The fate of modern American democracy has never been more uncertain. Indeed, we’d be lucky if it survives President Donald Trump’s current term—and we have almost three years of it left. If you think this glum assessment smacks of Chicken Little-style hysteria, consider some of what we have seen just during the first year of Trump’s second term.
Here they are—not in chronological order, but as they come to mind:
The Cult-Like GOP
The Republican Party has in effect been reduced to a cult that repeatedly demonstrates blind, unquestioning loyalty to Trump, with scant regard for the Constitution. To get a sense of the magnitude of the party’s transformation, consider the important role that GOP leaders played in the undoing of President Richard Nixon in 1974, following the Watergate scandal.
On February 7, 1973, the Senate voted 77-0 to create the Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, popularly known as the Watergate Committee. On June 29, GOP Senator Howard Baker of Tennessee—the Committee’s ranking minority member and staunch Nixon supporter—posed what became a famous question to former White House Counsel John Dean about the break-in at the Democratic National Committee Headquarters at the Watergate Hotel: “What did the President know, and when did he know it?”
Dean’s answers, drawn from a 245-page statement, offered damning details, including his numerous conversations with Nixon about the cover-up. That marked the beginning of the end for Nixon—especially after Alexander Butterfield, Deputy Assistant to the President, testified the following month that White House conversations had been recorded.
That same month, seven GOP members of the House Judiciary Committee voted for two of the Articles of Impeachment against Nixon and a seventh voted for one of them. At that point, Nixon knew he was done for. He resigned on August 9, 1974.
Bearing in mind that some of what we’re seeing now makes Watergate look like a traffic violation, ask yourself this: How many members of the GOP would break with Trump on a matter of equivalent importance to him, let alone vote to create an investigatory committee? Today’s GOP has no room for bipartisan Republican Senators such as Edward Brooke, Mark Hatfield, or Richard Lugar.
Checks and Balances Eroded
The distribution of power among the presidential, legislative, and judicial branches is a fundamental feature of our political system—and it’s now in peril.
Congress has surrendered important powers it has under the Constitution. For example, Congress has the authority to decide on tariffs; but Trump has arrogated that power, using it not just as an instrument of economic policy but as a political weapon against foreign governments. Trump has unilaterally raised tariffs to levels not seen since the 1930s—without so much as a whimper from the GOP.
Or consider the Executive Orders Trump has used to avoid spending funds Congress appropriated to support particular programs. How many GOP members of the House have protested this violation of the 1974 Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act (which itself is rooted in Article 1, Section 9, Clause 7 of the Constitution)?
As for the Supreme Court, in at least one critical case, Trump v. United States, its conservative majority’s ruling on presidential immunity and referral of the case to US District Court in effect provided critical legal cover for Trump by casting doubt on whether his alleged role in the January 6, 2024, storming of the Capitol constituted an official act and was therefore covered by immunity.
In her dissenting opinion, Justice Sonya Sotomayor concluded that a sweeping grant of immunity could effectively turns presidents into kings: “The President of the United States is the most powerful person in the country, and possibly the world. When he uses his official powers in any way, under the majority’s reasoning, he now will be insulated from criminal prosecution.”
Civil Society Enfeebled
Non-governmental entities of various types can, in numerous ways—reportage, investigations, public education—speak truth to power and help counter its excesses. Many still do, and with admirable persistence and effectiveness, but of late there have been glaring exceptions.
Universities, partly because they came under attack by the Trump administration, squelched just about all forms of student protests—not just ones that disrupted campus life, engaged in intimidation, or were anti-Semitic—over Israel’s war in Gaza. Big Law agreed to pay nearly $1 billion in pro bono work for cases important to the president because it faced punitive presidential Executive Orders and an inquiry from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
Corporate titans either succumbed to pressure from Trump or curried favor through mega donations. Thirteen companies gave at least $1 million eachfor his 2025 inauguration, clinching choice seats and shmoozing opportunities. The event raised $239 million—twice the amount raised for Trump’s 2017 inauguration and almost $100 million more than the combined totals for Obama’s two inaugurations and Biden’s in 2021.
The donations made by big-tech companies under investigation for possible violations of antitrust laws led Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Michael Bennet (D-CO) to write a letter to the CEOs of Amazon, Apple, Google, OpenAI, Meta, and Microsoft. The Senators expressed concern that “your company and other Big Tech donors are using your massive contributions to the inaugural fund to cozy up to the incoming Trump administration ….You have a clear and direct interest in obtaining favors from the incoming administration: your company and many other Big Tech donors are already the subject of ongoing federal investigations and regulatory actions.”
The media have also come under pressure, settling lawsuits filed by Trump for tens of millions of dollars in damages. Such tactics have a chilling effect. Under Jeff Bezos’s ownership, the Washington Post, for the first time in 36 years, failed to endorse a candidate in the 2024 presidential election—this even though the Post’s editorial board had reportedly drafted an endorsement of Kamala Harris.
Martin Baron, the Post’s legendary former Executive Editor, tweeted that “This is cowardice, with democracy as its casualty. @realdonaldtrump will see this as an invitation to further intimidate owner @jeffbezos (and others). Disturbing spinelessness at an institution famed for courage.” On CNN, Baron ridiculed the Post’s claim that its decision was a principled one based on neutrality: “To declare a moment of high principle, only 11 days before the election that is just highly suspect [sic] that is just not to be believed that this was a matter of principle at this point.”
Trump has also repeatedly discredited the press in the public’s eyes—by accusing it of peddling “fake news”; denying reporters he dislikes access to the Oval Office and Air Force One; excluding them from the press pool; calling them incompetent; and even mocking their personal appearance.
Elections Undermined
Public faith in the elections is essential for democracy. Trump has repeatedly delegitimized the American electoral system using charges of vote-rigging, focusing particularly on the 2020 election, which he lost to Joe Biden. Have you ever witnessed an American president call the integrity of the American electoral system into question with the frequency and intensity Trump has—inspiring countless conspiracy theories and falsehoods about stolen elections on social media?
More recently, amidst sagging poll numbers and the GOP’s fear that it could lose the November midterms, he has even suggested that these elections be canceled. His Press Secretary hastened to say that Trump was joking; but words matter when uttered by a president, especially on so important an issue.
Trump has also proposed, and not just once, that elections, which are run by states, be nationalized. And in at least 15 places he wants the Republican Party to conduct them—a massive conflict of interest. Trump justifies nationalization by claiming that states are nothing but “an agent” of the federal government. That’s a legally bizarre assertion with dangerous implications for American democracy.
Some Congressional Republicans have objected to his proposal—but there’s hardly been a crescendo of criticism. House Speaker Mike Johnson even defended it as reflecting Trump’s commitment to clean elections and echoed Trump’s claims of vote rigging.
I have no idea whether the 2026 elections will be called off or delayed, or whether Trump and his most loyal Congressional lieutenants will denounce the results as fraudulent should the GOP suffer losses. But if any of this does happen, we should treat it as the canary in the coal mine.
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