To the editor:

For years, South Korean President Yoon consolidated power, seeking to establish authoritarian rule. On Dec. 3, 2024, he went for broke. At 11 p.m. local time, he declared martial law and sent the police and the military to block entry to the National Assembly building, where the legislature conducted business. Almost immediately, unarmed citizens arrived at the National Assembly to protest. Legislators also rushed to the Assembly, and some of them forced their way through barricades and police lines to enter the building. The protesters blocked the police from entering the National Assembly long enough for a quorum of legislators to assemble and unanimously approve a resolution to overturn the martial law order. All of this happened by 1 a.m., in just two hours. At 5:18 a.m., President Yoon’s cabinet voted to rescind the martial law order. Less than two weeks later, Yoon was impeached and removed from office.

On March 18, 2025, Hungary’s authoritarian President Victor Orban signed legislation that effectively banned the Budapest Pride parade, which had been held for years. Parade organizers and participants were threatened with arrest, fines of up to $600, and prison time. Protests immediately broke out all over the country, and on June 28, the Pride parade took place, and was by far the largest one ever, with between 100,000 and 200,000 people attending. The police stood by, and no one was arrested.

On July 22, 2025, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky signed legislation that severely limited the powers of two independent agencies established to investigate high-level corruption. Despite daily drone, bomb, and missile attacks from Russia, Ukrainians protested in the streets for several nights, until the law was revoked on July 31.

The point of this recent history is that authoritarian-minded leaders and their orders can be defeated by peaceful citizen actions.

In less time than these events took place, free speech and due process guarantees in the American Constitution have been violated. Funding approved by Congress has been withheld by the President, again violating the Constitution. People convicted of assaulting police officers at the Capitol on January 6 were pardoned and called patriots, while Justice Department attorneys who prosecuted their cases have been fired. Government officials, including FBI agents, have been fired for having any association with investigations into Russian influence in the 2016 election. The Justice Department has been transformed into an agency of retribution against anyone Trump perceives as an enemy. Federal power has been used to bully and extort concessions from private universities, corporations, and law firms. Armed federal troops now roam city streets. And there is more, much more than there is room for here, and to top it all off, the Supreme Court has ruled that Presidents are immune from prosecution for all official actions.

If these actions by the government do not move enough Americans to follow the example of the South Koreans, Hungarians, and Ukrainians, America as we have known it will cease to exist. A few of us will be happy with that outcome, many of us will be outraged, and too many of us will wonder why we didn’t stop it while we could.

John Monroe

Saranac Lake