There is a four-question test for spotting an aspiring autocrat
Two political scientists built a checklist from decades of collapsed democracies, and it doesn't require hindsight.
Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt spent careers studying how democracies actually die, not by coup, usually, but by election, followed by slow erosion from the inside. In How Democracies Die, they distill the warning signs into four questions any voter can ask about any candidate, before that candidate ever holds power.
Does the candidate reject the constitution or express willingness to violate it? Does the candidate deny the basic legitimacy of political opponents, calling them criminals or traitors rather than rivals? Does the candidate tolerate or encourage violence, by supporters or against critics? Does the candidate signal a readiness to curtail the civil liberties of opponents or the press? A politician who trips even one wire, Levitsky and Ziblatt argue, deserves real scrutiny. Trip several, and history's pattern, from 1930s Europe to more recent Latin American populism, says the danger is not hypothetical.
The test was never meant to be partisan ammunition. It was built by studying the mechanism, and mechanisms don't check which side you're rooting for.