The Democracy Index

June 20, 2025

Every week, there’s an avalanche of news for us to cover. But this past week may be remembered as a genuine pivot, a moment when the increasing sprint of authoritarianism took a militaristic and violent turn. In spans like this, the urge to tune out, to become desensitized, to accept apathy becomes increasingly compelling. This maneuver is part of the authoritarian playbook. Overwhelm the moral senses of the population to the point of nonaction. This must not happen—because if we grow immune to this or allow it to be normalized, it will only get worse. Senseless cruelty, like the elimination of specialized support for LGBTQ+ youth on the national suicide prevention hotline, helps no one and harms one of the most vulnerable groups of people in the country.

On the flip side, last weekend revealed a pathway forward with historic peaceful resistance emerging throughout the country. We also celebrated Juneteenth this week to commemorate the end of slavery in America. As Rep. Jasmine Crockett said, it’s a “powerful reminder of how far we’ve come–and how much further we still need to go.”

Three episodes in particular, from three different regions across the country, are particularly indicative of the state of our democracy right now.

LOS ANGELES

We entered a new stage of our constitutional republic when the president of the United States federalized California’s National Guard last week and deployed the military against protesters in Los Angeles. While not unprecedented, such action almost always occurs at the request of a state’s governor. The last time a president has sent in troops against the wishes of a state was when President Lyndon Johnson sent the National Guard to protect civil rights activists marching from Selma to Montgomery.

Last week, however, Trump went against the express wishes of California state leaders in order to regulate demonstrations criticizing the administration’s escalating deportation raids. Given that nothing has yet occurred outside the realm of local law enforcement capabilities, paired with Trump’s previous statements about his desire to invoke the insurrection act, it looks like the government was merely looking for an opportunity to take this dramatic action.

We’ve written in greater detail about the legalities, or more accurately illegalities, of Trump’s decision. But it’s worth taking a step back to consider the implications of what has happened—as this extraordinary assertion of federal power is still active across the streets of Los Angeles. As of the latest update, the total number of troops deployed to Los Angeles are 700 U.S. Marines and 4,100 members of the California Army National Guard. Rather than being deterred by the lack of violence against them, Trump has indicated he will use similar force in other (blue) cities throughout the country to assist ICE’s aggressive immigration raids. Trump is testing the waters, trying to condition the American people to a more and more militaristic state.

MINNESOTA

The epidemic of political violence continues to appall, with the latest tragedy occurring in Minnesota. Last Saturday, a man killed former Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, in a politically motivated assassination. Senator John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, were also shot but survived the attack.

While we were still reeling from the shocking assassination of a public servant and her spouse, other destructive trends in our politics—namely, misinformation and the corrosion of public discourse in civil society—compounded the pain and confusion felt by many. In short order, blatantly untrue conspiracies about the shooter and his party affiliations—in particular among right wingers trying to escape association with this act of political terrorism—dominated social media. These cruel conspiracies reached their way to Senator Mike Lee who publicly posted that, “this is what happens When Marxists don’t get their way” and captioned a picture of the suspected shooter, “Nightmare on Waltz Street." Minnesota Senator Tina Smith, confronted him, face-to-face, and shortly thereafter (though not soon enough), he pulled down the cruel, tone-deaf posts—without ever acknowledging their falsity; let alone apologizing.

That heartless response was reflected by MAGA leader, Donald Trump, and his comments. After the shooting, Trump set the example for his minions and behaved like anything but a government leader by stating that it would “waste of time” to call Gov. Tim Walz. Although he did condemn the act of political violence on U.S. soil by an American citizen, Trump has dismissed the event as not important enough to engage with, thereby suggesting permission for future political violence to fester.

NEW YORK

Then on Tuesday, Brad Lander, New York’s top financial officer and a candidate for mayor, was arrested by ICE agents as he accompanied immigrants out of detention proceedings. This is just another example of the federal government targeting “opposition” politicians—after the prosecution of representative LaMonica McIver. The close image of Lander being aggressively manhandled and shoved by federal agents offered a stark visual representation of the dangerous state of democracy we’re in.

DUELING VISIONS OF AMERICA

But in contrast to Trump‘s violent approach, an estimated 5 million pro-democracy advocates came out to peacefully, robustly protest against authoritarianism last Saturday at No Kings Day events, which took place in all fifty states and even globally. That number, by some estimates, is considered the largest single day protest in modern history. The gatherings created a drastic split screen with Trump’s failed fantasy of a gaudy military parade, which was such a resounding flop that the squeak of the tanks could be heard rolling across Constitution Avenue. It’s worth noting that Trump’s vainglorious birthday military parade was sponsored by multiple Trump allies, including the crypto trading site Coinbase and the controversial data analysis and technology firm Palantir, whose contracts with the federal government are expanding.

Though we tracked a highly charged week in Washington, with legislation such as the the GENIUS Act being passed in the Senate on Tuesday and Trump’s family business announcing they would be releasing a new smartphone and mobile plan “Trump Mobile,” none reached the same voltage as what we saw across the nation with the development of increased force being used by our government against our own citizens.

The deployment of the national guard (and the lack of condemnation about the assassination of our elected officials) has only been compounded by global affairs, where we’re witnessing a President trying to assume the war powers of Congress. Despite Trump’s noncommittal response when asked if he would attack Iran or not ("I may do it, I may not do it. Nobody knows what I'm going to do”), Congress has become so flaccid in the face of authoritarianism that they appear wholly unreliable as a counterforce against the Executive.

Until next week,

The Democracy Index team