The ten stages to autocracy, as described by Stacey Abrams in her speech at the No Kings rally in central Atlanta, October 18, 2025:
1. There is a free and fair election, for the last time
2. The elected president crashes through the established limits of executive power
3. The president moves to co-opt or neuter the power of other branches of government
4. The regime moves to delegitimize the media, create generalized confusion and doubt, and normalize untruth
5. The regime moves to gut the civil service, so that it cannot serve the public, and people must beg the regime for the ordinary work of government
6. The regime hires loyalists take the place of competent civil servants
7. The regime takes legal action against other organizations that serve society: law firms, philanthropies, universities
8. The regime incentivizes vigilante violence, and at the same time imputes widespread violence where it does not exist
9. The regime creates paramilitary units to terrorize the population in the name of restoring safety, and then turns the military against the American public, arresting designated enemies and dissenters, and imprisoning them without due process
10. The regime ensures no further free and fair elections
Atlanta, October 18, 2025