The search of authoritarians is unity and conformity. People with an authoritarian character can be good, law-abiding citizens. However, when their fears are awakened, they can become cruel and tolerate and even encourage cruelty in others. If their fears are aroused, they willfully destroy democratic institutions.

Leaders like Trump know how to stir up the fears of authoritarians, often evoking hordes of “others” (usually dark, dangerous, and sick) who seek to infiltrate the population and disrupt the nation’s conformity and order. Because American demographics have changed so dramatically in recent decades as new groups seek to be included, it is easier to stir up the fears of authoritarians. Trump is a master manipulator of these fears.

Erich Fromm’s seminal work of 1941 “escape from freedom” explained that a part of humanity really considers freedom to be a burden. As societies become louder, more diverse, and more complex, the authoritarians among us are eager to throw off the burden of freedom. They prefer the protection of a strong man to the burdens of democracy.

Because authoritarians and those who 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 those freedoms. Hence the Project 2025 manifesto, which meticulously applies this promise to all areas of American life, was greeted by many Americans with a surprising lack of alarm.

The Republican Party, as it has evolved over the past few decades, includes both authoritarians and traditional conservatives (what I call status quo conservatives). But these two psychological “types” are not natural allies. Conservatives are mainly averse to change (difference in time), while authoritarians abhor complexity (difference in space).. So authoritarians and conservatives share a certain distaste for difference. But they differ markedly as to whether they encounter complexity or change. further 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. This is why true conservatives like former Republican Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, who are averse to both change and authoritarianism, can be a democracy’s strongest bulwark against the dangers posed by authoritarian revolution at times like this.

It seems that a good portion of American conservatives are willing to play that role. This election season I was tasked with analyzing a nationally representative sample survey of more than 5,000 Americans (including appropriately weighted oversamples of minority and newly registered voters). As Vice President Kamala Harris’s “hope and joy” presidential campaign was underway in August, I found that nearly a third of true conservatives in this cross-section said they were likely to vote for Harris, turning away from the chaotic autocrat who promised to overthrow institutions. established. and standards. They seem unwilling to risk mass disorder and violence for the promise of greater unity and equality in an uncertain future.

This brave third of conservatives in the sample are confident in voting and do not appreciate the election being undermined. They dismiss the notion that Christians and religious freedom are threatened and worry about destabilizing climate impacts and culture wars over race and gender. They scoff at ideas about anti-white discrimination and the resurgence of old-school masculinity, and are dismayed by the social breakdowns and harm caused by the repeal of established laws on a woman’s right to choose.

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

Once again, my survey results can help dispel some harmful myths by softening the caricatures that Republicans and Democrats have of each other. My analyzes of this data indicate that both the Democratic and Republican parties are made up of a variety of psychological types: 39 percent of those who identify as Republicans are highly authoritarian, but so are 22 percent of Democrats. Seventy-eight percent of Republicans are true conservatives, as are 47 percent of Democrats. Looked at from another angle: about half of authoritarians are Republicans and about a third are Democrats, while true conservatives have a very similar distribution.

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

Societies seem to thrive when there is a balanced mix of people who guard 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-intentioned, but sometimes intrusive and judgmental, neighbor. Those with authoritarian personalities will always be with us. And they are very malleable, for better or worse.

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

The results of my latest poll suggest that nearly 30 percent of authoritarians who swear they will probably or definitely vote for Harris. They are finding new meaning and belonging in a more joyful, hopeful, and optimistic (i.e., classically American) movement that promises that “there are more things that unite us than divide us.” The rest of us just have to welcome these (quiet and now inactive) authoritarians, instead of gleefully mocking and diligently repelling a third of our compatriots, which is not at all democratic, not 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.”