I’m not misremembering my impression of the novel at the time because I distinctly remember discussing it with other people shortly afterwards. I would have to re-read the whole novel to re-evaluate the tone, and it isn’t worth it. I don’t suppose anyone thought to ask Heinlein what he thought of the book? Maybe I was wrong, but if so, being wrong made the book deeper and more enjoyable so I regret nothing. For what it is worth, I think reading it as a pro-authoritarian manifesto would be dissonant with the themes of some of his other works i.e ‘Revolt in 2100’. On the whole I would say he treats the downfall of democracy as a bad but very likely thing.
