“Today we must reckon with the harsh reality that authoritarianism has arrived in America, that it’s broadly popular, and that millions of our fellow citizens have given it their votes,” writes the LA Times.

“This was a conquering of the nation not by force but with a permission slip. Now, America stands on the precipice of an authoritarian style of governance never before seen in its 248-year history,” according to the New York Times.
“How Trump’s reelection signals a broader acceptance of authoritarian leadership,” cautions PBS News Hour.

A common theme in response to Donald Trump’s resounding presidential victory is to declare that Americans have finally given their souls to the dark side and brazenly voted for authoritarianism.
I study authoritarianism for a living, and I can confidently say that this narrative is patently ridiculous. The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and countless others should be ashamed of themselves for such a childish, petty, and thoughtless interpretation of the Nov. 5 election.
I’m not speculating. The idea that the majority of the American public purposefully voted for authoritarianism is demonstrably false. Indeed, even one-sided mischaracterizations of polling data attempting to smear Trump voters — such as this hit piece on Trump voters at The Bulwark by Will Saletan — show that the majority of Trump voters don’t support authoritarianism.
A deeper look essentially smashes the Trump authoritarian voter narrative to pieces.
Our lab collected several representative American surveys in the two weeks before the election. Is there evidence that Trump voters were especially authoritarian? Let’s look at just two facts.
First, there has been a lot of talk of electing “Hitler.” We asked conservatives how much they supported Hitler and the Nazis, and very few of them scored above 1 on a 1-7 scale. The average score was less than 1.3. It is hard to overstate how low a score that is, but any methodologist would tell you that it is so small a...