Stacey Abrams is the voting rights activist and former Georgia House Minority Leader who started the 10 Steps campaign. Its objective is to educate and mobilize Americans towards protecting democracy and bring people back to civic participation.
Below is the “10 Steps to Autocracy and Authoritarianism” with pertinent actions by this administration
- Win the Last Fair Election – 2024 Presidential election
- Expand Executive Power – current overreach is profound – extraordinary abuse of pardon power, firing independent officials and civil servants, withholding funds for laws passed by Congress, extorting liberal institutions (universities, law firms, companies), efforts to overturn 2020 election,
- Capture the Other Branches – Trump has steamrolled Congress, keeping Republican members silent with threats. He has also packed the Supreme Court with right-leaning justices.
- Gut the Government – DOGE and OMB have reduced/eliminated whole departments and 1000s of positions, regardless of fact they had protection against unjust firing through due process rights and “prohibited personnel practices”
- Install Loyalists – Positions in Cabinet and admin are based primarily on loyalty, with seemingly little to no requirement for their ability to do the job. Some (but not all) of those receiving significant criticism for incompetence are: Pete Hegseth (Dept Defense), Kash Patel (FBI), Robert Kennedy Jr, (HHS), Elon Musk (DOGE) and Kristi Noem (Homeland Security)
- Attack the Media – Trump has made repeated claims of ‘fake news’ for stories that criticize him or his administration. He also restricted AP access to briefings because they didn’t accept the “Gulf of America”
- Scapegoat Vulnerable Communities – capturing and deporting immigrants without due process, attempts to end birthright citizenship for children of undocumented immigrants
- Destroy Support Systems – The “Big Ugly Bill” effectively ends healthcare for millions on Medicaid and increases costs significantly for more Americans
- Normalize Violence – troops sent to big blue state cities, ICE masked capture and deportation, bombing boats from Venezuela, claiming they’re bringing drugs to the US
- End Democracy Itself – hasn’t happened yet