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Chapter 18
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in On Tyranny, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
The Collapse of American Democracy
Tyranny and the Consolidation of Power
Political Action and Civic Responsibility
History and Memory
Summary
Analysis
Future generations need role models of American patriotism, and Snyder stresses that Donald Trump is not a good example. From draft-dodging and ridiculing the military to funneling public funds to his private companies and befriending dictators like Putin around the globe, Trump is no patriot in Snyder’s eyes. Trump does nationalistically proclaim that the United States is “the best,” Snyder says, but he is not a patriot because he does not care about Americans’ actual lives or have any principles. Democracy is on the brink of collapse in the United States, and while nationalists like Trump deny this, patriots are busy trying to prevent it from happening.
Snyder writes about patriotism here because he believes that Trump often twists this concept to justify his policy proposals, which actually stand to benefit Trump and his rich friends at the expense of the majority of Americans. Therefore, Trump’s insistence on patriotism is a classic example of authoritarian disinformation: he calls people patriots if they do what he wants, not if they love and pursue the best interests of their nation (which would be the actual definition of patriotism). By rhetorically replacing the public interest with his own private interests, Trump makes his true motives clear. Snyder’s response to this tactic is to simply remind his readers what words (like “patriotism”) actually mean.
Themes
