The Trump-Supreme Court battle is not really the crisis.
The crisis is here now. Trump is enacting an insidious coordinated attack on our institutions of democratic accountability, designed to crater democracy before next fall. — Senator Chris Murphy
That crisply and clearly describes the situation we’re in. Here and now. While Congressional Republicans decline to offer opposition, much less to take a meaningful step to stop what’s going on; while Democrats are locked out of power and, mostly, uncertain about what to do: the Senator from Connecticut is on the case.
While I recommend clicking through the thread on Bluesky, here’s a text version (with the links Murphy places on several posts):
The Trump-Supreme Court battle is not really the crisis.
The crisis is here now. Trump is enacting an insidious coordinated attack on our institutions of democratic accountability, designed to crater democracy before next fall.
1/ A long 🧵to explain the plan & how we stop it.
2/ First, just know that MAGA has given up on democracy. Wish it weren’t true but it is. They would rather MAGA rule forever than run a fair election where a Democrat might win.
This isn’t some vengeance campaign. It’s a brazen effort to end democracy.
[Link to book excerpt in Rolling Stone: Inside the Anti-Democratic Movement That Restored Trump to Power]
3/ MAGA doesn’t want democracy because they want power forever. But also to get away with the thievery and corruption.
A true democracy would hold Trump accountable for the mass scale corruption – the crypto coin, the insider trading, the Musk self dealing etc.
4/ The modern, time-tested way to destroy a democracy is NOT a coup or burning down the Parliament or a public confrontation with the judiciary.
It’s a slow methodical campaign to weaken the structures of accountability necessary for the political opposition to win elections.
5/ ELEMENT 1: The Legitimization of Political Violence
Every good authoritarian uses the threat of violence to keep critics silent. That’s what the Jan. 6 pardons are about.
Lisa Murkowski’s public worries this week about “retaliation” are chilling.
[Link to Anchorage Daily News: ‘We are all afraid’: Speaking to Alaska nonprofit leaders, Murkowski gets candid on upheaval in federal government.]
6/ ELEMENT 2: Silence the Press
Trump does this in two ways. First, co-opt the owners of the press (Bezos, Zuckerberg, Musk, etc.).
Second, through harassment (eg AP and “Gulf of America” or FCC investigations).
[Link to National Catholic Reporter: Editorial: Trump leads a deliberate and dangerous assault on the free press]
7/ ELEMENT 3: Silence the Protectors of the Rule of Law.
In free societies, lawyers guard our rights. Despots can more easily trample our rights if the lawyers are silenced. That’s why Trump is forcing the big firms to sign effective loyalty oaths.
[Link to New York Times: Law Firms Made Deals With Trump. Now He Wants More From Them.]
8/ ELEMENT 4: Silence the Universities
Two things happen on university campuses: youth protest and the guarding of objective truth. Neither are allowed in an autocracy. Thus, Trump’s illegal campaign to force campuses to crush dissent.
[Link to Axios: How Trump wants to assert control at Harvard and elite colleges]
9/ ELEMENT 5: Silence the Private Sector
The tariffs are a means to force every business to get on Trump’s good side (ie zero public dissent) in exchange for relief. The withholding of federal funds from non-profits forces these orgs to stay quiet too.
[Link to Truthout: Trump’s Tariffs Are a Ploy to Further Consolidate Power, Says Sen. Chris Murphy]
10/ ELEMENT 6: Cut Off Funding for the Opposition
Autocrats like Orban allow the opposition to exist, but starve it. Trump is moving to shut down non-profits and donor collectives that oppose his policies; and ActBlue, the way $$ flow to Democrats.
[Link to AP News: Core Democratic groups are preparing to be targeted by the Trump administration]
11/ This is all happening so fast it’s hard for the public to see it all as part of one plan. But it is.
And the press, lawyers, colleges and opposition political groups don’t have to be DESTROYED in order for this plan to work.
12/ They just have to be weakened enough so the tools of accountability don’t work anymore.
The press can’t tell enough truth. The lawyers won’t protect our rights. Campus protest disappears. Opposition funding dries up.
We still have elections. But the regime always wins.
13/ How do we stop it?
First, though solidarity. Each set of institutions can’t let the regime pick one off from each others. The legal profession failed miserably at this this, but the universities can model a collective strategy to fight back and win.
14/ Second, through mass mobilization. When hundreds of thousands of people rally against this kind of assault on democracy, history shows it works. There is a strange, magic power to mass activation which makes supporters of the regime start to jump ship.
15/ Third, through risk taking by political leaders. No citizen will take the risk to mobilize if leaders are playing it safe.
This means speaking daily truth to the regime and taking tactical risks (like voting against the CR or boycotting the SOTU would have been).
16/ I believe those three steps, taken together, will arrest Trump’s assault. But if it doesn’t, then civil disobedience. And this conversation will need to happen sooner than we would like. We still have the power, but we have less time than most think.