Time to Wake Up And Confront The End of American Democracy

We're all in it now. Trump is flexing his authoritarian powers without any checks from Republicans or Democratic leadership. It's up to the majority to rise up & resist at every level.

(Drew Angerer/Getty)

“We’re in the midst of an authoritarian takeover of the U.S. government. It’s been coming and coming, and not everybody is prepared to read it that way.” That’s a sobering quote from Lee Bollinger, a First Amendment scholar who has served as Dean of University of Michigan Law and president of Columbia University.

The rest of us who have been sounding the alarm for years were often disregarded as hysterical, anti-MAGA reactionaries suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome. However, Bollinger is as mainstream and establishment as it gets. If he’s saying this, maybe every centrist who kept their head in the sand will wake up and take a look.

I judge people based on their actions and behaviors before coming to any definitive conclusion. I call Trump an aspiring authoritarian based on the following facts. Donald Trump is a twice-impeached criminal who incited a violent insurrection against our election. Before the 2024 election, he quoted Hitler - yet again - and said he’s open to unleashing the military and National Guard against the “enemy from within.” He said he wants to “terminate the Constitution” and wants to be a dictator for one day. He has repeatedly praised authoritarian leaders and admired their lack of accountability. He has “joked” about remaining in power and running for election a third time. He has declared his critics, including the press, judges, law enforcement, and political rivals, as members of the deep state and enemies of the people. During the first two months of his presidency, Trump has already referred to himself as King and likened himself to Napoleon.

Republicans, who control the House and Senate, enable his authoritarian impulses, and the Supreme Court has barely held him at bay after giving him expansive powers in the summer. The media is now thoroughly dominated by right-wing MAGA propagandists who parrot his lies and spin, and whatever remains of establishment critique has now bent the knee or is obeying in advance.

Democrats, as exemplified by their ossified and pathetic leadership, are incapable of fighting and instead roll over and play dead like neutered dogs. Senator Chuck Schumer completely betrayed Democrats by doing a 180 and voting with Republicans to keep the government open, thereby voluntarily giving up all leverage. California Governor Gavin Newsom has spent the past two weeks platforming Steve Bannon and Charlie Kirk and conceding to their bad-faith talking points to win over voters. Well, that failed. He’s underwater in his ratings and MAGA sees him as a fraud. Meanwhile, the Democratic Party just clocked its lowest favorability since 1992.

Everybody who said, “It can’t happen here. The guardrails will hold. Everything will be fine. We can survive another 4 years of Trump,” suffers from a failure of imagination. Americans are not unique. People around the world - from Ukraine to Palestine to Syria - are enduring occupation, corruption, war crimes, famine, and brutal regimes. In Hungary, GOP role model Viktor Orban has established near-authoritarian single-party rule. He’s responding to recent protests by promising to crack down on NGOs and media, and he just submitted a bill to ban Pride Month. It’s important to remember Steve Bannon said Orban was “Trump before Trump.”

It’s the age of authoritarians and strongmen just because a plurality of American voters couldn’t stand some women and people of color sharing the stage and having some power. They succumbed to hateful fearmongering amplified by 24-7 right-wing media and hundreds of millions of dollars to scapegoat trans people and immigrants of color. They voluntarily chose to forfeit their freedoms, their Medicaid, and their livelihoods just to temporarily feel great again. Well, here’s the Find Out moment. Trump and Musk’s chainsaw to the government, coupled with a reckless and unnecessary trade war with our allies, will hurt Trump’s base the most and likely lead us into a recession. The price of eggs is still high, but don’t worry, because Trump is attacking wokeness and DEI by scrubbing Navajo codetalkers, American war heroes, from military websites.

Over the weekend, Trump revealed that he is above the law and accountability by openly defying a judicial order to return hundreds of kidnapped immigrants his Administration deported to an El Salvador prison. There was no due process but there were cameras ready to produce a disgusting piece of fascist propaganda. The United States will be paying El Salvador’s crypto-bro President Nayib Bukele $ 6 million to imprison - and most likely torture - these individuals who very well could be innocent of any crimes. Trump is invoking the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, which has only been used three times most notably to intern innocent American citizens of Japanese descent during WW2. Even though the White House admits Palestinian activist and green card holder Mahmoud Khalil has committed no crimes, he is nonetheless now in a Louisiana detention center. Dr. Rasha Alawieh, a kidney transplant specialist at Brown University, was also expelled despite a court order and being here on a valid visa. The Trump Administration is now alleging she had sympathetic photos of former Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrullah and attended his funeral in Lebanon.

When you’re the President, they let you get away with deporting people you don’t like without due process.

You can also start wars. Over the weekend, the Trump Administration, which is allegedly “America First” and against wars, also launched strikes against Yemen killing civilians, including women and children. All of this is acceptable if you wear a MAGA hat and talk about defending national security and the border and law and order. It’s also acceptable to be a violent insurrectionist who tries to overthrow a country. You can also be an alleged sex trafficker like Andrew Tate and be embraced by MAGA as long as you praise Trump. You can lose a civil rape case and still be invited to the White House to give an anti-immigrant rant as long as you hail Trump. That’s what happened today with Irish MMA fighter Connor McGregor.

I know this is a bleak essay, but I refuse to lie to people and tell them, “It’s all fine!” as a comet is racing toward Earth. I also refuse to run around screaming, “It’s over, man! It’s over! We’re all gonna die” like Hudson from Aliens. (Rest in peace, Bill Paxton.) We’re in it now. There’s no escaping it. When America sneezes, the rest of the world catches a cold. Your wealth, Tesla cars, citizenship, and your light skin won’t protect you. Hell, even wearing a MAGA hat and being a Republican won’t save you in the long run. Trump, like authoritarians before him, is notoriously fickle and disloyal. He’ll throw everyone and everything under the bus to survive. If you don’t believe me, I give you Mike Pence running for his life on January 6th.

Every generation has its struggles and challenges. My grandparents had to endure the Partition of India, and they left everything to cross the border to Pakistan. My parents’ generation crossed thousands of miles to land in a new country to chase a dream and establish a community. Our generation has to confront the global threat of white supremacy and fascism that demands the rest of us “go back” so they can live out their delusional, romantic fantasies of a past that never was.

Well, we’re not going back.

The only way forward is to look at this moment with eyes wide open and realize it’ll take all of us - the majority - to rise, organize, mobilize, and resist at every level.

I want to end on a hopeful note because I can’t afford apathy or cynicism. I have 3 young kids and their generation deserves a better future. On Sunday, 60 Minutes aired an amazing segment about retired military musicians who came together to organize an event for a U.S. Marine Band concert that included minority high school musicians who were canceled due to Trump’s executive order banning DEI programs. These veterans decided to take matters into their own hands and lift up their fellow musicians. A performance that would have only been seen by thousands has now been seen by millions thanks to their efforts.

No one is coming to save us. It’ll be up to the rest of us to save ourselves. Thankfully, we have the numbers. Now, we just need the will, the imagination, and the fighters.

***Danielle and I share our thoughts about this perilous moment in today’s episode of Democracy-ish.