As government jobs are eliminated, the influence of unions diluted, federal agencies unraveled, and democratic checks and balances are evaporating, power is coalescing under one branch of government – the executive branch.
In a recent video that went viral, lawyer and former Georgia State Representative Stacy Abrams outlined a ten step system to creating a system of government ruled by one person with absolute power, also known as an autocracy.
Abrams credits Princeton Professor Kim Scheppele with outlining the framework for a ten-step strategy that leaders use to create autocracies. Scheppele is one of the foremost experts on how legal and constitutional instruments can be used to destroy democracies. She has documented many examples of countries such as Hungary, Poland, Belarus and Russia’s shift from a democracy – populations governed by elected representatives – to an autocracy.
Dismantling Democracy
Abram contends that after exceeding the boundaries of power, neutralizing or eliminating checks and balances on power, such as the Supreme Court and Congress, demonizing the media so that it is not a trusted source of information, democracy is further diminished by making people think that it is not necessary to the American people.
“The best way to do that is to make sure that the things that people have learned to rely on are no longer available. Then, the one in power becomes the only way people can get what they need,” Abrams said.
“You fire the Center for Disease Control so that vaccine rates drop and the disease rises. You fire FEMA so that when there’s a natural disaster, the only way you get what you need is by begging for it. You gut the civil service so that no one can actually do the work the democracy is supposed to protect.”
She continued, “Other steps include firing anyone that disagrees with you and hire only those who pledge complete loyalty; Suing law firms, philanthropists, and any one expressing independent thought and doing work that doesn’t support you; Deflecting blame for society’s ills onto groups you deem have less power – women; children, people of color, immigrants – and pushing them to fight each other to divert their attention; incentivizing private violence by kidnapping people off the street and arrest those who challenge or question you.”
“Once you’ve gotten to step nine, step ten is easy,” Abrams said. “You make sure no one ever votes again because now you’ve got them captive, now you’ve got them scared, now you’ve got them poor, and now you’ve got the power.”
The Evaporating American Dream
For generations the goal for American workers was to land a ‘good government job.’ Dependable, well-paying employment – preferably with good benefits and a pension or retirement plan – was the ticket to supporting a family and paying the mortgage. Another important benefit, arguably the most important, was getting a job that belonged to a union.
A union empowers workers by giving them a collective voice to negotiate for better wages, benefits, and working conditions with their employers. Unions achieve this through collective bargaining, where a group of employees negotiates as a single entity to secure a contract with management.
Under the Trump administration, the dream of a good government job with benefits and a pension is swiftly becoming a casualty of a dwindling democracy.
In January, Trump issued an executive order to establish the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to implement his agenda to modernize Federal technology and software to maximize governmental efficiency and productivity. Thus far, it is estimated that DOGE, headed by tech billionaire Elon Musk at the time, has eliminated over 280,000 jobs, primarily within the federal government and related sectors. This includes direct job cuts in federal agencies and the ripple effects on contractors and private organizations due to reduced funding.
In March, Trump issued executive orders that significantly curtailed collective bargaining rights for federal employees, potentially affecting hundreds of thousands of workers across numerous agencies. The administration made appointments to the National Labor Relations Board and initiated policies and rule changes that have been criticized for weakening workers’ rights to organize and engage in collective bargaining.
Eliminating Safety Public Nets
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is a case study of how government agencies can be dismantled and privatized. The TSA is part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS). It was established in the aftermath of the September 11th attacks to strengthen security for the nation’s transportation systems.
DHS ended the collective bargaining agreement with the tens of thousands of frontline TSA employees, marking the Trump administration’s effort to dismantle union protections.
DHS criticized the union whose staffers are responsible for keeping weapons off airplanes and protecting air travel. Officials said that poor performers were being allowed to stay on the job and that the agreement was hindering the ability of the organization “to safeguard our transportation systems and keep Americans safe.”
Union officials said the order would strip collective bargaining rights from roughly 47,000 transportation security officers (TSOs) responsible for staffing airports and checking to make sure passengers do not have weapons or explosives. The decision comes at a time when screeners see an average of 2.5 million passengers a day.
TSA Administrator Adam Stahl said DHS Secretary Kristi Noem made the decision to rescind officers’ collective bargaining rights to align with the Trump administration’s “vision of maximizing government productivity and efficiency and ensuring that our workforce can respond swiftly and effectively to evolving threats.”
The end of the collective bargaining agreement was widely criticized by Democratic members of Congress as well as the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA.
The head of the flight attendants union, Sara Nelson, said in a statement that the decision was “terrible for aviation security and everyone who depends on safe travel.”
“This will take us back to the days of security at the lowest price with the highest costs for our country,” she said.
Project 2025: A Blueprint for Centralized Power
Both deunionizing and privatizing TSA come directly out of Project 2025, a political initiative to reshape the federal government and consolidate executive power. The plan was published in April 2023 by The Heritage Foundation, an American conservative think tank. It is based on a controversial interpretation of U.S. constitutional law that states that the entire executive branch should be under the complete control of the president.
The nine hundred page document contains four major pillars: restore the family, dismantle the administrative state, defend national sovereignty and secure individual rights as defined by conservative Christian values.
Restoring the family includes eliminating the Department of Education and giving parents and religious organizations more control over education. Moving away from the public school system and towards private and religious schools is also a part of restoring the family, as it is banning abortion nationwide.
Dismantling the administrative state and a return to self-governance has resulted in tens of thousands of civil servants being laid off and others becoming political appointees. Project 2025 states that the president should have full control of anyone who works for the executive branch. Independent agencies that function as checks to presidential power, like the Justice Department should report to the president or be eliminated.
Defending the nation’s sovereignty, borders and bounty against global threats means closing the borders and reducing legal and illegal immigration unless the president deems them an asset to the country.
The creators of Project 2025 believe that America is fundamentally a Christian nation that has drifted from its founding principles. They reject the separation of church and state and want the government to operate according to Christian principles.
Throughout his presidential campaign, Trump denied knowing about Project 2025, calling it “ridiculous and abysmal.” But the deunionizing and privatizing of the TSA directly, the weakening and complete dismantling of government watchdog agencies directly coincides with the conservative blueprint. There is significant overlap between the 24 executive orders Trump signed in his first 100 days and policy issues outlined in Project 2025, specifically in the areas of immigration, government staffing, energy, foreign affairs and the economy.
The Way Forward
Scheppele said protesting when democracy is threatened has proven to be very effective in the U.S. and in other countries like Korea, Romania and Israel.
“It’s a tremendous resource in the countries where people have taken to the streets in protest, even if they don’t have legal leverage, it often slows things down,” Scheppele said. “Nonviolent autocracies rely on the idea that you can’t repress all the people all the time. The bigger the resistance gets, the harder it is to keep them in check.”
Abram agreed that protest is a powerful tool because autocrats don’t like decent. She also said the truth can be used as a weapon against leaders bent on centralizing power.
“Tell the truth. Do not let the propaganda win. Too often they tell a lie. They will tell a lie so often it sounds like the truth,” Abrams said. “We’ve got to keep telling the truth, not only to push back against them, but to remind us that we are entitled to the truth.”