From Trump to Indiana, authoritarianism creeps toward us

Yahoo

07-05-2025

I come from a long line of agitators, but to the likely chagrin of my ancestors, I've never been one for protest: I'm lazy and soft and have always viewed the whole concept as almost entirely performative.
That's why I was surprised to find myself, on a blustery May Day, standing on the federal courthouse plaza in downtown Indianapolis alongside hundreds of other lawyers, reciting our oath together in a protest against the creeping authoritarianism of the second Trump term.
Not exactly the Battle of Seattle (it wasn't even 'officially' a 'protest'), but the point is, I'm worried enough to show up. And that worry stems from a question I keep hearing from people like me: center-left, educated, reasonably engaged white-collar professionals.​
Why aren't more Americans alarmed?
Governance by whim
Yes, our polarized information ecosystem plays a major role. But I think there are other, less obvious reasons that help explain how we've become desensitized to the erosion of democratic norms.
First, we've normalized unilateral executive action. The steady rise of executive orders — from Barack Obama onward — has shifted expectations. Many folks cheered when presidents acted unilaterally for causes they support: protecting DACA recipients or canceling student debt. But, in a democracy, form sometimes matters more than function.
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You can't cheer executive power when it helps you and then act shocked when it's used for something far worse. Rule by pen creates an inevitable slide towards governance by whim.
Second, the anti-Trump movement became the resistance that cried fascism. I was horrified and embarrassed by much of Trump 1 and 2, but not every terrible policy is authoritarian. When every action is labeled fascist, people stop listening. To a regular person tuning in occasionally, the volume of alarm makes it easier to tune out entirely.
Third, there's a bad-faith argument that still resonates emotionally, which goes something like this. Many elite institutions have moved aggressively left in an authoritarian way: academia, media, corporate human resources, etc. And so, some argue, muscular state action is needed to rebalance them. It's a compelling narrative. It's also nonsense.
Indiana is choosing, punishing enemies
Protesters march Thursday, May 1, 2025, in a May Day rally at the Indiana Statehouse in opposition of the Trump administration.
Many important sectors have become reflexively censorious and illiberal in ways that are corrosive to civic life. But the state is categorically different, because it alone holds a monopoly on the sanctioned use of coercive violence. It was wrong when the Biden administration leaned on platforms to suppress COVID-19 'misinformation,' just as it's wrong when the Trump administration threatens to punish universities or law firms.
You don't have to dismiss legitimate complaints about ideological capture to say what, until recently, was obvious and agreed upon in this country: Illiberalism is worse when the state does it.
Whether out of information overload, polarization, or recent false alarms, the public's attention has dulled. But we need to snap out of it, because right now, we're facing two unmistakable warning signs of advancing authoritarianism.
First is increased weaponization of state power: using the levers of government to punish your ideological opponents. What recently seemed unthinkable is now commonplace.
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Trump 2.0 is punishing law firms that represent the 'wrong' clients. Universities face funding cuts and forced structural overhauls for perceived ideological offenses. Even private companies are threatened if they adopt the wrong stance on the wrong social issue, or state true facts about the impact of policies.
If Trump 1 was a horse in a hospital, then Trump 2 is more like a deranged health care executive demanding that all the hospital's doctors renounce the Hippocratic oath.
This is not limited to Washington. Here in Indiana, this playbook is already in use.
Attorney General Todd Rokita recently publicly posted the name and photo of a middle school teacher whose supposed offense was displaying a small rainbow sign that read 'All Are Welcome Here.' This was part of Rokita's campaign to promote his 'Parents' Bill of Rights,' which, apparently, includes state-sanctioned harassment of public school teachers.
This is the state actively choosing enemies and then using its platform to attempt to punish them.
Second, authoritarianism doesn't take root because of state action alone. It depends on public consent, or at least resignation, which often comes in the form of people trading freedom for a sense of safety.
Benjamin Franklin's overquoted line feels relevant: 'They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.'
Liberty is in danger
Protesters march Thursday, May 1, 2025, in a May Day rally at the Indiana Statehouse in opposition of the Trump administration.
In a sprawling, complicated democracy like ours, liberty flows from due process: the idea that those in power must always follow procedure and that even unpopular or marginalized people deserve the protection conferred by that process.
Once that principle is tossed aside, liberty itself is in serious danger. And nowhere is this erosion more visible than in the public conversation around immigration and President Trump's promises of mass deportation.
Democrats were far too late in acknowledging that the issue does have coherent internal logic and broad appeal: A nation must control its borders, and the rule of law must mean something. A lot, maybe most, of the blame lies with the Biden administration's complete neglect of the border issue.
But whatever the situation, the mechanics of 'mass deportation' should terrify any American that cares about liberty or freedom, regardless of any temporary gains in border security.
To deport millions, the government must first find them. That requires a vast new enforcement infrastructure: more surveillance, more detention centers and more federal agents in our neighborhoods. Employers and landlords become informants. Police become immigration officers. Traffic stops turn into document checks. Entire communities live in fear. Horror stories like the ones we've already seen will become routine.
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This is a complete transformation of the American way of life. You cannot build a 'show us your papers' society and expect it to remain contained to one group. This is a genie that can't be put back in the bottle.
People of good faith can disagree, vociferously, on political and social issues, but this is bigger than politics; this is nothing less than the bedrock of our democracy.
And that's why I got out of my comfort zone and went to the courthouse to stand with strangers and repeat an oath that I've taken before, but has never quite resonated like it does today.
Jay Chaudhary is the former director of the Indiana Division of Mental Health and Addiction and chair of the Indiana Behavioral Health Commission. He writes the Substack, Favorable Thriving Conditions.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: What is authoritarianism? It's Indiana punishing enemies. | Opinion