text: Many people have raised the alarm regarding the fact that Donald Trump is dangerously close to becoming an autocrat. The thing is, democracies become autocracies right under the people s noses, because they can often look like democracies in the beginning phases. This was explained by Republican David Frum just a couple of months into Donald Trump s presidency, in a piece in The Atlantic called  How to Build an Autocracy. In fact, if you really look critically at what is happening right now   the systematic discrediting of vital institutions such as the free press and the Federal Bureau of Investigation as well the direct weaponization of the Department of Justice in order to go after Trump s former political opponent, 2016 Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, and you have the makings of an autocracy. We are more than well on our way. Further, one chamber of Congress, the House of Representatives, already has a rogue band of Republicans who are running a parallel investigation to the official Russian collusion investigation, with the explicit intent of undermining and discrediting the idea that Trump could have possibly done anything wrong with the Russians in order to swing the 2016 election in his favor.All of that is just for starters, too. Now, we have Trump making United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley bully and threaten other countries in the United Nations who voted against Trump s decision to change U.S. policy when it comes to recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of the Jewish State. Well, one expert, who is usually quite measured, has had enough of Trump s autocratic antics: Former CIA Director John O. Brennan. The seasoned spy took to Trump s favorite platform, Twitter, and blasted the decision:Trump Admin threat to retaliate against nations that exercise sovereign right in UN to oppose US position on Jerusalem is beyond outrageous. Shows @realDonaldTrump expects blind loyalty and subservience from everyone qualities usually found in narcissistic, vengeful autocrats.  John O. Brennan (@JohnBrennan) December 21, 2017Director Brennan is correct, of course. Trump is behaving just like an autocrat, and so many people in the nation are asleep when it comes to this dangerous age, in which the greatest threat to democracy and the very fabric of the republic itself is the American president. Fellow Americans, we know the GOP-led Congress will not be the check on Trump that they are supposed to be. It s time to get out and flip the House and possibly the Senate in 2018, and resist in the meantime, if we want to save our country from devolving into something that looks more like Russia or North Korea than the America we have always know. We re already well on our way.Featured image via BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images