How Alexei Navalny’s Memoir Signaled America’s Current Devolution

In describing Putin's reign of autocracy in his memoir "Patriot," the late reformer Alexei Navalny's characterizations could easily apply to our current government of chaos, grift and vengeance.

Time to compare the current obliteration of 250 years of American democracy with that of a more repressive nation, one with an equally out-of-control autocrat destroying decades of peace in Europe, and tossing his critics in prison, that is, if they haven’t yet fallen “accidentally” to their death from a balcony or sipped from a cup of radioactive tea. Yes, I’m talking about Russia, led by President Trump’s mentor and inspiration, Vladimir Putin.

“The ‘government of reformers,’ as is now obvious, operated a policy of over-the-top protectionism that would turn any conservative green with envy. Huge duties were imposed under the pretext of protecting domestic manufacturing.” Alexei Navalny, “Patriot”

Let us commence with the truth about the tariff announcements issued hourly from the White House. These take-it-or-leave-it presidential penalties against our closest trading partners are simply a coverup for the purpose of offsetting the loss of federal monies when even deeper tax breaks will be gifted for the billionaires that now have infested our federal government.

“The politics of an authoritarian country are structured in a very primitive way: you are either for the regime or against it. All other political options have been completely obliterated.”Alexei Navalny, “Patriot”

Any complaints about Elon and his anonymous gang of young, nerdy Muskovites accessing our social security numbers, our bank accounts and probably, by now, our shoe and sock sizes, are useless. Remember, these tech bros already control every swipe, search and click of our distracted lives. Musk and other techie oligarchs have received billions of tax-payer greenbacks to fund their businesses, and now they are warming the seats at the highest level of government. What could go wrong?

Breaking news! State Department to purchase $400 million dollars of armored Tesla cybertrucks. (NYT, February 13, 2025) Musk’s campaign contribution of more than $200 million to the new president has paid off handsomely. As in Russia it pays to pay.

Obvious question: Why does the State Department need armored vehicles?

Bipartisan political options have been obliterated in our country. For example, Republican senators refuse to block the unqualified, the unhinged, the worm-brained and the politically compromised clown car cabinet of sycophants who will ignore their constitutional oaths. Instead, they will drag us further down the slimy slope into that gray chaotic swamp between semi-Democratic and semi-authoritarian, where citizens’ rights decrease with each executive order and Supreme Court decision while they collectively cower in fear of offending their Dear Leader. So Soviet and now so sadly American.

The Trump 2.0 playbook requires an oath of fealty to him while cynically paying lip service to the most important oath, you know, the one in which the president [and every member of Congress] is supposed to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.” Hands on them Bibles, y’all.

“Every time you wanted to do something good, you had to do something bad (maybe not for your own benefit, but for someone else’s). Before you know it, you find yourself engaging in corrupt behavior from morning to night. And if you are behaving corruptly for the benefit of someone else, why would it not be okay to do a little bit of the same for yourself? The system soon swallows you.” Alexei Navalny, “Patriot”

Is there a McCain-style maverick remaining among these servile Republicans? Is there even a tipping point in which the Legislative leg of our (supposedly equal) three-legged stool of government says, enough, already President Trump, you’ve gone too far. Constitutionally, we have the power of the purse, not you or co-President Musk. Or, does blind allegiance lead to a cynical compromise of morals and convictions? Asked and answered, me thinks.

Key to understanding the Trump Coup is to quote the late Russian Alexei Navalny from his memoir “Patriot,” because the contrast between courage and capitulation, and love of country over party is striking. I watch with horror as the United States edges closer toward a Putin-style tyrannical cocktail of despotism and plutocracy.

Navalny ignited an entire political movement by calling out the looting of Russia’s economy by Putin and his greedy oligarchs, thus keeping its citizens poor and hopeless for decades. Contrast Navalny’s courage with the Republican party hacks occupying the U.S. House and Senate, who would sell out their own children for a chance to share a cheeseburger and a Diet Coke with the Boss at Mar-A-Lago.

When Navalny miraculously survived a nerve agent poisoning, the Russian government threw a slew of false charges on the “troublemaker,” then threw him into Russia’s notorious prisons, knowing he would never see freedom again. (One could almost hear Putin and his flunkies yelling lock him up! Or was that the voice of Michael Flynn? It is increasingly hard to tell the difference.)

In “Patriot,” activist Navalny “takes on the members of the regime, convinced they are wrecking his country, acting solely in their own interests, and have no desire to improve the lives of ordinary people.”

Sound familiar? Any patriots left in the Republican swamp? Hello?

One final word of inspiration from Alexei Navalny:

“We will rethink everything. We’ll see what’s what. We’ll change, evolve, adapt. But we will not back down from our aims and ideas. This is our country, and we will have no other.”

Truth. Country over party. Action over apathy.