An authoritarian coup is happening in the United States. And “we the people” are the only ones who can stop it. We must preserve and restore our democracy.

The Trump administration is undermining a foundational principle of the U.S. government: the intricate system of separate and shared powers between Congress (U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate), the executive (presidency) and the judiciary. That system, which has evolved for over 200 years, emerged from the compromises of the 1787 constitutional convention.

As James Madison explained in Federalist 51 that intricate system would limit the use of government coercion by dispersing and sharing power so ambitious office holders would be held accountable by other ambitious office holders. Ambition would counteract ambition by giving each branch of government the tools to hold the others responsible. The emergence of tyranny under such circumstances, then, would be difficult.

Since January, the Trump administration has jettisoned that and other principles. The proliferation of executive orders, the summary dismissal of civil servants and political appointees, the dismantling of federal agencies, the freezing of funds and the public statements that Congress and the courts cannot control the executive’s legitimate power (by implication the executive decides what powers are legitimate) directly attack democracy, equality and freedom.

Though presidents have gone beyond the bounds of the constitution in the past, this is different. This is a planned, well-designed series of actions to take over and destroy our constitutional republic. As Nick Catoggio from The Dispatch writes, “These polices (executive orders) are not being offered in isolation, with an eye in each case to maximizing the public welfare and therefore to be ‘called’ as balls and strikes on their individual merits. They’re part of a cohesive, aggressive, authoritarian program to accrue power in the executive branch and to wield it to advance the president’s interests whether that’s lawful or to the country’s general benefit.”

This aggrandizement of the coercive power of government becomes more dangerous under the political morality of friends and enemies that has become prevalent in the last decade or more. As described by David French in The New York Times, instead of a pluralistic society in which groups compete for power under shared rules of the games and where winners and losers shift positions in the political game, under a political morality of friends and enemies a zero sum game of winners and losers is played.

Under the Trump administration, politics is about the distinction between friends and enemies. It is about the distinction between winners and losers. Friends as defined by fealty to President Trump and his administrative priorities are deemed worthy of rewards and preferential treatment, while enemies lose security protections and are to be destroyed. A political morality that becomes problematic at best when the Trump administration controls the coercive powers of government.

That morality combined with the erosion of the separation of powers substantially reduces the limits on the use of government coercion. The government, by definition, is the only institution that can legitimately use force. Without the constraints of norms or other institutions our rights are under jeopardy.

We, the people, must act. The Republicans, the majority party in the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate, will not. The Republicans are currently complicit because their ideological policy preferences seem to be being met. They have forgotten their oath to the U.S. Constitution. It is up to us to remind them of that oath.

The Democrats, the minority party in Congress, not only do not have access to the congressional tools to take proactive action, but most of them do not understand that the norms and rules of the game have changed. We must remind them that this is a new world.

We must remind our judges and justices to buck political pressure and to follow standard practices of jurisprudence. Justice must be done whether or not the executive branch will ultimately follow judicial decisions that are against its interests.

Madison in Federalist 51 indicates that the people have the primary control over government. As he writes, “A dependence on the people, no doubt, is the primary control on the government; but experience has taught mankind the necessity of auxiliary precautions.”

The ancillary precautions are failing. It is up to us the people to stand firm. Contact me at bradfordfordemocracy@gmail.com to join the movement for democracy.

(David Fitz, PhD, political science, 1993, University of Pittsburgh, is a Bradford resident.)