>We don't actually live in that dictatorship yet here in the US, and the actions and expressed preferences of common citizens are still influential in politics, especially if you care enough to call up your legislators and write to your newspapers. We are the cast, not the audience.

Many people participate, and push back, but we can see which way the wind is blowing. Dictatorship? Well, maybe not outright dictatorship, but certainly heavy authoritarianism along the lines of Putin and Erdogan.