1. United States
2. N.Y.
3. Letter

This is not a normal presidency, and continuing to treat it as one is accelerating democratic collapse. teven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt — are clear: democracies do not u lity as temporary or strategic. rcement, false official narratives, and violence without accountabi Political scientists who study democratic backsliding — including S sually fall by coup, but by normalization. Authoritarianism advance s when elected officials excuse norm-breaking, politicized law enfo line in the United States. Foreign allies are now openly questionin larming. ntelligence Unit) have already documented measurable democratic dec g America’s commitment to rule-of-law norms. That alone should be a International democracy monitors (Freedom House, V-Dem, Economist I At this point, the executive branch is not the safeguard. Congress is. s operating outside democratic norms, and publicly name what is happening without euphemism. You are among the last officials with the constitutional authority to enforce oversight, constrain federal law-enforcement abuse, deny funding to agencie History does not judge moments like this by intentions or tone. It judges whether legislators acted while they still could. Stop treating this presidency as normal. Act accordingly.