Warning Signs Are Flashing Red for American Democracy

As scholars of democracy, we are watching America’s warning signs flash red. We expect America’s long-building constitutional crisis to soon escalate.

Earlier this year, we hosted a national workshop to assess the threats facing our society in the months leading up to and following the November midterm elections. We also studied the preparations of American social movements, communities, and institutions to meet those threats.

Our basic goals were straightforward. Every qualified voter should be able to vote and have that vote counted. We must head off and block political violence. Duly certified winners should be able to take office without obstruction.

To our fellow Americans: This is not the time to look away. More than ever we need the kind of courage that history books heroize.

One product of that workshop, published this fall and signed by dozens of scholars, is The American Crisis report. The American Crisis analyzes the likelihood of the administration thwarting electoral due process; escalating military and paramilitary occupations of US cities; and other emerging threats that would worsen any electoral, constitutional, or military crisis.

It’s not hard to see the shape of what may come. In the weeks preceding Election Day, we anticipate that election administration responsibilities could be seized from states and cities, and attempts made to disrupt, sabotage, or otherwise capture their administrative powers.

Alongside this, we see a high risk of dangerous physical escalation in our streets. Federal military forces are being deployed domestically without the consent of American cities and states. These federal deployments are often coupled with a rhetoric that treats communities as territories to be occupied and controlled rather than as constituencies to be protected.

We also expect efforts to obstruct or delay the swearing-in of newly elected officials. These efforts might include the removal of the clerk in the House of Representatives or the refusal of the US vice president and outgoing House speaker to swear in newly elected Members of Congress to the US Senate and House of Representatives, respectively.

In our report, we address in detail these military, electoral, and constitutional crisis points—as well as how American communities, movements, and institutions are preparing to respond.

Neighborhoods, communities, and their governments have been thrust forward to protect themselves against federal repression and dysfunction. In the process, they have demonstrated remarkable resilience.

If sufficiently connected with each other and backed up by labor unions; state governments; and major public, faith, business, and community institutions, municipalities offer our best hope for avoiding authoritarian takeover.

However, they are often fragmented. Neighborhood networks, labor organizations, community businesses, faith communities, public institutions, and local governments frequently operate without shared language or protocol, trusted coordination, or practiced ways of acting together.

The central preparedness challenge is not only to build more capacity, but to connect, test, and mobilize what already exists. Intermunicipal communications and coordination systems will serve as critical crisis infrastructure in the months ahead.

The report draws one other major conclusion. Following the November elections, the US Congress must fully assert itself as the primary branch of the federal government. The generation of 1776 gave Congress supremacy over the rest of the federal government. This is the reason the legislative branch is described first in the US Constitution, as Article I.

Over many years, much of congressional supremacy, representing the sovereignty of the American people and their States, has been abdicated or stolen. At this moment, without Congress, there is no republic, only dictatorship. If the US is to remain a republic in 2027, members of Congress must honor their oaths to uphold the Constitution by ensuring a successful democratic transition of power.

To our fellow Americans: This is not the time to look away. More than ever we need the kind of courage that history books heroize. We implore you to step forward and face the crisis. The full report is available: americancrisis.report.