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What doesn鈥檛 appear to be a major risk to your rights now can become a substantial threat later on.
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By
Contributer
Talk of creeping authoritarianism in the United States seems to be everywhere鈥攊n the news, in books, and in conversations among neighbors around the country. The have Americans increasingly worried about the fate of democracy in their country.
An from January found that 64 percent of Americans believe democracy is 鈥渋n crisis and at risk of failing.鈥 A Yahoo News/YouGov from June found that more than half of Democrats and Republicans think it鈥檚 鈥渓ikely鈥 the US will 鈥渃ease to be a democracy in the future.鈥
The two most likely Republican presidential nominees for 2024鈥 and 鈥攂oth exhibit an authoritarian mindset. Critics are ringing alarm bells over what could happen to American democracy should one of these men end up in the White House, but little has been said about what the current president and Congress could do right now to constrain a future autocrat.
One of the primary tools authoritarian leaders around the world use to control their citizens is mass surveillance. Neil Richards, a law professor at Washington University in St. Louis, says Congress needs to pass legislation that protects the privacy of Americans so can no longer be abused.
鈥淲e need a robust federal privacy law, we need robust enforcement mechanisms, we need to somehow rein in the commercial surveillance apparatus because that鈥檚 a key component in authoritarian regimes. 鈥 They co-opt the existing cameras and sensors,鈥 Richards says. 鈥淚t used to be that it would be a fascist鈥檚 dream to have a camera and a speaker in every home, and of course, we did it to ourselves.鈥