institutions don’t fall—they’re dismantled

This essay is part of a 20-day project inspired by On Tyranny by Timothy Snyder.

The mistake is to assume that rulers who come to power through institutions cannot change or destroy those very institutions—even when that is exactly what they have announced they will do.

- Timothy Snyder | On Tyranny

He told us what he would do. He promised purges, retribution, and unchecked power. Too many dismissed his words as bluster, but now the consequences are undeniable. Thousands of career civil servants—people who dedicated their lives to serving the public—are being fired and traumatized under the guise of rooting out fraud, waste, and abuse, all to create space for loyalists. The Justice Department now serves the president, not the people, targeting "enemies of the state" like a mob boss. The Supreme Court has already granted 47 immunity. And a billionaire narcissist who detests empathy controls the digital public square, silencing dissent while amplifying propaganda.

This moment exposes the deep flaws in institutions built on dehumanization and the assumption that every leader who assumed the highest office in the land would be guided by a moral compass. When those safeguards fail and democracy is hollowed out from the inside, what remains is a system that was never meant to provide equity, justice, or belonging for all. These institutions were built to uphold the power and privilege of a select few—at the expense of everyone else.

Democracy doesn’t die overnight. It erodes in stages—slowly at first, then all at once. The warning signs are always there, but too often, people refuse to believe them until it’s too late. Institutions, the supposed safeguards of democracy, don’t protect themselves. They only survive when people fight for them.

Snyder tells us that once institutions fall, they are nearly impossible to rebuild. Maybe that’s a good thing. If colonialism and white supremacy were the foundation of our existing systems, how could rebuilding those same systems ever lead to something truly just and equitable? Breaking free from the deep roots of global colonialism and white supremacy is the only path forward—but can we? Can the divisions in this country ever be healed enough to make true justice and equity possible?