What Must We Do To Save US Democracy?

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US democracy is in trouble right now. Under the façade of populism, the Trump administration has eroded long-held Constitutional protections. Insistent whispering behind the scenes from the Heritage Society has exacerbated the crisis.

To fight back, we must understand the nuances that are contributing to the deterioration of our US democracy. Here are some recent challenges to US representative rule that are worthy of being unpacked.

It’s so much more than favoritism: Social historian Heather Cox Richardson traces the rise of fascism and compares WWI era-Europe to today’s US federal government. “Fascism subordinates business activity to the needs of the government,” she explains. “In exchange for supporting them, government officials award massive government contracts and subsidies to favored businesses and protect them from regulation.”

Richard W. Behan, an analyst of the intersection of democracy and war, adds that the members of the “Supreme Court justices were never elected, but they nullify laws enacted by people who were—the Congress and the president. Every time it does so, the court literally overrides democracy. Isn’t that tyranny?”

Billionaires: A majority of US citizens fear that democracy is being undermined because billionaires now exert tremendous control within the US federal government. “There is a small kernel of political reality underlying the new right-wing red-baiting,” affirms Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman. We are witnessing what Krugman describes as “the emergence of a widespread public backlash against the extreme concentration of wealth in the hands of billionaires.” In retaliation, the Trump administration is targeting anyone who raises concerns about the wealth and political power of billionaires as a Communist, so, “in that sense, you are defining a majority of Americans as communists.”

Speaking of corporations that have created billionaires, Meta has withdrawn from the RE100 initiative, as it is no longer able to meet the technical criteria due to investments made in new gas power. “Are we willing to sacrifice our earthly home on the altar of AI?” asks CleanTechnica senior writer, Steve Hanley.

Science by humans? Soooo last century: A new US federal report, titled “Science: A New Golden Age,” marks what the administration refers to as “the first comprehensive rethinking of the US science and technology enterprise in over 80 years.” The reason? The administration is launching its new golden age “powered by AI for science.”

Few AI-generated findings are peer-reviewed or tested in laboratories.Talk about mixed messages! We return to a nostalgic past by foregrounding large language models that are programmed to present particular, narrow, and self-serving points of view — yes, generally by billionaires seeking to protect their wealth.

Clean energy: Last Wednesday a federal judge demanded that the US EPA administer a $2.8 billion Environmental and Climate Justice Block Program that the Trump administration had rescinded. This week a deep dive into a federal document titled “Department of Energy Stipulation” revealed the distribution of clean energy grants during Trump 2.0.

“340 grants proposed for termination were not terminated in October 2025, and they have not since been terminated. All such grants had a recipient location and/or at least one place of performance in a state that awarded its electoral votes to President Trump in the 2024 election or has at least one Republican caucusing Senator (“non-Blue State”).”

Illinois governor JB Pritzker promptly demanded that the funds be returned to his state immediately.

Women’s rights or the working class — mutually exclusive? Are US politics too ready to embrace “a blunt and brawny populism too dismissive of women — and too forgiving of male misconduct?” ask Patricia Mazzei and Kellen Browning in a recent New York Times article. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) agrees about marginalization of women in US politics. “The online echo chamber that exists and is where often times these personas are cultivated — that’s not organic,” she says. “That is being created around people and being served to voters.”

Environmental feminist Rebecca Solnit continues the conversation, arguing that the term “working class” is overused by middle-class pundits and politicians “to justify centering the needs, desires, and prejudices of white men, while insisting that this is a very progressive position to take.” Such vague definitions fail to acknowledge that most workers “are neither white nor male” and fail to include “women’s rights, racial justice, immigrant rights, climate action” as part of a vision for inclusive US democracy.

Rather than succumb to an “illogic in which, somehow, the white male vote counted for more than other votes,” it is time, Solnit says, to reconcile realities that white men do hold disproportionate power in the US “in terms of money and position, from Wall Street to Silicon Valley to electoral politics.” Yet the Democratic Party must also represent a US democracy committed to equality, she says, regardless of race, class, gender, sexual orientation, and committed to universal human rights.

Jessica Mackler, the president of Emily’s List, a group that works to elect Democratic women, describes how political strategists have at times rushed to create “magical” candidates — “the mythical bearded man that is the one that’s going to connect with working class voters”— at the expense of experienced women who know their communities and can win elections.

The establishment is getting nervous, Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) explains in a statement.

“Working families across the country understand that we have a rigged economy and a corrupt campaign finance system. And that is why so many progressive candidates, including many talented women, are successfully taking on the greed of the billionaire class. Some of the outstanding members of Congress are women who I and the progressive movement have supported.”

War is peace: Senator Jack Reed (D-RI) grilled Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth this week at a Senate Armed Services Committee public hearing. “You did not fully inform the president that you would be in a situation where the Strait of Hormuz could be effectively closed, oil prices could surge, and effectively, the Iranians could maintain their ability to strike back as they are right now,” Reed argued.

Contradicting Hegseth’s pattern of praising President Trump for his vision in the Iran War, Reed continued, ““He should be praised for starting a war without authority, creating a situation in which the world economy is suffering tremendously?” Comments like Reed’s help us to understand the backdrop of current policies that threaten the US democracy.

Thanks to the Senator and to all those individuals who are finding their voices to fight back against attempts to subsume the US government.

References

“America needs a movement to curb billionaires’ power.” Steven Greenhouse. The Guardian. March 15, 2026.

“Democrats stick it to Hegseth.” Jennifer Rubin. Undaunted. July 24, 2026,

“Elon Musk, the new hero of populism.” Paul Krugman. Substack. July 23, 2026.

“July 22, 2026.” Heather Cox Richardson. Letters from an American.

“OSTP director releases landmark report and recommendations for renewing American scientific discovery.” The White House. July 21, 2026.

“Platner’s rise and fall revives old questions about ‘Bernie Bros’ and women.” Patricia Mazzei and Kellen Browning. New York Times. July 11, 2026.

“Pod save patriarchy (or whatever that sorry Platner spectacle was).” Rebecca Solnit. Meditations in an Emergency. July 7, 2026.

“SCOTUS as tyrant: Handmaiden to corporate America.” Richard W. Behan. Common Dreams. July 22, 2026.

“Judge faults EPA for ignoring court order on climate grants.” Lesley Clark. E&E by Politico. July 22, 2026.