The Weekly: Death By A Thousand Small Surrenders
America is under strain, but the story is not yet one of collapse. It is a story about whether democratic institutions can endure long enough for citizens to defend them.
This week the Steady State doubled down on the fact that the greatest threat to American democracy is not a sudden coup or dramatic crisis, but the slow normalization of authoritarian behavior that weakens institutions, erodes truth, politicizes expertise—behavior that encourages citizens to treat freedom as permanent rather than something that must be actively defended. We also strongly maintain that democratic renewal remains possible IF Americans awaken to this threat and exercise what remains of their constitutional freedoms, before it is too late, choosing vigilance over complacency and principle over partisanship.
ESSENTIALS
QUOTED in The Guardian.Com
FBI agents driven out under Trump assault form support network: ‘I’m still a human’
Former intelligence officers sound alarm over ‘devastating’ impact of president’s bid to overhaul US security agency
“Steven Cash, executive director of The Steady State – an organization of retired national security professionals dedicated to safeguarding the rule of law – said the network’s formation was a reaction to an official drive to reshape US security services in an image resembling historically notorious agencies like the KGB, the Gestapo or the Stasi, the secret police in communist East Germany…It’s an alarm bell ringing. These are people that stay on the line to the last. The fact that they need a support group tells us that American democracy itself and law enforcement needs a support group.”
TRENDING on Facebook
THE MISSION
Amid an end-of-week deadline for congressional extension of Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) surveillance authority, Democratic members of the House Homeland Security Committee held a forum on concerns about federal government surveillance of American citizens. Steady State Executive Director Steven A. Cash testified concerning government surveillance under an increasingly authoritarian administration.
#HOLDFAST
Founded in 2016, The Steady State is a nonprofit 501(c)(4) organization of more than 400 former senior national security professionals. Our membership includes former officials from the CIA, FBI, Department of State, Department of Defense, and Department of Homeland Security. Drawing on deep expertise across national security disciplines, including intelligence, diplomacy, military affairs, and law, we advocate for constitutional democracy, the rule of law, and the preservation of America’s national security institutions.
Powered by WPeMatico