{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.merkley.senate.gov/merkley-leads-senate-resolution-denouncing-horrors-of-authoritarianism/", "Merkley Leads Senate Resolution Denouncing \u2018Horrors of Authoritarianism\u2019", "2025-12-18", "2025", "2025-12", "Democrat", "Senate", "OR", "Jeff Merkley", "M001176", "www.merkley.senate.gov", "merkley", "https://www.merkley.senate.gov/news/press-releases/", "scraper", "Washington, D.C. \u2013 Today, Oregon\u2019s U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley introduced a new resolution condemning authoritarianism in all its forms and opposing the implementation of authoritarian policies in the United States of America.\n\nThe resolution continues Merkley\u2019s work to sound the alarm bells over what he has called the \u201cauthoritarian slide\u201d both here in the U.S. and around the world. His effort highlights how authoritarian governments\u2014including Russia and Venezuela\u2014have consolidated executive power at the expense of individual freedom. Merkley\u2019s resolution emphasizes that \u201cmost modern democracies do not die at the hands of armed militias, but instead at the hands of elected officials who erode the separation of powers to tighten their authoritarian grip.\u201d\n\n\u201cThe authoritarian takeover of the United States of America is not around the corner\u2014it is here right now,\u201d said Merkley. \u201cWe have all three ingredients for a strongman state: a rubber-stamp Congress doing the President\u2019s bidding, a deferential Supreme Court delivering more and more power to the Executive Branch, and a power-hungry President behaving like a king. Authoritarians are not new\u2014they\u2019ve been following this playbook to weaken democracies around the world, and now, Donald Trump is using this playbook here to dismantle our democratic institutions right before our eyes. We will keep ringing the alarm bells.\u201d\n\nMerkley\u2019s resolution follows his speech on the floor of the U.S. Senate earlier this year to speak directly to the American people and ring the alarm bells about the Trump Administration\u2019s authoritarian takeover of the country. He spoke for 22 hours 37 minutes\u2014the third longest speech in Senate history.\n\nMerkley\u2019s resolution is also cosponsored by U.S. Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR).\n\nFull text of the resolution can be found by clicking here.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:09:11Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.merkley.senate.gov/merkley-leads-senate-resolution-denouncing-horrors-of-authoritarianism/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 3.6302590742707253, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}