Can We Survive?

Photo Credit - Stephanie Keith/Reuters

It’s early Sunday morning. The sun is due to show its face shortly. With the exception of what remains of a few evening crickets and cooing morning doves, it is so very quiet.

I’m sitting on my deck, watching the steam rise from my second cup of coffee. I love early mornings —- it’s time that belongs only to me. It’s peaceful. Given the dangerous direction our country has turned in the last eight months, I’m wondering just how many more tranquil moments like this will continue, given the fragility of a country I am recognizing less and less with every step I take.

It is in this peaceful moment I find myself filled with fear, anxiety and both hope and despair. Eight months into this administration’s infiltration we need to stop calling Trump a “wanna be dictator,” and/or that we are “headed toward an authoritarian takeover.” Trump IS a dictator. What we are seeing now is a full-blown authoritarian push by Donald Trump. Is was a slow descent. It was a quick descent. But we are here and the question is are we going to allow it to happen. Can we survive?

A few examples from history, of democracies that can and did die:

• Russia: After initial democratic reforms in the 1990s, Russia shifted toward dictatorship under Vladimir Putin (1999–present) with the curtailment of opposition, judicial independence, and freedom of the press. The main causes include the centralization of power, suppression of rivals, and control of media.

• Venezuela: Venezuela’s democracy collapsed under Hugo Chávez and Nicolás Maduro. Factors included economic collapse, discredited opposition, attacks on independent judiciary, and use of security forces to control dissent.

• Turkey: Under Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Turkey gradually moved from pluralism to authoritarian rule, marked by consolidation of power, constitutional changes, purges, and the stifling of media and opposition.

• Hungary: Under Prime Minister Viktor Orbán since 2010, Hungary experienced democratic backsliding through court-packing, media takeovers, suppression of opposition, and rule changes undermining electoral fairness.

• Belarus: Alexander Lukashenko has ruled as a dictator since 1994, systematically dismantling democratic mechanisms through election manipulation and repression.

• Nicaragua: Daniel Ortega shifted from democratic pluralism to autocratic control after 2007, eliminating checks and balances and persecuting rivals.

• Zimbabwe: Democracy unraveled under Robert Mugabe due to political violence, rigged elections, and economic collapse.

• Iran: After a brief democratic period, the Islamic Revolution established a theocratic dictatorship in 1979, driven by ideological purges and mass mobilization.

• Egypt: Following the Arab Spring, Egypt reverted to military-backed autocracy after a period of democratic activity.

• Sudan: Failed transitions and civil strife repeatedly undermined efforts at democratization.

The United States of America, in the not-too-distant future, could find itself on this list.

And yet, every day we carry on as if everything is normal or, if we wait long enough, will go away. It isn’t. In fact, it’s only getting worse. Ben Franklin’s challenge “it’s a republic, if you can keep it,” appears to be an even bigger challenge under Trump’s ever-tightening regime.

It’s only been a mere 237 days since Trump’s swearing in, January 20, 2025. In that time he has managed to systemically criticize independent journalism, strongarm and extort major media outlets and obsessively rant, in an effort to delegitimize/deplatform journalists and news coverage unfavorable to him or critical of his policies, as “fake news.” Every single day he outright lies with little if ever any pushback from journalists and reporters. Our freedom of speech is legitimately under attack.

He has engaged in non-stop bullying and unprecedented shakedowns of colleges and universities, threatening to withhold or withdraw federal funding if they do not bend to his dictatorial proclivities and mandates to eliminate DEI, conform to his ideological curriculum, deny applications of foreign students who he deems unfit as the “appropriate student,” and dictate hiring practices of faculty. Many who have faced his ire are private institutions of learning.

Pressure on educational and civil society institutions have weakened traditional checks on Trump’s executive power overreaches.

Smithsonian museums? Well, heed The Leader if you’re smart. History should not portray what in fact actually occurred. No. In his words, and to his thinking, way too much attention has been placed on the horrors of slavery. It wasn’t that bad, was it? So, entitled, privileged White men, at Trump’s direction, will go through the exhibits and approve displays they believe best represent our history.

Trump’s and MAGA’s use of increasingly divisive language, targeting political opponents and minority communities, especially in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s killing, has intensified social polarization and contributed to full-blown “culture wars.” One need only to have spent some time on social media platforms this weekend to witness the full weight of the damage being done. Horrific.

There are, of course, Trump’s ridiculous tariffs, which have done nothing but wage economic unrest, causing undue harm on every day Americans who are now enduring price hikes on just about everything, including food, rent and electricity, with no end in sight, to say nothing of the economic chaos and uncertainty inflicted on our global partners and allies.

And every day incidents are reported of immigrants, here legally with green cards or going through the legal immigration process, are kidnapped off our streets by Trump’s masked militia, without warrants or any hint of due process, thrown into unmarked vehicles and disappeared to points unknown. No legal representation afforded these individuals. We are just to accept that, according to the word of Stephen Miller, the real president of the United States of America, and his cohort Kristi Noem, they are apprehending the worst-of-the-worst for deportation. No evidence to support. Just their word.

SCOTUS last week greenlit their operation, providing the a-okay to snatch anyone who is not White enough, not blonde enough, or blue-eyed enough, and take them into custody without so much as a legitimate reason to do so. This allows ICE, Homeland Security and Border Patrol to whisk individuals to privately run, inhumane, predatory detention facilities. No oversight. No accountability, unraveling our civil rights laws by decades. And we watch.

Never mind the militarized take-over of U.S. cities. Trump has weaponized the military against its own citizens on American soil. His big-time “crime prevention” efforts. His focus is on cities with Black mayors who preside over predominantly Black communities. Because as we all know, crimes are only committed by Black and Brown people and illegal aliens. There are better, far more productive ways to fight crime, which most cities he’s targeting and will target have employed, reducing their crime rate significantly. But he doesn’t want to hear that. He is, after all, the great White Crusader who will swoop in and save the people like he’s Super Man in a red cape. His method of imposing fear and intimidation will most certainly backfire. But maybe not in time.

In the last 237 days, Trump has signed over 200 Executive Orders, not one an enacted law. Because you see, he would have to go through Congress, a co-equal branch of government. But he won’t and he hasn’t. He has been exceedingly successful in castrating the GOP majority in both Houses to the point where there is zero resistance on their part. No matter how egregious his actions.

Then there are his tired and persistent claims about electoral fraud without substantial supporting evidence. His attempts to overturn election results, legal challenges to voting procedures, and the January 6th Capitol events have created unprecedented tensions around the electoral process. His obsession with losing power and control has led to yet another unfathomable move —-forcing red states to redraw their electoral maps, outside the census drawing parameters, to ensure, in his mind, more MAGA seats in the U.S. House. And of course, no resistance from his party.

Then there are his efforts, his administration and the architects of Project 2025, to install Trump loyalists, whether they hold the requisite qualifications, in key government positions. His abhorrence to adhere to traditional oversight mechanisms and challenges to judicial independence, only add to the fragility of our democracy and values, endangering our national security as well as every other facet of good government.

Ongoing questions about the intersection of Trump’s personal business interests and government decision-making, where he is enriching himself daily, have raised concerns about corruption and accountability that engender corrosive public trust. He has successfully removed any federal authority to challenge any and all of his personal financial transactions. It just simply is. He will continue to do whatever he wants to do. Ethically or morally questionable? So what.

We are in danger of becoming numb to all that follows authoritarianism. We carry on as if recent departures from “democratic norms” are simply temporary aberrations that will naturally correct themselves. If we continue to treat extraordinary events as ordinary, this may in fact be the erosion of our democracy. When we become customized and complacent to this insanity, the boundaries of Trump and his administration’s acceptable behavior will continue to expand.

The fragility of democracy. Understanding how institutions failed elsewhere could and should help us recognize our vulnerabilities. That is, if it’s not too late.

Well, early Sunday morning has turned to Sunday mid-morning.

I’m listening to beautiful music coming from nearby churches. Melodious voices in the early morning. Praying for a better today and a better tomorrow in this fragile republic known as the United States of America.

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