THE COST OF IGNORANCE

The High Cost of Ignorance: How the People Allowed Fascism to Take Root in America

Former Supreme Court Justice David Souter once warned that the gravest threat to American democracy was not terrorism or foreign aggression but the ignorance of the American people. His warning has come true.

The slow-motion collapse of American democracy has not been a mystery. It has not been hidden. It was laid out in detail for all to see, most notably in Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation’s blueprint to dismantle and replace the federal government with a centralized, autocratic regime. The warning signs were everywhere: the stacking of the courts, the open admiration of dictators, the promise to be a “dictator on day one,” and the targeting of civil servants, the press, and dissenters. And yet, the American public slept.

This wasn’t just political apathy. It was, and is, active ignorance. Interviews on the street routinely show that many Americans cannot name the three branches of government, describe their function, or explain what “coequal” means. They cannot define the rule of law, much less articulate how it distinguishes democracy from tyranny. For many, democracy is a vague abstraction, not a system grounded in accountability, separation of powers, and individual rights. They do not know what they are losing because they never knew what they had.

Into that void stepped a man and a movement who understood something clearly: Ignorance is fertile ground for fascism.

Donald Trump, enabled by right-wing operatives and cheer-led by a compliant media ecosystem, exploited the ignorance of millions to cast democracy itself as the enemy. With false grievances, simplistic slogans, and authoritarian swagger, he convinced 40% of the country that truth is a matter of opinion, that laws are meant for others, and that power is its own justification. That 40% became an unshakable base because where civic knowledge was absent, fear and tribalism rushed in to take its place.

The result? A regime that governs not with respect for law or fact but by decree and spectacle. A government run by loyalists, not experts. A judiciary compromised by ideology. Agencies gutted. Protections erased. Speech chilled. And the public, still too ignorant to realize the full cost of what it has already lost, continues to cheer from the sidelines, or worse, remains oblivious.

This did not happen overnight. Over the decades, a political strategy that devalued education, demonized intellectualism, and undermined faith in institutions sowed the seeds. What better way to prepare a people for authoritarian rule than to ensure they don’t understand freedom?

The tragedy is not just that democracy is being lost. The greater tragedy is that it is being lost without a fight. Many Americans still believe that things will self-correct, that courts will save us, and that elections will matter again. But fascism is not a temporary phase. It is a destination, and we are arriving.

The only antidote is civic awakening, which is painful, urgent, and massive. But time is short. Every day that Americans remain ignorant of their system of government, its fragility, and its foundational principles is another day fascism consolidates its grip.

History will not forgive us for this. And it should not.

William James Spriggs