There's no reason why we couldn't elect an authoritarian as a leader of our republic. In this humble writer's opinion, we've done it more than once. Franklin Roosevelt was certainly authoritarian in many respects and so was Andrew Jackson. Roosevelt interned his own citizens and attempted to stack the Supreme Court (his own cabinet threatened to resign) and Jackson defied the Supreme Court. In the case of Trump, the most effective way to hurt the guy and his minions is to make fun of them. There's going to be plenty of work for comedians in the next four years.