that's absolutely dragging the country in that direction - but being dragged in a given direction is not the same as having moved into something that can be identified as currently close to an autocracy.

I don’t know about you, but I see it as a very bad thing to be dragged even just a bit towards autocracy. That’s not something we should be flirting with.

Yet something like 1/3 of the population is cheering on this move as if it’s a good thing. That might be enough support to get us to full blown autocracy. Maybe not in the next 3 years, but what about the 4 after that? With the movement toward it that’s happened in the last decade, could another administration (with a more capable leader) take things further toward autocracy?

What more would it take to get there? We’ve already got a Congress that’s mostly compliant with Trump. They aren’t exercising their job as a check and balance against the President. We’ve got a Supreme Court that is willing to grant the President more powers, even if they don’t side with him every time. And they’re making more decisions on the shadow docket, with rushed arguments and briefings and decision time frames.

I agree that none of these mean were at full blown autocracy. But all of them are steps toward it. We should not be stepping toward autocracy. We should be stepping away. Any steps toward autocracy should be alarming, because every autocracy started with small steps and citizens who thought it wouldn’t happen to them.

—Peter