Watching the slow march to authoritarianism in the US is triggering for many of us in the national security community who lived in authoritarian states. How can this be happening in America, when we all worked for decades against such countries that espoused ideals anathema to what our country was founded upon? My time serving […]
Authoritarianism doesn’t arrive as a thunderclap. It arrives as a series of adjustments the public learns to live with. In 1989, the country where I was born, still claimed to be a democracy. Panama had elections, courts, a legislature, and a constitution. But none of those things protected us. All real power belonged to one […]
Reflections on law, humanity, and what happens when institutions forget their purpose. Photo by Ray Graciano on Unsplash “How could you work with our governments when you know that they have no respect for the rule of law and violate human rights?” The question came from a group of lawyers and judges from the Middle […]
Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson The prosecutor has more control over life, liberty, and reputation than any other person in America. While the prosecutor at his best is one of the most beneficent forces in our society, when he acts from malice or other base motives, he is one of the worst…. Therein is the […]
President Trump has settled into a groove. Every opponent, every critic, every politician with the slightest liberal leaning is a ‘socialist’, or a ‘radical leftist’, or even a ‘communist’. This abuse of language and thought has become so routine we hardly notice anymore. But we should. I know communism. I started a career at the […]
HELOISE KROB / FRANCEINFO / GETTY IMAGES) Since his inauguration in late January 2025, Donald Trump has made numerous actions that, according to experts, are blows to American democracy. Since returning to the White House, the American president has relentlessly sought to increase his powers and extinguish all opposition to the government, to the point […]
THE STEADY STATE The following is a summary of The Steady State’s “Accelerating Authoritarian Dynamics: Assessment of Democratic Decline,” published on October 16, 2025. Representing more than 340 former national security professionals — including diplomats, military officers, and intelligence officials — the Assessment is authored by former U.S. Intelligence Community analysts. Using the analytic methods […]
My background is largely the reason I joined the U.S. military after finishing college and why I opted to serve in the U.S. intelligence community after completing my military service. I fell in love with the United States the moment I stepped foot on US soil in January 1980. I didn’t know why. I was […]
There’s a temptation to dismiss Donald Trump’s excesses—the gilded ballrooms, the golden toilets, the absurd social-media feasts of self-adulation—as simply bad taste on a spectacular scale. Or as the pure narcissism of a man who never tires of seeing himself reflected back in every mirror and camera lens. But that’s only the surface. What we […]
Donald Trump has never cared about the country, the Constitution, or the people who still believe he’s fighting for them. The only thing he has ever truly cared about is himself; his wealth, his image, and his ability to turn public office into private profit. That’s why this administration is not just corrupt, but the […]