
Authoritarians in the U.S. and around the world are clearly gaining ground rapidly. Their success has caused many to speculate about why and how they are winning, hoping to duplicate or riff on those winning strategies and tactics. In this endeavor, caution is advised, particularly around how we define “winning.” To drive democracy forward, we should focus on the tactics that speak to the longing for security and belonging that people are expressing behind all the political rhetoric, threats, and rejections of political parties and institutions. In actions promoting democracy, we must recognize that sustainable movements require engaging people not just as parts of a larger whole, but as whole human beings.
Here’s a strategy that the authoritarians deployed that we can build upon.
The Context: How They Won the War of Cultural Positioning…For Now
1. The Erosion of Social Capital and the Crisis of Meaning:
- Deindustrialization, offshoring, and the shift toward an information-based economy hollowed out traditional working-class communities, particularly in rural and post-industrial areas.
- With economic security crumbling, the institutions that once provided social cohesion, unions, local businesses, community organizations, and faith-based networks, began to weaken.
- This led to an increase in distrust of government, a loss of a unifying national economic identity, and a broader cultural fragmentation.
2. The Authoritarians’ Strategic Advantage:
- The authoritarians understood that this was not just an economic crisis, but a cultural one, one that made people feel unmoored, disrespected, and abandoned.
- They built power where social capital was still strong, especially within conservative religious communities, gun culture, law enforcement and military networks, and tightly knit rural and exurban communities.
- They framed their movement not around policy, but around identity, grievance, and belonging, turning political participation into a form of cultural solidarity rather than an engagement with governance.
3. The Left’s Strategic Blind Spots:
- Left and center-left movements remained focused on issue-based campaigns, advocating for policy solutions that, while crucial, often did not speak to the deeper cultural and emotional crises that people were experiencing.
- Many left-leaning organizers built power within cities and academia but struggled to engage rural and working-class communities where social capital had eroded.
- Elections became the primary measure of success, leaving movements vulnerable to the short-term thinking and cyclical energy of campaign politics.
What Should We Do About It?
1. Rebuild Social Capital Through Local Organizing
- Social justice advocates must prioritize movement-building at the community level, not just the national level.
- Invest in mutual aid, cooperative economics, labor organizing, and localized civic engagement—so that people have tangible ways to feel empowered and connected.
- Look beyond transactional activism (signing petitions, making calls) and focus more attention on building durable networks of trust, care, and action.
2. Focus on Cultural Strategy, Not Just Policy Wins
- The right won by capturing meaning and identity—not just by passing laws. The left must do the same by creating a culture of solidarity, dignity, and hope.
- Support independent media, storytelling, art, and cultural institutions that can compete with the right’s propaganda machine.
- Reclaim language like freedom, patriotism, and security, rather than ceding them to reactionary forces.
3. Build Organizing Infrastructure Where the Right Has Gained Ground
- Focus on small towns, rural areas, and working-class suburbs where the far right has successfully organized, recognizing the polarization is a two-way phenomenon. Where the far right has polarized communities, there are two sides.
- Engage faith communities, military families, and disaffected (and disabled) workers by recognizing their real grievances and the contributions they can make, and working with them to develop alternatives to far right radicalization.
- Strengthen alliances with labor unions and working-class organizations, particularly in industries that still have high social capital like healthcare, logistics (transportation, warehousing, inventory management, and order fulfillment), and education.
4. Stop Playing Defense - Go on the Offensive with a Bold Vision
- The left has been too reactive to far right attacks. We need to offer our own compelling, forward-looking vision of the future.
- This means not just talking about “protecting democracy,” but about expanding democracy—economic democracy, workplace democracy, community self-determination.
- Instead of debating the right on their terms, change the conversation entirely—about what kind of society we want to build rather than just what we want to stop.
5. Shift Away from Electoral-Only Strategies
- While elections are crucial, they should not be the sole focus of movement-building.
- Create permanent organizing structures that persist beyond election cycles, ensuring that political energy does not fade after each loss or victory.
Train people not just to vote, but to organize; building local leadership pipelines and grassroots governance models.
Final Thought
The far right succeeded because they understood that people need meaning, identity, and community, especially in times of economic and cultural instability. If the pro-democracy movement fails to recognize this, we will keep losing ground.
But the good news? We can win this. Because deep down, what the research shows is that most people don’t want a future defined by hate, division, and repression. They want security, dignity, and belonging. It’s up to us to offer them a movement that meets those needs; one that builds a new social fabric, not just defends a crumbling one.