Liberal democracy is a relatively recent and fragile experiment. For most of human history, societies have been organized under autocratic rule like monarchies or warlords. The US founders studied the fall of Rome and Athens, aware of this fragility.

After achieving significant progress in the 1960s, many Americans stopped focusing on the active defense of democracy. This created a void that the radical right filled by offering its followers a powerful sense of agency and a compelling national narrative, which liberal movements had ceased to provide.

The proximity to WWII created a powerful sense of restraint among world leaders in the 1960s. Today, that lived memory is gone. The absence of a deep, culturally ingrained fear of total war has eroded the political will for peace, making the world more dangerous.

Authoritarianism today doesn't arrive via military takeover. It gradually erodes democratic institutions like courts and media, making it harder for citizens to recognize and resist the changing political landscape until it's too late.

For decades, the US served as the aspirational model for liberal democracy. Its current internal political turmoil signals that the model is flawed, giving credibility to authoritarian alternatives and fueling global pessimism about democracy's future.

For a dictator, concepts like free speech and rule of law are an existential threat that can ignite street revolutions. This is why Russia invaded Ukraine: to crush a neighboring democratic movement before its contagious ideas could spread.

Countries in Eastern Europe, Asia, and Latin America that endured communism and hyperinflation learned hard lessons, creating a societal immunity to these failed ideologies. In contrast, prosperous Western nations grew complacent, believing prosperity was a birthright, and began to degenerate.

A shared history, including painful memories, creates a powerful attachment to one's country. To take over, an ideology like communism must first erase or rewrite that history, demoralizing the populace and severing their attachment so society can be rebuilt in a new image.

Maria Corina Machado describes her generation as one that held politics in contempt and took democracy for granted. This widespread apathy created a power vacuum that allowed Hugo Chavez to rise, teaching a harsh lesson that freedom requires constant and active civic engagement to be preserved.