For decades, leftists and progressives have used terms like “dictator,” “fascist,” and “Nazi” to deride, smear, and cow their political opponents into submission
Only the online fringe throw those terms around and the right wing is just as bad with Marxist, communist, socialist and even worse.
If Americans are shown a Washington, D.C. free of crime, safe to wander, perhaps even restored and beautified, and told, “That’s a dictatorship,” then they may just decide that dictatorship is agreeable.
Dictators don’t make places safe, they just lie about how dangerous they are. Often petty street crime has been replaced with police corruption and secret police. What crime there is doesn’t get reported though because the press only reports on what the government wants.