To paraphrase Ernest Hemingway, there are two ways to descend into autocracy: gradually and then suddenly. Right now, we are on the bullet train.

With President Trump in office only a month, many say his “shock and awe” campaign — issuing executive orders to abolish birthright citizenship, defund national health, invade sensitive Treasury payment systems, shutter USAID, impound funds allocated by Congress, fire civil servants and the like — puts us well on the road to autocracy. And the presence of his satrap, billionaire Elon Musk, makes even Republicans nervous and underscores the anxiety over where we are headed.

The Democrats are stunned, wringing their hands. They have no agenda except to say they say they don’t like what Trump is doing. And a few may believe that what he is doing is not so bad.

True, there are some 40 lawsuits filed nationwide — some sound, and others untenable — seeking to block this junking of American government. But sorting it all out will take time, while Trump argues in the courts that he is a unitary executive with extraordinary powers to ignore acts of Congress and trash the Constitution by executive fiat. His vice president suggests he can defy court orders anyway — a sure passport to tyranny.

There was a 12-day transit strike in New York in 1966, and the courts enjoined the walkout as contrary to the public intertest. Michael J. Quill, president of the Transit Workers........

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