The Weekly: The New Rules Are No Rules
This week The Steady State reveals the gradual but consistent nature of the autocratic decline we are experiencing: not in sudden crisis but in steady transformation, where democratic institutions are increasingly bent toward political ends rather than breaking outright.
Law enforcement and national security tools show signs of being used for retribution, while whistleblowers and accountability mechanisms face growing pressure, weakening the system’s ability to self-correct. At the same time, purges and politicization are eroding professional expertise across government, degrading capacity in ways that are gradual but lasting.
No single development is conclusive on its own; rather, it is the cumulative effect—each step normalizing the next—that is reshaping governance into something more personalized, less constrained by rules, and more dependent on loyalty than law. This is not collapse, but a quiet adaptation with profound implications.
As norms erode and retaliation rises, governance shifts from predictable law to discretionary power.
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A free press does not exist to protect presidents from uncomfortable evidence. It exists to put relevant facts before the public.
MISSION
As part of The Steady State purpose to to both warn and educate the American people about threats to our constitutional democracy, members regularly visit college campuses for discussions with students and faculty. Executive Director Steven A. Cash was recently invited to his alma mater, Vassar College, for such an event.
In this episode of Vassar College’s “What is Engaged Pluralism Podcast,” Kimberly Williams Brown hosts Steven Cash as he discusses the event, a campus talk that was disrupted. Cash urges civic engagement, dialogue and constitutional literacy, while warning that both rising political polarization and attempts to control speech, whether by protesters or government, reflect broader risks to pluralism and democratic norms.
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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.
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