The quest of authoritarians is unity and conformity. People with authoritarian dispositions can be good, law-abiding citizens. However, when their fears are aroused, they may become cruel and tolerate and even encourage the cruelty of others. If their fears are aroused, they willingly destroy democratic institutions.

Leaders like Trump know how to arouse the fears of authoritarians, often by evoking hordes of “others” (usually dark, dangerous, and diseased) who seek to infiltrate the population and upend the conformity and order of the nation. Because American demographics have changed dramatically in recent decades, as new groups seek inclusion, the fears of authoritarians are more easily aroused. Trump is a master at manipulating these fears.

Erich Fromm’s seminal 1941 work “Escape to freedom» explained that part of humanity actually finds freedom a burden. As societies become noisier, more diverse, and more complex, the authoritarians among us are eager to shed the burden of freedom. They prefer the protection of a strongman to the burdens of democracy.

Because authoritarians and those who would manipulate them are constantly among us, democracy always contains the seeds of its own destruction. The power to choose includes the power to choose authoritarianism. Authoritarians under the spell of a strongman will use their electoral freedoms to install a leader like Trump who promises to rid them of these freedoms. This is why the Project 2025 manifesto, meticulously applying this promise to all areas of American life, was greeted by many Americans with a shocking lack of concern.

The Republican Party, as it has evolved over the past several decades, includes both authoritarians and traditional conservatives (what I call status quo conservatives). But these two psychological “types” are not natural allies. Conservatives are primarily opposed to change (difference in time), while authoritarians hate complexity (difference in space).. Authoritarians and conservatives therefore share a certain distaste for difference. But they differ sharply on whether they find complexity or change. more objectionable. And this is important at crucial historical moments, such as when a strongman promises to rid society of complexity at the cost of massive social change. That’s why true conservatives like former Republican Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, who oppose both change and authoritarianism, can be a democracy’s best defense against the dangers posed by an authoritarian revolution in moments like this.

It seems that a good portion of American conservatives are ready to play this role. This election season, I was tasked with analyzing a nationally representative sample of more than 5,000 Americans (including properly weighted oversamples of minority and newly registered voters). As Vice President Kamala Harris’s “hope and joy” presidential campaign began in August, I found nearly a third of true conservatives in that representative sample saying they were likely to vote for Harris, turning away of the chaotic autocrat who was committed to overthrowing established institutions. and standards. They appear unwilling to risk massive disorder and violence for the promise of greater unity and uniformity in an uncertain future.

This fearless third of conservatives in the sample have confidence in the vote and resent the election being compromised. They reject the idea that Christians and religious freedom are under threat and worry about destabilizing climate shocks and culture wars around race and gender. They scoff at ideas about anti-white discrimination and the revival of old-school masculinity, and are appalled by the societal breakdowns and harms caused by the overturning of established law on a woman’s right to choose.

The way to build a pro-democracy coalition is therefore for all supporters of democracy, whether liberal or conservative, to form an alliance to outvote those who are terrified by the chaos of freedom and the growing diversity of the nation .

Once again, the results of my investigation can help dispel some harmful myths by reducing the caricatures that Republicans and Democrats make of each other. My analyzes of this data indicate that the Democratic and Republican parties are composed of diverse psychological types: 39% of those who identify as Republicans are very authoritarian, as are 22% of Democrats. Seventy-eight percent of Republicans are true conservatives, as are 47 percent of Democrats. Looked at another way: About half of authoritarians are Republicans and about a third are Democrats, while true conservatives are distributed very similarly.

Finally, and perhaps most surprising to many: authoritarians are by no means irreducible. They are not inherently evil. Authoritarianism is simply a different way of being human.

Societies seem to thrive when there is a balanced mix of people who police boundaries and guard against the strange and unknown, and others who seek novelty and variety. Understand that these strange beings who frequent MAGA rallies do not represent the average authoritarian, who in better times is more like your helpful and well-meaning but sometimes intrusive and critical neighbor. Those with authoritarian personalities will always be with us. And they are very malleable, for better or worse.

The results of my recent survey reinforce those of my Previous surveys on voting for Trump in 2016: that with the right appeals and support, a significant portion of authoritarians can reject the strongman who constantly invokes chaos and disorder but never delivers the promised second act of renewed unity and consensus. They can reinvest their desire for unity and identity in an alternative “normative order” – perhaps a new way forward.

My latest poll results suggest that nearly 30 percent of authoritarians who swear they will probably or definitely vote for Harris. They find new meaning and belonging in a more joyful, hopeful, optimistic—that is, classically American—movement that promises that there are “more things that unite us than that that unite us.” divide.” The rest of us just need to welcome these authoritarians back (reassured and now at peace), instead of blithely mocking and diligently pushing away a third of our compatriots – which is not at all democratic , neither a good strategy for winning elections, nor conducive to stabilization. of a Republic of 340 million inhabitants.

Karen Stenner is a political psychologist and behavioral scientist. She is the author of “The Authoritarian Dynamic.”