Establish that voting is a privilege, by insisting that you need to vote responsibly to prevent Bad Things from happening
Denounce the opposition as frivolous, infantile, and actively harmful to the public
Rally around the police state and insist everyone in opposition is "breaking the law!"
Use police violence as a tool to strip people of their voting rights
Win the next round of elections and use that to cement your image as Democratic and Popular
Eventually, you just establish a kind-of inertial force that people buck at their own peril. Everyone just wants to go with the flow, so they don't dispute something they believe all their neighbors fundamentally agree with.
Establish that voting is a privilege, by insisting that you need to vote responsibly to prevent Bad Things from happening
Denounce the opposition as frivolous, infantile, and actively harmful to the public
Rally around the police state and insist everyone in opposition is "breaking the law!"
Use police violence as a tool to strip people of their voting rights
Win the next round of elections and use that to cement your image as Democratic and Popular
Eventually, you just establish a kind-of inertial force that people buck at their own peril. Everyone just wants to go with the flow, so they don't dispute something they believe all their neighbors fundamentally agree with.