Democracy on the Brink: Confronting the Triple Threat Facing America
We now have a leader who few people believe will ever voluntarily give up power.
America is at a critical crossroads. To stop our slide into democratic decay, we must confront three massive, interconnected crises.
Each is formidable on its own—together, they threaten to unravel our democracy. Left unaddressed, these challenges will continue to undermine our democracy, corrode public trust, and open the door to deeper polarization and instability.
1. The Hijacking of American Minds
We are in the middle of an information war—and we’re losing. Our political and media establishment appears unaware of the scale of the threat.
The influence of artificial intelligence and social media on public consciousness is pervasive and dangerous. RAND's 2023 report describes how these technologies have resulted in “truth decay,” where misinformation and emotional manipulation crowd out facts, eroding our shared reality.
What began as tools for democratizing information have become weapons—deployed by both foreign and domestic actors—to misinform, radicalize, and divide. AI-driven disinformation campaigns, deepfakes, and algorithmic amplification of outrage are rewiring how people think and believe.
Russia, in particular, has been disturbingly successful at destabilizing our society and weakening democracy from within. We are under attack, yet we are doing nothing.
This is not just a cultural problem; it's a national security issue.
2. Constitutional Breakdown
The systems our founders built to prevent tyranny have eroded over time. The delicate balance of power, with its checks and balances and separation of power between the states and the federal government, has tilted toward a hyper-concentrated and increasingly unaccountable executive branch.
Presidential power has expanded beyond what the Founders envisioned. Movements like Project 2025 are pushing an agenda reminiscent of the Confederacy: minority rule by a wealthy, white, Christian elite, the dismantling of independent institutions, and consolidation of presidential power.
This is not politics as usual. It’s a slide toward authoritarianism.
In light of these dangers, a Constitutional Convention is necessary. Not to destroy the Republic, but to restore it. The Constitution must be updated to clearly limit executive overreach, strengthen democratic checks, and protect democratic institutions against future autocratic attempts.
3. Political Paralysis
In this moment of national crisis, the Democratic Party has failed to rise to the challenge. Rather than confronting the assault on democracy directly, President Biden prioritized infrastructure, climate, and health care—critical issues in normal times, but misaligned with the severity of the moment.
He failed to investigate dark money and election interference—or expose the Kremlin-backed money trail into our political system. Foreign-backed psychological influence campaigns (“psyops”) intent on dividing and destabilizing us continued unchecked. And there were no consequences for the attempted coup following the 2020 election, nor investigations into the irregularities of the 2024 election.
Only two national figures—Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump—have spoken directly to the real and growing concerns of many Americans: economic insecurity, collapsing trust in institutions, and a sense that the system is rigged against the average American. But while Sanders’ proposed solutions are often unrealistic or politically unviable, Trump offers no solution—only grievance and chaos designed to divide rather than to lead.
What Must Happen Now
These crises are not separate. They are reinforcing and accelerating one another:
The weaponization of information divides us and weakens public trust.
A broken Constitution leaves us defenseless against power grabs.
A paralyzed opposition enables dangerous ideologies to rise unchecked.
We need a new path. One that includes:
Urgent regulation of AI and social media to safeguard democratic discourse.
Updating and reinforcing the Constitution to rebalance power and secure democratic norms.
A revitalized political movement capable of telling the truth, inspiring the public, and standing firm against authoritarianism.
This is not a time for half-measures. It is a time for bold, uncompromising action to preserve the American experiment—before it’s too late.