Freedom and Democracy

The Threat to Democratic Institutions and Values

👎 The Threat to Democratic Institutions and Values

In recent years, the fundamental principles and norms of democratic society have been severely tested in the United States. The hard-fought, centuries long battles to secure the right to vote for all citizens continues to encounter opponents and roadblocks. An even greater threat has emerged with the refusal of Donald Trump to accept defeat, his attempts to undermine the election results in key states, and his inciting an attempted insurrection at the US Capitol during the certification of the next president. His party colleagues lacked the courage to condemn him and his core party faithful, in defiance of all evidence, refused to believe that the election was lost and that their candidate did anything wrong. Nevertheless, in 2024 a majority of American voters chose to return him to office.

Returning to office in January 2025, Donald Trump has made a mockery of democratic norms, has issued blatantly illegal orders, defied courts, overstepped congressional authority, and with the help of Elon Musk attempted to gut federal programs, strip down the federal workforce, target perceived enemies, and purge offending voices and criticisms. Before the second Trump administration, the United States ranked low in democratic institutions and practices; it will now sink further.

👎 Grifter-in-Chief. Hawking Bibles, memes, cryptocurrencies, sketchy family deals in foreign countries.

Modern presidents have sold their memoirs, hit the lecture circuit, and got paid—but after leaving office. Trump is getting rich while in the White House, in clear defiance of the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution and in clear violation of the norms of the presidency. The presidency is not a money-making operation for the incumbent.

👎 Executive Order to fundamentally change rules for voting (March 2025)

Voter fraud in the US is exceedingly rare, but Trump signed an Executive Order that requires proof of US citizenship and directs state and local officials to record and verify this new requirement. Further it requires all ballots to be counted by Election Day (the standard practice is that mail-in ballots be postmarked by Election Day). Trump reasserted the false claim that he won the 2020 election and that he won the 2024 election “in a landslide” (it was one of the closest ever in popular vote). “This country is so sick because of the election, the fake elections and the bad elections, and we’re going to straighten out one way or the other,” he said at the signing. The EO will undoubtedly be challenged in court. Election law expert Rick Hasen stated that “the aim here is voter suppression pure and simple.” Wendy Weiner of the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law School stated that “this executive order is unlawful. . . The president cannot override a statute enacted by Congress that says what is required to register to vote on the federal voter registration for.”

Sources: Patrick Marley, “Trump Signs Executive Order Requiring Proof of Citizenship in Federal Elections,” Washington Post, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/03/25/trump-elections-citizenship-proof/

👎 Thousands of experts leaving federal government, causing an unprecedented “brain drain.”

They’ve been fired, pushed into early retirement, or just in frustration have quit. During the first round of resignations/firings, 75,000 federal workers agreed to quit. But a new round of firings/resignations projects hundreds of thousands of workers leaving. Six directors at NIH, dozens of leaders at the Federal Aviation Agency, 200 managers and highly skilled experts are leaving the Treasury Department. Trump supporters say, good for them, the bureaucracy is bloated and needs to be trimmed. But the way hundreds of thousands of workers have been dismissed is chaotic, without plan or purpose, and the effects on government programs and customer service could be catastrophic. Think responses to government requests are slow or non responsive? Just wait.

👎 Trump wants to banish mail-in voting (August 2025)

Trump vowed to “lead a movement” to eliminate mail-in voting before the 2026 midterm elections. He posted on TruthSocial: “ELECTIONS CAN NEVER BE HONEST WITH MAIL IN BALLOTS/VOTING, and everybody, PARTICULARLY DEMOCRATS, KNOW THIS. I, AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY, WILL FIGHT LIKE HELL TO BRING HONESTY AND INTEGRITY BACK TO OUR ELECTIONS.” Historically, more Democrats than Republicans vote using mail-in ballots.

👎 At Trump’s urging, Texas Republicans carved out new congressional districts.

Like every other state, Texas redistricted following the 2020 decennial census. But now the Republican-dominated state legislature has carved out new congressional districts, hoping to gain five Republican seats. California promises to retaliate, and other states are considering redistricting. Its Gerrymander warfare, thanks to Trump’s urging.

👎 Federal troops, with guns, camp out in Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and other cities. Not invited to come in by city or state leaders. Unprecedented intrusion of the military in civilian affairs.

Only under the most unusual circumstances, like the Watts Riots in Los Angeles, does the governor and mayor request federal troops for assistance to restore order. But in 2025, here come the federal troops to Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. No immediate crisis, nothing that local police cannot handle; they came in uninvited, and the flimsiest of excuses, only for Trump to brag about restoring law and order.

👎 Continued assault on the media, pressure to toe the Trump line or have their licenses revoked. Stephen Colbert, then Jimmy Kimmel, and who knows who’s next?

Freedom of speech is one of the pillars of a free society, but Trump is doing his best to throttle dissent and opposing voices. His ultimate tool is the revocation of TV/cable licenses, or to quash any merger between media companies. Colbert’s popular show will be cancelled out of fear that a merger between Paramount Global and Skydance Media might not be approved by the Trump administration. For Kimmel’s abrupt cancellation, it was the half-veiled threat against ABC—”we can do it the easy way, or the hard way” (FCC chairman Brendan Carr). Kimmel’s back, but who’s next on Trump’s hit list?

👎 Going after perceived enemies. Indictment of former FBI director James Comey on specious charges; who’s next?

Trump had the acting U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, Erik Siebert, forced out, because he failed to bring charges against New York Attorney General Letitia James. Just days before the statute of limitations would have ruled out any action against Comey, Siebert’s replacement—a Trump loyalist with no experience in federal prosecution—jumped in and sought an indictment against James Comey. The 2-page indictment reads like a joke, designed only for Trump to seek retribution against Comey. Using the Justice Department to go after perceived enemies is an absolute violation of the norms of presidential behavior and constitutional perogative. Even Richard Nixon wouldn’t go that far.