1. United States
2. Pa.
3. Letter

Across multiple policy areas, the current administration has increasingly relied on rhetoric and actions that normalize authoritarian governance rather than constitutional restraint. While individual incidents may appear isolated or symbolic, taken together they reveal a troubling pattern of governing by grievance, intimidation, and personal vendetta rather than law, evidence, or democratic norms. This pattern includes suggesting elections could be delayed or cancelled, encouraging citizens to prove their legitimacy to federal agents, politicizing independent agencies, undermining regulatory processes for personal or cultural grievances, and framing dissent as disloyalty. Each action chips away at public trust; collectively, they erode the foundations of democratic governance. This reflects a well-documented phenomenon known as the normalization of deviance. When each breach of norms is treated as survivable in isolation, Americans—including lawmakers—become acclimated to conduct that would once have been unthinkable. Like a gradual rise in temperature, each new line crossed feels manageable. Only in retrospect does the full scope become clear. By the time leaders pause to assess the damage, the Rubicon has already been crossed—often months or years earlier—without anyone recognizing the precise moment it happened. Authoritarianism rarely arrives through a single dramatic act. It advances through repetition, exhaustion, and lowered expectations. When constitutional limits are treated as optional, oversight as obstruction, and federal power as a personal tool, the damage is cumulative and lasting. Congress has both the authority and the obligation to intervene—not only in response to individual violations, but to halt a broader trajectory that threatens civil liberties, institutional independence, and the rule of law. Failure to act risks cementing precedents that future administrations of any party could exploit. Democratic governance depends on restraint, accountability, and vigilance. Congress must act decisively to reaffirm those principles before the erosion becomes irreversible.