To those who have watched politics over the last decade in the West, it is becoming increasingly clear that a new political animal is becoming increasingly visible. Of course, this animal has existed for decades under the surface of Western political culture. However, it tried, largely successfully, to mask its true essence. Today, Western political culture is changing. And feeling increasingly emboldened, this animal is emerging from the shadows to reveal itself. Although at earlier times, claims of this animal’s existence were largely confined to the raving, lunatic fringe of the radical right.  Today, it is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore. This animal is the autocratic totalitarian.

What we are seeing is the rise, or rather the lack of pretense, of a totalitarian culture. I’m not referring to Donald Trump or any of the other populists that have emerged as political forces in some other countries. In many ways, the political success of these actors are reactions against the totalitarians trying to impose a culture and way of looking at the world; a culture whose costs are borne by others and whose cultural diktats are contrary to traditions and other ways that people have traditionally ordered their lives in the West.

For these totalitarians, the ends increasingly justify the means. So, putting someone out of business and destroying what they have spent years building is justified, if they have the ‘wrong’ ideas or the ‘wrong’ political opinions or attitudes. Denying someone employment or firing them from a position for such attitudes is acceptable, even if such beliefs have nothing to do with their job or job performance. In this world, It is okay if members of the Electoral College are abused, due process trampled upon, the IRS used to intimidate political opponents, judges ruling against actions taken by someone that they don’t like even if they would approve the same action if taken by someone who they do like, and a labeling of political opponents as Nazis, fascists etc., if it gets the desired result.

For these totalitarians, a democratic result is only legitimate if it produces the outcome desired by the totalitarians. So, the ‘wrong’ Brexit vote should either be ignored, treated as an ‘advisory, non-legally binding’ vote, redone so that ‘the people’ can reconsider and make the ‘right’ decision, overturned by Parliament, or by a judiciary, etc. etc. A ‘wrong’ U.S. presidential vote can be nullified by endless investigations and activist judges.

And lest we think that these totalitarian, anti-democratic attitudes have simply arisen suddenly in a moral panic over Brexit or Donald Trump’s election, holding a ‘do-over’ vote has been done several times over the years during the EU’s history where a popular vote that went the ‘wrong’ way was re-done a couple of years later to get the ‘right’ result. Governments not palatable to the totalitarians have been sanctioned, denigrated, or accused of being totalitarian/autocratic, anti-democratic, even when these governments have come to power in free elections. These accusations seem to be hurled only at election results that are disapproved of by the totalitarians themselves. So an electoral outcome in Hungary in which an elite disfavored party obtains 49% of the vote and 2/3’s of the seats is considered a travesty and anti-democratic, but a result in 1997 in Britain in which an elite favored political party (Labour) gets 43% of the vote and 64% of the seats is considered democratically legitimate.

This culture of totalitarianism has infused what is being called ‘elite opinion’ and is leading to political instability and possibly the break-up of certain countries in the West. The danger isn’t emanating from one political actor (say a Donald Trump or a Hillary Clinton). It is emanating from a cultural segment that sees an inherent right to rule by themselves and those who think like them; a right that doesn’t extend to those that disagree with them. Not only does this segment (which includes many/most academics, government bureaucrats, and media members) believe that others don’t deserve equal political rights, but that others disagreement make them horrible people for whom abuse, and even legal harassment, are justly deserved. The disfavored are said to engage in something called ‘hate speech’, a term defined by the totalitarians to justify attempts to suppress speech rights of those with whom they disagree. To the extent that the disfavored succeed in using historical, still active rights, to win elections, these elections are said to be tainted and the result need not be respected.

In short, what we have here is a cultural civil war, cold for the time being, between those who think that they deserve to be treated with respect and have their rights respected, and those who don’t. Increasingly, “those who don’t” seem committed to removing some rights from between 1/3 to 1/2 of the population (depending on which country we are talking about). The fact that they think that they can do this while maintaining the historical stability & prosperity of their respective societies is a delusion, likely brought on by a lack of imagination. Just as the 9/11 attacks weren’t even imaginable until they happened, a United States, or a Germany, or a France  or one of any number of Western countries, breaking apart in a spasm of violence like some Third World country isn’t something that these totalitarians really believe is going to happen, or could even ever happen. If they keep pushing far enough and remove any space for disfavored opinions to find expression and occasionally win political victories, while at the same time pushing to destroy the lives of those holding those opinions, they will find out how wrong they are.