A THOUGHTFUL ANALYSIS PART 1

CHRIS MURPHY IS A U.S. SENATOR, a Democrat representing the people of Connecticut. On April 19, 2025, he sent an email to me—and to plenty of others, I’m sure—advising that “Donald Trump’s plan to convert our democracy to autocracy is real.” Here, in Parts 1 and 2 today and tomorrow, are tidbits from his thoughtful analysis. 

See also David Remnick’s interview with Senator Murphy, “We Are Sleepwalking into Autocracy,” The New Yorker, March 30, 2025. 

Christopher Scott Murphy, White Plains, New York-born 1973, American lawyer, author, and politician. 

Wikipedia notes, “Murphy is junior United States senator from the state of Connecticut since 2013. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served in the U.S. House of Representatives,  representing Connecticut’s 5th district from 2007 to 2013. Before being elected to Congress, Murphy was a member of both chambers of the Connecticut General Assembly, serving two terms each in the Connecticut House of Representatives (1999–2003) and the Connecticut Senate (2003–2007).”

An Attack on Institutions. In overview Murphy writes, “Trump is enacting an insidious coordinated attack on the institutions that keep our government accountable to the people, designed to crater democracy before next fall.… A true democracy would hold Trump accountable for the mass-scale corruption—Trump’s crypto coin, the insider trading, Musk’s self-dealing, etc.” 

To which I add lack of due process and intimidation of the legislative and judicial branches, universities, the press, and just about anyone else with views differing from Trump’s.  

The U.S. Supreme Court. Image by Joe Ravi from Wikipedia.

The Supreme Court. The Senator recounts, “Some people are looking for some high-stakes confrontation between Trump and the Supreme Court. They think that will be the five-alarm fire moment, and some believe it’s here with Trump defying their ruling on the Abrego Garcia case. Don’t get me wrong—I’m furious about the disappearances, which I spoke out against early when the Columbia grad student was taken without due process. It’s what happens in tin-pot dictatorships.”

Murphy continues, “But a confrontation with the Supreme Court is not the endgame. The modern, time-tested way to destroy a democracy is NOT a coup or burning down the Parliament or a public confrontation with the judiciary. It’s a slow, methodical campaign to weaken the structures of accountability necessary for the political opposition to win elections. That was the playbook for Putin in Russia, Orbán in Hungary, and Erdoğan in Turkey, and Trump is copying it before our eyes. Here’s how it works.”

Tomorrow in Part 2, Senator Murphy continues his analysis and offers a strategy for resistance. ds

© Dennis Simanaitis, SimanaitisSays.com, 2025