2025 Life Logs, Day 261: Two Meetings and Collapse
Date: Thursday, September 18, 2025
Weather: Partly Cloudy; High Temp 70, Low 58 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
Two very important meetings for me were both this afternoon, keeping me busy from 12:30 to 5:30 pm with the meetings themselves, prep work, and follow-up. The first meeting was the field trip group I co-lead with Christina Brodie. We now have a full slate of 12 months of field trip ideas. Then it was on to the Exploring Public Policy meeting I co-lead with Jon Kaufman. At that meeting, we brainstormed ideas for meeting for this coming year. So a good start.
The afternoon of meetings was a lot, but on top of that, I am dealing with a massive sinus issue. Ugh. That is sapping my energy. And I literally had 4 meetings to choose from for tonight. But I ditched them all and went to the 99 for $9.99 burger night with friends Bruce and Jane, at their invitation. Thank you, Bruce and Jane! That way more fun than any of the other meetings might have been, plus I got to catch up on what is happening in their lives.
After dinner, I came home and previewed a short film on nonviolent resistance and watched one segment of Jen Psaki’s program on MSNBC. Stacey Abrams was on promoting a “10 Steps” framework that describes a playbook for resisting autocracy and defending democracy, based on a model from Princeton Professor Kim Scheppele. Instead of a book outlining these steps, the campaign is primarily promoted through Abrams’ podcast, Assembly Required, and her Substack newsletter, Assembly Notes, as a toolkit for action. I really recommend you read it below. Nothing new here, just another way to summarize what we are living through and what we can do about it.
The framework is presented in two parts:
• 10 Steps to Autocracy: This part identifies the warning signs of a country sliding toward authoritarian rule.
• 10 Steps to Freedom and Power: This part offers solutions and actions for citizens to take to push back against these autocratic tendencies.
The 10 steps to autocracy
This framework is inspired by Professor Scheppele’s analysis of how autocrats take power, often while maintaining a facade of democratic legitimacy. The steps include:
1. Winning an election, which provides a veneer of legitimacy.
2. Expanding executive power beyond constitutional limits.
3. Making the legislature complicit and neutering the judiciary.
4. Gutting the civil service by firing competent officials.
5. Installing loyalists in key government positions, such as the FBI, Justice Department, and Defense.
6. Using loyalist institutions to go after political enemies.
7. Identifying scapegoats, such as vulnerable communities.
8. Undermining civil society by targeting universities and other civic institutions.
9. Incentivizing private violence and using federal troops against citizens to instill fear.
10. Canceling elections or making participation so difficult that no one believes it is safe or matters.
The 10 steps to freedom and power
To combat the rise of autocracy, Abrams’ campaign offers a corresponding set of actions for citizens. These steps are designed to build resilience and empower communities:
1. Connect the dots: Explain to friends and family how autocratic policies directly impact their lives, translating complex political terms into lived experiences.
2. Make democracy deliver: Show that democracy can work and solve everyday problems to prevent citizens from losing faith in the system.
3. Use mutual aid to support communities and reduce reliance on government services.
4. Speak the truth and resist propaganda.
5. Rebuild community by organizing locally and fostering connections across different groups.
6. Support a free press to combat misinformation.
7. Fight for fair elections and work to combat voter suppression.
8. Invest in civic infrastructure by supporting universities, charities, and other institutions that strengthen civil society.
9. Defend vulnerable communities targeted by autocratic leaders.
10. Challenge leaders and hold them accountable.
