In Ernest Hemingway's first novel, The Sun Also Rises, one of the characters is asked how he went bankrupt. “Two ways. Gradually, then suddenly.” Nearly 100 years later these lines still ring true. Bankruptcy — whether financial, moral or political — tends to happen gradually until it happens suddenly.

The moral bankruptcy of the Republican Party did not happen overnight. It happened gradually — starting with Newt Gingrich’s attack on the government in the early 1990s. It continued with the Tea Party movement, the birther conspiracy and the nomination of Donald Trump in 2016.

It gained momentum when Trump won the 2016 election despite losing the popular vote. Once in office, it grew worse when his attacks on democratic institutions were met with acquiescence by most of his party.

The mistake many of us made was believing that the aftermath of the 2020 election marked an end to the GOP’s descent into moral collapse. We were wrong. Jan. 6 marked a further descent into the moral abyss. 

By 2024, the few principled Republicans had already abandoned their party for the “Never Trump” movement. What was left were Trump dead-enders and those without any core principles at all. A party once built on the promise of Lincoln had become the morally bankrupt party of Trump.

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As we approached the 2024 election, I knew that there was a chance Kamala Harris would fall short. She had been dealt a very difficult hand — a campaign she inherited rather than built and a short time to introduce herself. She was also going to be running against a man without boundaries or decency, who built a movement based on hate.

What I was not prepared for was the rapid descent of so many other people and institutions I thought were, like me, bracing for the worst while hoping for the best. Even before the election, the once-proud Washington Post, had been called to heel by a billionaire owner terrified of what Trump might do if elected. The paper's slow trickle of economic loss became a torrent when its subscribers canceled en masse.

Since the election, other media figures and outlets have followed suit — each in their own way, each moving gradually towards obedience to Trump and then suddenly. As ratings and circulation rates suffer the financial risks do as well.

I no longer believe this pattern will be limited to Republican politicians or even the media. All corners of public life are showing gradual signs of accommodating Trump. Some of the voices most critical of him three weeks ago have grown more measured.  Others have gone silent.

Corporate titans have gone out of their way to praise a man and a movement that in 2021 they promised never to support. World leaders who know better act as scared children avoiding an abusive parent. Even some progressive groups are acting with more trepidation and care.

I understand it. I feel it. Like others, I fear the threat of government retribution, political vengeance and an angry right-wing mob. But I know that giving into it will only strengthen Trump and undermine the future of our democracy. Trump wants us to be scared. He wants us to give up — gradually and then suddenly. 

When I started Democracy Docket in 2020, I envisioned it as a place to share information, analysis and opinion about democracy. My focus was on the courts because there were so few resources for nonlawyers to get information about how judges were affecting voting and elections. 

It has evolved along with the challenges democracy has faced. In the aftermath of the 2020 election, it became the primary source for tracking lawsuits seeking to overturn the election. In 2021, it tracked the unprecedented state legislative attacks on voting rights and the litigation that followed.

Along the way it added a daily newsletter and most recently premium content. What it has not added are outside investors. It owes nothing to corporate interests or external financial backers. It is not tax-exempt and thus seeks no favor from the government. Though more expensive, it hosts its own website so that it can never be shut down by a platform like Substack.

Thanks to its supporters, it has the luxury of being fiercely independent and uncompromisingly pro-democracy.

If, at some point in the future, Democracy Docket goes quiet or goes bankrupt, it will be because its subscribers and members have decided that it is no longer worth supporting. Until then, I can promise you, it will not obey and it will not back down.

As legacy media increasingly normalizes Trump and his movement, Democracy Docket will always stand by its mission to hold those in power accountable and expose the ongoing threats to our democracy. We are beholden only to our readers and members, so consider joining thousands in supporting our pro-democracy news outlet by becoming a premium member today.