Time of Death: When Democracy Died in America

Democracy rarely dies in one decisive moment. It decays in fragments, stripped away one right, one safeguard, one illusion at a time. In America, we’ve been told to look away, to normalize the abnormal, to excuse authoritarian power grabs as “politics as usual.” However, under Trump, and especially in his second term, democracy has been put on life support.

Every day, a new headline reads like a pulse check, another sign that the patient is fading. Rights are stripped, courts are ignored, truth is twisted, and violence is normalized. And the question keeps coming back: Did democracy just die here? Or are we only now acknowledging the corpse?

A Near-Daily Stripping of Rights

• Voting Rights: Gerrymandered maps carved out opposition voices, locking minority and urban voters out of fair representation.

  
  

• Immigrant Rights: Not only were asylum seekers turned away, but even American citizens and legal residents were deported, some to foreign prisons without due process afforded to ALL. Citizenship itself no longer guarantees safety.

  
  

• LGBTQ+ and Civil Rights: Legal protections were dismantled, institutions of higher learning attacked for “wokeness,” and DEI was gutted nationwide. Dissent itself has been rebranded as disloyalty.

  
  

• Checks and Balances: The Supreme Court’s 2024 ruling that presidents enjoy sweeping immunity opened the door to unchecked authoritarian rule. Trump’s administration has openly ignored lower court rulings, mocking judges and threatening allies. During his recent cabinet meeting, Trump reiterated that he is the president and can do anything he wants.

  
  

• The Military Within: Troops now patrol Los Angeles, Washington D.C., and other blue states and cities are planned, with the regime declaring the “enemy within” to be everyday Americans who aren’t part of the 1%, or white Christian nationalist property-owning men.

  
  

• Debt and Dependency: The “big, beautiful bill” celebrated as a win saddles future generations with unsustainable debt while enriching the powerful few and dismantling programs that once supported struggling Americans or secured our safety throughout the world.

  
  

• Foreign Policy as Theater: Vladimir Putin, an indicted war criminal, was welcomed onto American soil with giddy, adoring applause by the president, elevating dictatorship over democracy while allies abroad have been insulted and dismissed.

  
  

• Congress Abdicates: Republican lawmakers have all but rolled over, acting less like a coequal branch and more like a cheering section.

  
  

Taken together, these aren’t just cracks in democracy’s armor; they are the sound of the walls collapsing.

Did Democracy Die Here?

The moments stack like autopsy notes, each one a possible time of death:

1. 2016 Election Interference – When foreign meddling was proven, yet brushed aside.

   
   

2. Inauguration Day, 2017 – When “alternative facts” entered the bloodstream of politics.

   
   

3. The Muslim Ban (2017) – When discrimination became federal policy.

   
   

4. Family Separation Policy (2018) – When children were caged at the border.

   
   

5. Impeachment #1 (2019) – When accountability failed.

   
   

6. George Floyd Protests (2020) – When peaceful protesters were gassed for a photo op.

   
   

7. The Big Lie (2020) – When the truth about the election was poisoned beyond repair.

   
   

8. January 6th (2021) – When a violent mob stormed the Capitol, democracy barely survived.

   
   

9. Supreme Court Rollbacks (2022–2023) – When reproductive rights and civil rights were dismantled.

   
   

10. Presidential Immunity Ruling (2024) – When the Court crowned presidents above the law.

    
    

11. Congressional Gerrymandering (2024) – When elections were rigged in plain sight.

    
    

12. Mass Deportations (2025) – When even American citizens were exiled to foreign countries and prisons.

    
    

13. Ignored Courts & Attacks on Allies (2025) – When the executive branch simply stopped recognizing judicial limits or diplomatic ties.

    
    

14. Putin’s Applause (2025) – When a war criminal was cheered on U.S. soil by a president.

    
    

15. Troops in American Cities (2025) – When military force was used against U.S. citizens, treating blue communities as occupied zones.

    
    

16. The Big Beautiful Bill (2025) – When fiscal sabotage tied future generations to crippling debt.

    
    

17. Higher Education Attacks (2025) – When universities were branded as enemies of the state for teaching critical thought.

    
    

18. Congress Abdicates (2025) – When legislators ceded all power to the regime.

So, When Was the Time of Death?

Was it January 6th, when the Capitol was overrun? Or was it in 2025, when citizens were deported and tanks rolled down American streets? Or was it earlier, when “truth” itself was assassinated and replaced with propaganda?

The hard truth is that democracy may not have one single time of death. It has died in pieces, over and over, each time rights were stripped, checks and balances ignored, and cruelty normalized.

The only question that matters now is this: are we prepared to call the time of death and bury democracy, or are we willing to fight for resuscitation before it’s too late? 

I choose to fight to the end.