The bad news: The elites in charge of America’s civic institutions have too often displayed an accommodationist mindset, refusing to use the immense resources at their disposal to put up a fight, choosing a path somewhere between acquiescence and active complicity instead.

How has U.S. civic society responded to the authoritarian assault? Once again, the picture is not fully conclusive, but worrisome. The good news: There is a mass mobilization, there are protests, and they are more numerous and more sustained than during the first Trump presidency.