Thread by @ChrisMurphyCT

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.
rollingstone.com/politics/polit…

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.
adn.com/politics/2025/…

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).
ncronline.org/opinion/editor…

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.
nytimes.com/2025/04/16/us/…

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.
axios.com/2025/04/16/har…

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.
truthout.org/articles/trump…

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.
apnews.com/article/democr…

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.