You may have thought I’ve been blogging too much about dictators and authoritarianism lately. There is a reason for that. Today, Donald Trump looked into the cameras and said the quiet part out loud: “Maybe people like dictators.”

Are you paying attention?

This is how authoritarianism works—not in a single cataclysmic moment, but in small escalations that normalize abuses of power until we are, like frogs in slowly boiling water, too dazed to leap out.

The Mask Slips

Pressed about his crackdown in Washington, D.C.—including the unprecedented deployment of National Guard troops to manage “public order”—Trump defended himself with a chilling suggestion: that perhaps the public actually wants dictatorship. He followed this by signing executive orders aimed at dismantling cashless bail and restricting flag burning, consolidating his political message around fear and control.

Authoritarianism rarely arrives under its own name. Dictators never say, “I’m here to seize your freedoms.” Instead, they cloak their ambitions in “common sense,” “law and order,” or “national security.” Trump insists, “I’m not a dictator, I’m a man with great common sense.” Every autocrat in history has said something similar.

From Chicago to Caracas

History shows us the pattern: leaders frame military deployments against their own people as necessary for safety, as if tanks in the streets are a benevolent form of protection. Today, Trump reiterated threats to send the National Guard into Chicago, against the wishes of local leaders. This is not federal assistance—it is federal occupation.

Governor JB Pritzker of Illinois put it bluntly: Trump is “attempting to manufacture a crisis” to justify an abuse of power. Chicago’s mayor warned it would be the most flagrant constitutional violation of the 21st century. They are right.

This is not about crime. It is about power. The ACLU correctly noted that Trump’s bail order is designed not to make communities safer, but to entrench inequality and prop up the predatory bail industry.

The Boiling Water

The danger is not simply that Trump says authoritarian things. The danger is that each time he does, the shock wears off. Yesterday’s outrage becomes today’s shrug. What would have been unimaginable in 2015—an American president musing aloud about dictatorship—lands in 2025 as just another headline.

That is how democracies decay: slowly, with excuses, with normalization, with “maybe people like dictators.”

And make no mistake: frogs don’t survive boiling water.

Why We Must Pay Attention

This moment is not about partisanship. It is about whether we still believe in democracy, accountability, and the rule of law. Trump and his allies want to convince us that the Constitution is optional, that civil liberties are expendable, that the military can be turned inward on American streets.

But democracy dies when people stop paying attention.

So here’s the question: Are you paying attention? Or are you warming yourself in the water, telling yourself it’s not that hot yet?

Because it is getting hotter.

Julian Vasquez Heilig is a nationally recognized policy scholar, public intellectual, and civil rights advocate. A trusted voice in public policy, he has testified for state legislatures, the U.S. Congress, the United Nations, and the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, while also advising presidential and gubernatorial campaigns. His work has been cited by major outlets including The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Los Angeles Times, and he has appeared on networks from MSNBC and PBS to NPR and DemocracyNow!. He is a recipient of more than 30 honors, including the 2025 NAACP Keeper of the Flame Award, Vasquez Heilig brings both scholarly rigor and grassroots commitment to the fight for equity and justice.