Standing Up Against the Strongman

Only when people finally rise up en masse against tyrants will democracy and freedom be assured.

Jun 11, 2025

Shortly before midnight on December 3rd last year, right-wing South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol declared martial law and ordered units of the Republic of Korea Army Special Warfare Command to surround the Capitol building to prevent parliament from convening.

Falsely accusing the majority party, the Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), of conducting "anti-state activities" and collaborating with “North Korean communists to destroy the country,” Yoon commanded airborne troops to break through the National Assembly’s glass windows and “drag out the lawmakers.”

The military refused to carry out those orders, and Yoon’s attempt to suppress the legislature and consolidate power in the executive branch failed. He was impeached, arrested on charges of insurrection, and is awaiting trial.

Half a century earlier, in 1972, citing the need to maintain order and stability, Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines declared martial law, using the military to maintain his grip on power. This allowed him to rule by decree, suppress dissent, and extend his presidency beyond the constitutional limit.

Marcos routinely targeted political opponents, student activists, journalists, and intellectuals who opposed his dictatorship. His rule was marked by 3,257 known extrajudicial killings, 35,000 documented tortures, 737 'disappeared', and 70,000 incarcerations.

In 1986, Marcos was ousted in a mass public uprising. He fled the nation and died in exile in 1989.

In the same era, Chile’s Augusto Pinochet blamed leftists, intellectuals, artists, and democracy itself for allowing “socialists and leftists” to take control of the government. After a military coup in 1973, Pinochet's regime deployed the armed forces to suppress opposition as he scrapped the Constitution, banned all political parties, dissolved the National Congress, closed the Constitutional Court, and burned voter registration rolls. Under his rule, 27,255 Chileans were tortured and 2,279 executed.

Following a mass uprising that led to free elections and forced him out of power, Pinochet was indicted in Chile for massive human rights violations, including murder, torture, and kidnapping, committed during his dictatorship in Chile from 1973 to 1990. He died in disgrace in 2006.

Perhaps most notorious of all, Adolph Hitler was a master of manufacturing crises, spreading disinformation, and using German troops against those resisting the Nazis. He denounced Jews, immigrants, intellectuals, homosexuals, and - of course - the media. Hitler executed tens of thousands of his own people as his regime killed more than 6 million Jews during the Holocaust.

It took more than 50 countries forming the Allied forces before he was finally stopped. During the final days of World War II, Hitler and several of his inner circle took refuge in the “Führerbunker” beneath the Reich Chancellery in Berlin, where he committed suicide on April 30, 1945.

These are but a few of the authoritarian leaders throughout our history, but their stories are always similar. They justify their actions as necessary for national security and stability. They gin up hatred for “others,” which always seems to include agitators, intellectuals, foreigners, and the media. Their real motives are an unquenchable thirst for power, the imposition of rigid ideology on the public, and vast self-enrichment.

They prevail for a time, often for years and even decades, until the citizens - or in Germany’s case, numerous nations - rise up against them.

Trump Deploys 2,000 National Guard Troops to Los Angeles ICE — National Guard Troops on the streets of Los Angeles

This past weekend, President Donald Trump deployed 4,000 National Guard members and 700 active duty Marines to Los Angeles to quell protests against ICE, whose agents had raided an apparel factory and made arrests outside of Home Depot stores and other locations where migrants often gather to look for day-labor jobs.

Ironically, the president has been criticized for hiring illegal workers in the past at Mar-A-Lago, several of his golf courses, and at his construction sites, including during the building of Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, where he has a penthouse and offices that serve as headquarters for the Trump Organization.

Calling Los Angeles a “city of criminals,” Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem stated on Fox TV, “We’re gonna hit them back, and we’re gonna hit them harder than ever before.”

This, even though the January 6 insurrectionists, who assaulted police at our nation’s Capitol, carried Confederate flags, chanted “Hang Mike Pence,” threatened to kill Nancy Pelosi, desecrated the Capitol Building, and defecated in its hallways, were recently pardoned by Trump.

Trump supporters near the U.S Capitol, on January 06, 2021 in Washington, DC. — A gallows was built to publicly hang VP Pence during the Jan 6 insurrection.

Despite a growing concern over an increase in right-wing extremism during his presidency, the president has also taken steps to weaken the federal government's focus on right-wing domestic terrorism, including the activities of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, many of whose members participated in the insurrection.

No to Thrones, No to Crowns, No to Kings

Cities across the nation where “No Kings” rallies are planned

On Saturday, June 14, hundreds of “No Kings” rallies and protests against authoritarianism are planned across the nation to coincide with Trump’s 45 million dollar military parade to celebrate his 79th birthday, which is also Flag Day and the U.S. Army's 250th anniversary.

Justice Louis Brandeis, who served on the Supreme Court from 1916 to 1939, believed that active participation in democracy, including speaking out against injustice, was essential for the health of society, the protection of individual rights, and the preservation of our democracy.

A year before he joined the court, Brandeis noted: "The only title in our democracy superior to that of President is the title of citizen."