Timothy Snyder on Building Freedom

Reflections on Timothy Snyder's April 30, 2026 Interview

Indivisible Charlotte was fortunate to conduct an In the Know Live interview on April 30, 2026, with Professor Timothy Snyder, an American historian and the author of many books, including On Tyranny and On Freedom.

At the outset Professor Snyder provided a high-level overview of his most recent book, On Freedom, which he contrasted with his previous work, On Tyranny. On Tyranny was written as a guide for resisting authoritarianism and tyranny while On Freedom is more a vision of the outcomes that can occur after barriers to resistance are removed. Snyder emphasized that Americans simply can’t stop by eliminating the “bad stuff” but need to create the conditions for the “good stuff.” Government must set the stage to create the “good stuff” or “positive freedom”. The “good stuff” also has a moral dimension: values such as love, dignity, and beauty and conditions need to be established to allow these values to flourish.

Additional elements Professor Snyder discussed include:

• The phenomenon of “Superpower Suicide” where leaders engage in bad behavior or policy because they are incapable of understanding that countries have purposes. Examples of these behaviors include directing funding from elements that develop life, such as education and healthcare toward reduced taxes for the wealthy.

• “Government as an enabler” where the government enables policies and outcomes that improve education, health care, etc.. Snyder suggested trying to frame these discussions during election canvassing in terms of freedom, by asking “wouldn’t you want better health care to enhance your freedom?”

• Supreme Court’s April 29^th decision gutting the Voting Rights Act. Professor Snyder noted that the US has a history of undermining minority voting rights. Despite that, the Court’s decision cannot hold us back. Decisions related to redistricting and voter suppression are driven by Republican fears of losing future elections. Progressives should take note of the recent election outcome in Hungary to galvanize their mobilization efforts for the November U.S. midterm elections.

• In terms of the strategies or tactics that worked in Poland and Hungary to thwart their authoritarian regimes, he highlighted the essential connection between protests and elections and underscored the importance of bringing together common-sense ideas about government (such as anticorruption ideas and strategies). But the Democrats must have big electoral victories so that they can be translated into BIG (and rapid) actions! A small majority will be ineffective.

• Possible midterm disruptions are ahead, but that doesn’t mean that the authoritarians are going to prevail. President Trump has attempted two types of “stunts” so far: fighting a war and claiming to be God. Another stunt authoritarians use is to point to fake or real terrorism. We need to look out for these and other stunts and work to turn them to our advantage when they happen. We can do this by being prepared for the stunts, resisting fear, rallying around the country, rather than the President, and finally “embracing” the authoritarians’ mistakes for the purpose of pre-emptively defanging their stunts.

• When asked about recent reports of US troop withdrawals from Germany coupled with the US finally providing $400 million previously appropriated funds to Ukraine, Snyder noted that his opinion is that a good barometer for predicting Donald Trump’s actions is to assess how that action would ultimately benefit Vladimir Putin. Snyder also shared his thoughts on the recent firings of U.S. military leaders, noting that although the firings are demoralizing to the military at-large, he doesn’t believe they will likely impact the midterm elections, given that there is a relatively short timeline to the elections. However, he acknowledged that a longer timeline might enable the Administration to install bad actors that could be sympathetic to disrupting future elections.

Professor Snyder concluded by noting that desperate things may occur in the months ahead by the Republicans. Many will be unpopular and can be exploited by the opposition. The important thing to remember is that we need to help Americans believe that things can be much better. This can be used as a turning point to foster engagement and follow a path to organize, protest, and form the opposition that leads to a large electoral victory.

Watch the full interview with Professor Timothy Snyder on Substack or YouTube.

Photo by Brandon Mowinkel on Unsplash