{"id":69646,"date":"2025-12-13T08:07:25","date_gmt":"2025-12-13T08:07:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/69646\/"},"modified":"2025-12-13T08:07:25","modified_gmt":"2025-12-13T08:07:25","slug":"opinion-are-we-losing-our-democracy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/69646\/","title":{"rendered":"Opinion | Are We Losing Our Democracy?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"css-8hvvyd\">When you hear the word \u201cautocracy,\u201d the United States \u2014\u2014 \u201cWe carried forth that great gift of freedom \u2014\u2014\u201d is rarely a country that comes to people\u2019s minds. Right? Well, according to these 12 red flags of Democratic erosion, America has moved in the direction of autocracy, thanks to the efforts of President Donald Trump. This is the opinion of the New York Times editorial board. The first red flag that we\u2019re sliding towards an autocracy: Trump is bypassing the legislature. \u201cI have a very strong power.\u201d He imposed tariffs and defunded U.S.A.I.D., the Department of Education and countless other institutions, all without congressional approval. But it\u2019s more than just Congress he\u2019s bypassing. The second red flag: He\u2019s also defying our courts. He attempted to circumvent a federal judge\u2019s order by deciding to send the California National Guard to Oregon, and outright ignored an order when he deported migrants to El Salvador. Trump is granting himself a level of power not outlined in our Constitution. What has he done with all this power? The third red flag: declaring national emergencies on false pretenses so he can justify his infamous \u2014\u2014 \u201creciprocal tariffs.\u201d And the fourth red flag: using the military for domestic control, like his unnecessary use of federal agents and troops across the country. And in order to benefit himself, Trump is guilty of the fifth red flag, wielding his power for personal profit. The Trump Organization\u2019s income skyrocketed from $51 to $864 million within a year. And let\u2019s not forget the airplane from Qatar. \u201cI could be a stupid person and say: Oh, no, we don\u2019t want a free plane.\u201d How does Trump plan on maintaining all this power? The sixth red flag: controlling information. After the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported \u2014\u2014 \u201c258,000 fewer jobs in May and June \u2014\u2014\u201d he fired the head commissioner. And he started to persecute his political enemies, the seventh red flag. \u201cJames Comey, Letitia James, Adam Schiff \u2014\u2014\u201d He\u2019s stacking the D.O.J. and the F.B.I. with loyalists and threatening Democrats with the death penalty. Trump\u2019s interest in controlling information goes far beyond the government. He\u2019s starting the eighth red flag, trying to control universities, by cutting their research funding and dictating who they admit to minimize protest. This is a part of his attempt at the ninth flag, stifling dissent and speech, by investigating left-leaning organizations, revoking the visas of pro-Palestinian student protesters and pressuring stations to cancel Jimmy Kimmel. In addition to Democrats and the  \u2014\u2014 \u201cradical left \u2014\u2014\u201d Trump is guilty of the 10th red flag: vilifying marginalized groups. \u201cTransgender insanity. Diversity, equity and inclusion nonsense. Illegal aliens \u2014\u2014 destroying the blood of our country.\u201d And to Trump, he\u2019s the only one who can restore \u201cthe blood of our country\u201d because the 11th red flag of autocracy is authoritarians creating a cult of personality. Trump is hanging banners of his face from government buildings and posting photos of himself in crowns. \u201cNobody knows the system better than me. I\u2019m the only one that matters.\u201d To cling on to all this power he\u2019s cultivated, he\u2019s onto the 12th red flag of autocracy: manipulating the law by urging Republicans to to gerrymander their states in order to sway future elections in his favor. \u201cJust a very simple redrawing. We pick up five seats.\u201d The United States is not yet close to a full-on autocracy, but these 12 red flags show how far along the path we\u2019ve come and how much more destruction Trump could do in the remainder of his term.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When you hear the word \u201cautocracy,\u201d the United States \u2014\u2014 \u201cWe carried forth that great gift of freedom&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":69647,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[36036,7151,5130,9,11,10,49,51,50,5023,4510],"class_list":{"0":"post-69646","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-authoritarianism","9":"tag-democracy","10":"tag-legislation","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-headlines","13":"tag-new-york-news","14":"tag-new-york-state","15":"tag-new-york-state-headlines","16":"tag-new-york-state-news","17":"tag-us-economy","18":"tag-us-politics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69646","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69646"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69646\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69647"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}