A group of former officials who served presidents of both parties says the country is facing 'the most serious threat to our system of 'we the people' government since 1860.' In a Fortune commentary, Richard Gephardt, Timothy E. Wirth, Leon Panetta, Theodore Roosevelt V, Reid J. Ribble, Stephanie A. Grisham and Miles Taylor said America is moving 'incrementally but steadily' from self-governance toward authoritarian governance.
They said the concern centers on election security and the ability to hold 'valid, trusted elections.' The group pointed to a series of actions they attribute to Trump and his administration, beginning with his first day in office in 2025, when they say he pardoned or commuted the sentences of roughly 1,500 people charged or convicted in connection with the 2021 attack on the Capitol.
The commentary also says Trump has fired or forced out some 75 federal officials who played important roles in ensuring valid elections, with some replaced by people who worked to reverse the 2020 vote. The authors said Kurt Olsen, described as the administration’s director of 'election security and integrity,' directed the FBI to seize ballots from the 2020 election in Fulton County, Georgia, while senators called the legal basis for the seizure 'misleading.'
They added that the Justice Department obtained 2020 ballot images in Maricopa County, Arizona, and demanded ballots from the 2024 election in Wayne County, Michigan. The group also said FBI agents searched the office and questioned staff of an Ohio group supporting voter registration without a search warrant, and that an assistant U.S. attorney in Los Angeles announced multiple election fraud investigations after California’s primary election and said he planned to charge people as soon as California certifies its vote count.
The commentary further says Trump signed an executive order claiming authority to regulate federal elections, but multiple federal courts blocked it, ruling that power rests with Congress and the states. It also says he torpedoed a bipartisan housing bill he had publicly supported, using it as leverage, and that his Postmaster General endorsed a rule that the Postal Service will not distribute mail-in ballots in states that refuse to turn over voting rolls to the administration.
The authors say the dispute is ultimately about who controls the vote: the states or Washington. For market-minded readers, the stakes are bigger than one election cycle. Capital needs clear rules, and the republic depends on the same thing. If trusted elections weaken, so does the legitimacy that keeps power contained and government accountable.
