Fortunately, over the last few decades, we have come to understand how violence and authoritarianism work better than we ever did.

But Jefferson is an important historical figure because he was a preeminent advocate for enlightenment values like freedom, democracy, and reason — all values that Johnson rejects, preferring a religious authoritarianism that eschews reality-based information.

You really see political elites sort of doing the right thing after really horrible experiences of authoritarianism, thinking about places like Chile and Uruguay, Spain and Portugal and South Korea too.

In a petition, they said such an approach would replace one form of authoritarianism with another.

When what is going on in this country begins to verge on authoritarianism, not caring is a danger to our democracy and to ourselves.