Authoritarianism in America?

President Trump's voter base appears to consist of about 40% of the voting population, according to many polls. Some measurements detect a hard core within that base, making up as much as a quarter of the electorate, that shows a few alarming authoritarian tendencies. As always, we should be mindful that questions shape responses, but there's little ambiguity to the findings of the Ipsos poll cited in a recent local editorial. It asked whether people agreed with the idea that the President should have the power to "close news outlets that engaged in bad behavior." 26% of respondents agreed, including 43% of those identifying themselves as Republicans. On one hand, this is an understandable plea for accountability in the face of constant accusations of "fake news." On the other, this is advocacy of executive usurpation of what should, under any circumstances, be a judicial responsibility. To be fair, the question is inevitably vague about how the President should go about closing news outlets, buy even granting the executive the initiative is worrisome. More worrisome are the 13% of poll respondents who agreed with the specific proposition that "President Trump should close down mainstream news outlets, like CNN, the Washington Post and the New York Times." The question suggests no specific reason for Trump to do so, but the implicit reason is that these entities spread "fake news" and perpetuate various "witch hunts" against the President. At this point, too, we must concede that the question doesn't suggest that Trump seek legal redress. We can assume instead that this hardest core -- which also includes 8% of self-identified Democrats -- would be perfectly happy if Trump could shut down these institutions by executive fiat. You can still say that they simply want some form of justice for presumed liars and slanderers, but you can also say with some safety that they want something closer to dictatorship than most Americans as yet are comfortable with. Even closer to home, in blue New York, a local poll has found that a quarter of respondents are, in the editor Rex Smith's words, "somewhat in accord" with the proposition that "it is un-American to protest against the actions of the government." It's more un-American to say such a thing, obviously, but it may seem that way only to those who see loyalty to America as loyalty to the Constitution first. Others, we can be fairly certain, define loyalty to America differently. They may be the authentic authoritarians in our midst.