STS-107 Crew Photo, taken aboard Columbia The greatest threat to a democracy is not necessarily a dramatic rupture. It can be the slow, steady acceptance of behavior that previous generations would have immediately recognized as unacceptable. On January 28th 1986 the world watched in horror as NASA’s space shuttle Challenger exploded shortly after liftoff. A […]
Former senior CIA operations officer Jim Lawler sits down with Larry Pfeiffer, former senior director of the White House Situation Room and chief of staff to CIA Director Michael Hayden, who describes the rigors of working in the Situation Room, crisis decision-making, and what it takes to deliver accurate information when seconds matter. He describes […]
“…a government of laws and not men.” John Adams The federal judiciary has become a key target of presidential anger precisely because it remains one of the few institutions still capable of constraining executive misconduct. There has never been a US chief executive who hates judges and the law the way this one does. Because […]
Democratic guardrails are tested, institutions are pressured; citizens must decide whether constitutional principles still matter. The Steady State took a deep dive this week into the growing strain on the institutions that sustain American democracy, all of which are subject to a gradual but real erosion of democratic norms and an ever increasing slide towards […]
William Pulte’s temporary appointment as Acting DNI will have effects that outlast his tenure: retribution, politicized intelligence access, personnel purges, and reduced confidence in the legal certifications that support key intelligence surveillance operations. You can destroy a lot of stuff in 210 days. You can also ensure long-lasting damage to the entire Intelligence Community if […]
The campaign against 60 Minutes was never really about one interview or one lawsuit. It is about neutralizing one of the few remaining institutions capable of holding presidents accountable before a mass audience. There has been, understandably, a lot of coverage of the death of 60 Minutes. As many people and outlets as possible should […]
The controversy over Trump’s anti-weaponization fund is not an isolated case. It is part of a broader pattern in which money connected to presidential power is being raised, controlled, and spent through structures that operate outside traditional mechanisms of public oversight. Trump’s $1.776 billion anti-weaponization fund has drawn outrage for good reason. Acting Attorney General […]
[PDF VERSION AVAILABLE HERE] WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Steady State, an organization of more than 400 former national security, intelligence, diplomatic, military, law enforcement, and homeland security officials, opposes President Trump’s selection of Bill Pulte as Acting Director of National Intelligence. The appointment of unqualified political loyalists to oversee security and intelligence services is the […]
A new book, Common Sense: Take 2, A Call to Renew Democracy, contends that the United States is confronting not simply a political crisis but a deeper crisis of democratic capacity. Written by Russ Travers, a career public servant across multiple administrations who retired as Acting Director of the National Counterterrorism Center, focuses on the […]