It has been almost two months since Trump's inauguration and American democracy is dead. According to the POLITY project:
“The USA is no longer considered a democracy and lies at the cusp of autocracy; it has experienced a Presidential Coup and an Adverse Regime Change event.”
The speed and ferocity of assaults on our republic, the barrage of executive orders, the utter contempt for our constitution have all been terrifyingly unprecedented. Every day is overwhelming. Every day we lose more. According to Steve Bannon, this is by design. The plan is to “flood the zone,” to make you feel like you are drowning, like you can do nothing but give up. You are supposed to feel helpless against the onslaught of DOGE decimating entire departments, replacing civil servants with loyalists. You are supposed to feel powerless as videos emerge of ICE pointing tasers in the faces of human beings as they brutally drag them out of a car. You are supposed to understand that you can do nothing as the richest man in the world fingers through your bank details and pockets your social security number.
You can do nothing if they come for you too. So just let them. Be on your best behavior; keep your head low. Obey, obey, obey.
Truth doesn’t matter anymore. Facts don’t matter. Trump boasted that he will ramp up efforts against dissidents. The attack against Columbia student and legal permanent resident Mahmoud Khalil was a test run—it was, according to Trump, "the first arrest of many to come." We should believe him. We should believe him because the signs of authoritarianism are here. What else can you call it when the leader of your nation stands before the Department of Justice and brazenly attacks journalists, media outlets, and individual American citizens by name.
When he brands critics "illegal," "bad people," and "scum" he is acting as an authoritarian. What else can you call it when he signs 89 executive orders, writing his will into the margins of the Constitution. What does truth matter when lies are published by the government, when they print
“President Trump is delivering on his promise to end the weaponization of government and protect the nation from partisan actors who exploit their influence”
on the same page that celebrates
“President Donald J. Trump signed an Executive Order to suspend security clearances held by individuals at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP (Paul Weiss) pending a review of whether such clearances are consistent with the national interest.”
The President, according to the Supreme Court, is above the law. What meaningful constraints are left? The interest of the nation and the personal interests of the President have become one and the same. Opposition is now a crime. This isn’t a partisan polemic—this is an emergency call for the survival of our nation. If we remain passive, if we fail to grasp the enormity of this moment, we will lose everything.
The constitution means nothing if no one defends it. All of our Founders knew this. Thomas Jefferson, in 1787, wrote:
“What country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.”
He is right. Liberties must be protected from the clutches of authoritarian greed, from men who will always seek more power. We the people must not allow tyrants to deprive us of our liberty. We must do everything in our power—everything—to protect this country that so many before us have died for.
We have reached an inflection point. The spirit of 76’ that founded our republic must once again occupy the hearts and minds of those who believe in democracy. The guardrails are gone. We can no longer rely on the elected officials who cave to the will of authoritarians, nor the judges who have been hand selected as loyalists, and certainly not the police who have chosen as a profession the violent enforcement of order. Donald Trump will not leave office. He incited an insurrection the first time he was asked to leave; now he is even more emboldened. The structure of civility has crumbled, and we must be ready to act. It is in the spirit of America that we must act. We must remember Patrick Henry, who knew that a life without liberty was no life at all:
“If we were base enough to desire it, it is now too late to retire from the contest. There is no retreat but in submission and slavery! Our chains are forged! Their clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston! The war is inevitable and let it come! I repeat it, sir, let it come. It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!”
Our Founders left us with clear directives:
Do not allow your freedom of speech to be taken away from you without a fight.
Do not allow your taxes to be paid to a government that does not represent you.
Do not allow a President to become a King.
So many men have died in the name of this last cause. So many have fought for the notion of a nation that believes in life, liberty, and justice for all. So many have bled for their belief in a country without a King. So I ask you: Will their lives have been in vain? As our nation lies at the cusp of autocracy, which way will you push the needle?
It truly‘must be better’. We have fallen so far so fast that this was not an accident but a deliberate planned action by the current administration. They have taken the last four years planning and plotting just what they were going to do. None of this could have happened in the 100 days between the election and the inauguration. No, this was deliberative. Never in our history has there been any administration that on and from day 1 been able to unmake the government of the United States. The frenzied process to dismantle government agencies without any Congressional oversight has been done in order to make it to difficult, at times, to keep up with the rapid changes. It’s only through quick court actions that some things have been slowed down but in the vast majority of cases where the courts have ruled against the administration the orders have simply been ignored.
Wake up America, you may have Fallen but it’s not too late to get back up!
It's what the majority of American swing state voters wanted again