It’s unfortunately a truism that fear, anxiety, want, envy, resentment, etc. tend to make people more susceptible to extremism, bigotry, nationalism and authoritarian dogma.
When authoritarian movements want to gain control of a society, perpetual arrows in their quiver are fear of the other (and fear in general), economic anxiety (and anxiety in general), political gridlock/chaos, shaping underlying resentment and directing it toward chosen (and often artificially manufactured) enemies, etc.
It’s a painfully ironic truth that, counterintuitively, authoritarian movements first looking to gain control or increase their power can actually HELP their own attempts to expand/consolidate control by: creating political gridlock and chaos; working to deny people health care; opposing programs that promote economic fairness and increase prosperity on a widespread basis; undermining education; attacking workers’ rights; inflaming racial, religious, and other socio-economic tensions; increasing the gap between the rich and the poor; undermining retirement security; weakening ties with democratic, non-authoritarian allies; opposing programs that would create jobs and improve a nation’s basic infrastructure; etc.
Economic imbalance and unfairness, political division and chaos, etc. tend to increase fear, anxiety, resentment and what not, and these emotional states make people (particularly “low information” people who lack accurate information on cause and effect) more susceptible to the divisive, race-baiting, fear-mongering, authoritarian messages being propagated by the very people who worked to worsen and/or create the conditions that caused the fear, anxiety, resentment, etc. in the first place.
In other words, by acting in ways that an objective observer would label as terrible governance, and one might think would doom them to political irrelevancy, authoritarian movements can actually benefit themselves (at the expense of their own country) and increase their power.
That’s one reason why programs and policy which significantly, and across as wide a swath of the public as possible: increase retirement security; expand and improve the quality of health care coverage; provide economic relief to the middle class, working class and poor; promote widespread economic fairness; improve the quality of, and access to, education; etc., etc. are not just morally just, and economically sound programs and policies - they are patriotic, pro-democracy, and anti-authoritarian programs and policies.
