What We Can Do
What Worked Last Time
How courageous Americans helped safeguard U.S. democracy
The best way to defeat authoritarianism is at the ballot box. Nothing is more important than pro-democracy voters joining together to protect a free and fair election in 2024 and defeat authoritarian-minded candidates.
While that would not cure all that ails our democracy, it would give us four more years to reduce the power of the autocratic faction, create off-ramps for strongman supporters, form new political coalitions, and harden legal guardrails against abuses of power.
But, the electoral defeat of authoritarian candidates may not always be achievable. As Trump’s 2016 victory proves, and indeed, the election of autocrats in democratic systems around the globe make clear, authoritarians can win elections outright — especially in a two-party winner-take-all electoral system.
In the event an autocrat is elected, we will need plans for protecting the core institutions of our democracy and our constitutional order against extralegal or authoritarian subversion. To prepare for such a scenario, we should anticipate future challenges and assess what strategies helped mitigate the threat in the intervening years between Trump’s first inauguration and exit from office.
After Trump’s election in 2016, pro-democracy coalitions formed and stepped in as a counterweight to the authoritarians in the White House. Across the country, people organized, lobbied, demonstrated, and provided concrete support to the most marginalized. Attorneys organized and gathered at the airports, where Trump’s Muslim ban was causing chaos. Americans generously donated funds to support organizations to protect vulnerable members of our society.
Starting in 2016 and stretching into the new administration, institutionalists across the political spectrum gave us the vocabulary for naming the threat, accurately describing the Trump administration’s authoritarian mindset, non-democratic commitments, and utter cruelty. Thousands of former DOJ officials wrote forcefully to warn
the public about the degradation of the Department of Justice. A host of Republicans bucked their party, spoke out, and filed suits to preserve our form of government.
Despite concerns that the pandemic would suppress voter turnout in the 2020 presidential election, Americans voted in record numbers. (AP Photo/Gerry Broome)
Political organizing that began at the end of 2016 translated into wins at the ballot box in 2020 and 2022, supplanting election deniers with new pro-democracy officials.
Non-partisan government officials took risks to honor their oaths. As Trump appointees at DOJ worked to cover up impeachable offenses, the National Security Council’s top expert on Ukraine, Alexander Vindman, testified about President Trump’s efforts to pressure Ukraine to smear his domestic political rivals, at significant personal cost.
Then, as the 2020 elections approached and Trump began a campaign to undermine confidence in the results, Americans worked to maintain confidence in our elections. The National Task Force on Election Crises, a cross-ideological, multi-disciplinary body of more than 50 trusted experts on election law, election administration, national security, cybersecurity, social media, emergency response, continuity of government, transfers of power, voting rights, and public health, engaged with key state and federal election officials and elected leaders, and civil society stakeholders to help prevent and mitigate election crises.
Recognizing that the basic building blocks of our democracy were under threat, the heads of the Chamber of Commerce, AFL-CIO, the National Association of Evangelicals, and the National African American Clergy Network, a unique coalition, joined together on election day to support our democratic process and the peaceful transition of power.
At a time when gathering in person posed a life-threatening risk, local and state officials worked around the clock to expand mail-in-voting. And, despite the danger, Americans still came out to vote in person and to drive others to the polls, producing record turnout numbers. Poll workers dealt not only with tough pandemic-related challenges but also violent threats, sometimes from the president himself.
Amid growing violence in the post-election period, the courts rightly dismissed frivolous cases, rejecting dozens of cases filed by the president’s campaign and his allies. The Supreme Court swiftly declined to hear any appeals.
After Trump left office, the House of Representatives impeached Trump for his actions. When most Republicans in the Senate refused to convict, the efforts to hold Trump accountable continued. The House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol was formed. Republicans Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger broke with their party to serve on it, bringing the necessary bipartisan credibility that brought forward testimony from top Trump aides who illuminated the president’s role in the coup attempt. Election workers Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss weathered ugly and racist personal attacks to testify to the harassment they suffered from being mercilessly smeared by Trump, his lawyer Rudy Giuliani, and others.
Over the course of more than four years, it was this hopeful, courageous, and pragmatic American spirit that held our democracy together in the face of a would-be authoritarian president who tried desperately to stay in power, overruling the will of the American people.
Today, we must recognize that we may be called to rise to the occasion again and that next time, the task will be harder.
Before Trump, many norms long sustained our democracy: the certification of election results and the counting of electoral certificates as a ministerial exercise; the willingness of the losing candidate to concede; the outgoing administration accepting the results and facilitating the transition; the understanding that the incumbent would not pressure DOJ to undermine faith in the outcome. Pursuant to these norms and constitutional principles, we could trust that the President would not pocket money from foreign governments, impound funds as part of a scheme to dig up dirt on his political opponents, fire five inspectors general in six weeks, or block funding for the U.S. Postal Service to make it harder to vote.
We can no longer take those norms for granted. We must defend our democratic institutions so that in our time of need, the democratic institutions will be able to defend us. The final section of this report contains recommendations the pro-democracy coalition should adopt to withstand and overcome the challenges when faced with a president bent on authoritarian consolidation.
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Recommendations
Ten strategies for the pro-democracy coalition to mitigate the threat
Many autocratic tactics described in this report will be best mitigated with targeted litigation, legislation, or other advocacy responses. But, from an overarching perspective, we recommend that civil society actors and the American public take the following approaches to prepare for and guard against the looming threat of an autocrat returning to the Oval Office.
None of these recommendations are a panacea. But, together, they provide a comprehensive set of actions that, informed by our recent successes containing the authoritarian threat in America and lessons drawn from abroad, will be foundational for the pro-democracy movement to build upon in the event of an authoritarian in the White House in 2025.
1. Create pro-democracy coalitions before the crisis arrives.
Now is the time to build stronger and deeper pro-democracy coalitions that are educated about what’s at stake and prepared to act together. Blunting a full-on autocratic government takeover will require courts, Congress, agency officials, states, and municipalities to act as checks against abuse of power. But, institutions often struggle to do this on their own. We’ll need to bolster them, and the best way to do that is through broad coalitions — whether of civic groups, advocacy organizations, business interests, faith groups, or otherwise. Building coalitions is time-consuming and requires legwork to establish respect and develop alignment.
2. Take anti-democratic ideas and promises seriously.
The voting public must know what is at stake in the next election and beyond. Public communicators, whether they hold jobs in the news media, campaigns, non-profit advocacy, corporate public affairs, or some other outward-facing positions, should focus on explaining how autocratic rule will impact their audiences and communities. That means focusing less on the horserace elements of political stories and refraining from “both sides” coverage that fails to explain the unique authoritarian threat. As New York University journalism professor Jay Rosen has encapsulated the need, we must all focus on “not the odds, but the stakes.”
3. Keep a broad pro-democracy movement united against the acute, big-picture autocratic danger.
The pro-democracy coalition must remain united as it continues to grow. That requires temporarily setting aside disagreements within the pro-democracy movement to the greatest extent possible. In a democracy the size of the United States, there are numerous permutations of firmly held beliefs on political issues. Authoritarians will exacerbate these divisions, pitting vulnerable groups against each other.
The pro-democracy coalition must stay focused on what unites us — protecting the ability to resolve policy disagreements through a democratic process. As Poland showed recently, and Belgium and Finland showed in the early 20th century, the way to overcome autocratic movements is for people committed to democracy from the left, center, and right to put their traditional differences aside to come together to defend democracy.
4. Support Republicans that stand firm for democratic institutions.
The authoritarian movement in America has been made possible with support from the Republican Party. At the same time, Republican officials and affiliated interest groups can have an outsized impact in checking the authoritarian faction. As scholars Daniel Ziblatt and Steven Levitsky have explained, it’s essential for pro-democratic actors in the authoritarian-dominated party not just to offer tacit criticism of autocratic actions but to “expel antidemocratic extremists from their ranks, refuse to endorse their candidacies, eschew all collaboration with them and, when necessary, join forces with ideological rivals to isolate and defeat them.” The pro-democracy coalition must be willing partners to support and nurture those relationships with pro-democracy Republicans that can produce meaningful change.
5. Rally around non-partisan, independent public servants.
Our democracy depends on millions of dedicated public servants doing their jobs to deliver services, uphold the law, and keep the public informed. Through their commitment to the rule of law, these civil servants, election officials, judges, and court employees are a first line of defense against an autocratic government. As this report explains, that is why among the autocratic faction’s first moves in power will be to dismantle the civil service and independent law enforcement and replace them with regime loyalists.
Independent public servants are the bulwark standing between the authoritarian and the American people; we may frequently disagree with them or be frustrated by what they do (or don’t do), but we must safeguard their vital roles. We must also help them when they speak out against authoritarianism, providing material resources and other forms of support in lawful ways when they risk their livelihoods or safety to do the right thing.
6. Uphold the rule of law and democratic institutions, and always repudiate violence.
The laws and institutions of our democracy are imperfect and we should seek necessary reforms. (See recommendation 10.) Yet, however problematic our laws or distorted our institutions, pro-democracy actors should observe the rule of law. Most importantly, pro-democracy actors must always condemn political violence. This also means respecting lawful court orders, avoiding aggressive presidential executive actions that stretch constraints on abuse of power, and refusing to tolerate corruption.
7. Protect the first targets and arrange to advocate for the most vulnerable.
A central tenet of the autocratic playbook is to target vulnerable people and populations to deflect from an autocrat’s failures and consolidate support. Community groups, civic and industry associations, and state and local governments should articulate agreements to support each other in times of need. We might think of this as the NATO Article V approach — “an attack against one … is an attack against all.” As with NATO, such alliances and agreements can create a deterrent effect that will make it harder for an autocrat to single out members.
8. Evaluate security at the community, household, and personal level.
Members of the pro-democracy coalition should be ready to address potential threats to their personal security, families, and workplaces. Practical safety preparedness includes protecting private personal information, evaluating online security vulnerabilities, and training for the unexpected. We should also identify people in our households, neighborhoods, and communities who may require additional support and develop plans in advance to help them should the need arise.
9. Work to protect free and fair elections in 2026 and 2028.
An autocrat in the White House will cause immense damage to our democratic institutions and hurt an enormous number of people, but the 2026 midterms will not be far away. We can expect the autocratic faction to continue to seek to suppress the right to vote, undermine confidence in election systems, and explore ways to nullify votes for opposing candidates.
We need to make substantial investments in all available strategies to protect free and fair elections in 2026 and 2028 so that “we the people” have a chance to hold the authoritarian faction accountable and vote it out of office. Those cycles may also be an opportunity for the pro-democracy coalition to come together to support solid pro-democracy candidates committed to upholding our Constitution and the rule of law.
10. Continue building the democracy of tomorrow.
In many ways, our democracy hangs in the balance over the next 12 months. American civil society must focus aggressively during that time on the defensive work of protecting a free and fair election in 2024, limiting the likelihood the autocratic faction prevails, and preparing for an autocrat in the White House in 2025.
Alongside these defensive efforts to protect our democracy, however, we must also work to build the resilient and inclusive democracy of tomorrow. That includes strengthening our checks and balances and rule of law institutions, reforming our electoral systems and political parties to make our democracy more representative and authoritarian resistant, enabling the democratic participation of those who have been historically excluded, bridging divides, and enhancing civic engagement.