The Slow Unraveling
Corruption, fear, and institutional decay are reshaping democracy from within
What Happens When Democracy’s Guardrails Fail?
The Steady State focused this week on the growing erosion of democratic institutions in the United States and the broader West. Politicized intelligence, weakened diplomacy, judicial overreach, corruption, hybrid warfare, and fear-driven politics reveal a common thread: the replacement of expertise and truth with loyalty, ideology and personal power. Corruption, manufactured fear, attacks on professional institutions and the normalization of executive overreach are indicative of a slow collapse of the norms, institutions and shared realities that sustain constitutional government.
The Essentials
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The Mission
The Chairman of the Board of The Steady State, The Honorable James C. O’Brien, testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on the security of critical Baltic Sea infrastructure. Noting that addressing these threats requires not just technical solutions but also a workforce and leadership “entrusted with the use of force and the protection of civil liberties” to operate with the highest degree of integrity.” He further emphasized that “safeguarding democratic institutions requires competent, experienced, and principled leadership, especially in positions entrusted with extraordinary power.”
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Founded in 2016, The Steady State is a nonprofit 501(c)(4) organization of more than 400 former senior national security professionals. Our membership includes former officials from the CIA, FBI, Department of State, Department of Defense, and Department of Homeland Security. Drawing on deep expertise across national security disciplines, including intelligence, diplomacy, military affairs, and law, we advocate for constitutional democracy, the rule of law, and the preservation of America’s national security institutions.
Reshaping? IT'S ROTTING.