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Stacey Abrams: “The most pernicious, pernicious and effective power of…”

Featuring: Stacey Abrams, Democratic | Former Candidate, Governor of Georgia

The Hard Truth Democrats Must Face to Win in 2026

Published December 18, 2025 | Video Starts at 49:53

It's why we do assembly required. It's why I have assembly notes. It's why I am incessant and why I find ways to go on TikTok and talk about this. The most pernicious, pernicious and effective power of authoritarianism is exhaustion. You just get tired of fighting. And as long as it's not that bad, you can deal with it. (49:53–50:00)

CLAIM

Asserts that authoritarianism's power lies in exhausting opposition.

This is an excerpt from a raw transcript. The assertions have not been audited or verified. Tap the video to view the source footage and understand the context.

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Stacey Abrams

“There are 77 million people who clearly identified and said, I want what Trump offers.”
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“There were 75 million who said, I want what Harris offers.”
The Hard Truth Democrats Must Face to Win in 2026 | Uploaded December 18, 2025 | 29:11-29:16
“There were 90 million people who said, I don't hear myself reflected in any of you, and I'm going to sit down.”
The Hard Truth Democrats Must Face to Win in 2026 | Uploaded December 18, 2025 | 29:15-29:23
“Eighteen states are being sued by the federal government because they refuse to give over their voter data.”
The Hard Truth Democrats Must Face to Win in 2026 | Uploaded December 18, 2025 | 38:59-39:07
“It took 18 days for the Weimar Republic, which was actually a progressive democratic political leadership team, to fall.”
The Hard Truth Democrats Must Face to Win in 2026 | Uploaded December 18, 2025 | 44:13-44:24
“This venerable nation built on infrastructure and constitution and norms quickly collapsed.”
The Hard Truth Democrats Must Face to Win in 2026 | Uploaded December 18, 2025 | 02:02-02:14
“We are in the midst of what is charitably referred to as competitive authoritarianism.”
The Hard Truth Democrats Must Face to Win in 2026 | Uploaded December 18, 2025 | 04:37-04:43
“Authoritarianism does not end with election.”
The Hard Truth Democrats Must Face to Win in 2026 | Uploaded December 18, 2025 | 05:26-05:29
“You have to fight back against the military occupation of our cities and our towns.”
The Hard Truth Democrats Must Face to Win in 2026 | Uploaded December 18, 2025 | 05:37-05:44
“Where you've seen authoritarianism actually toppled and not reorganized is when you actually fight fix the broken pieces.”
The Hard Truth Democrats Must Face to Win in 2026 | Uploaded December 18, 2025 | 06:14-06:24
“There have been a lot of times when authoritarianism failed, but then it just reconstituted itself, gave itself a new name and it came back.”
The Hard Truth Democrats Must Face to Win in 2026 | Uploaded December 18, 2025 | 06:24-06:32
“It took 10 years in Hungary for it to take hold.”
The Hard Truth Democrats Must Face to Win in 2026 | Uploaded December 18, 2025 | 06:33-06:36
“The legislative has basically been a rubber stamp [for the executive].”
The Hard Truth Democrats Must Face to Win in 2026 | Uploaded December 18, 2025 | 08:58-09:06
“The Supreme Court walk[s] back its precedents, completely ignore[s] the term and its term of art, stare decisis.”
The Hard Truth Democrats Must Face to Win in 2026 | Uploaded December 18, 2025 | 09:26-09:34
“The lower courts matter because we fight. And Democracy Forward, ACLU, the labor unions have all been filing suit.”
The Hard Truth Democrats Must Face to Win in 2026 | Uploaded December 18, 2025 | 09:55-10:05
“The lower courts can be effective. They're not going to stop him [Trump].”
The Hard Truth Democrats Must Face to Win in 2026 | Uploaded December 18, 2025 | 11:18-11:22
“Not everyone in Congress believes that this is an authoritarian regime.”
The Hard Truth Democrats Must Face to Win in 2026 | Uploaded December 18, 2025 | 13:13-13:19
“We've got a lot of members of Congress who simply think that taking power in 26, winning the house, possibly winning the Senate, is enough.”
The Hard Truth Democrats Must Face to Win in 2026 | Uploaded December 18, 2025 | 13:39-13:48
“The right has been very effective in their breaking of democracy, their breaking of the perquisites of democracy.”
The Hard Truth Democrats Must Face to Win in 2026 | Uploaded December 18, 2025 | 14:14-14:21
“They start by demonizing your language. And while we're fighting over what we call it, they move over to litigation.”
The Hard Truth Democrats Must Face to Win in 2026 | Uploaded December 18, 2025 | 14:24-14:32
“They go to court, they start dismantling the infrastructure that was making protection of those rights possible.”
The Hard Truth Democrats Must Face to Win in 2026 | Uploaded December 18, 2025 | 14:31-14:38
“They legislate and they put in place barriers to ever rebuilding what we had.”
The Hard Truth Democrats Must Face to Win in 2026 | Uploaded December 18, 2025 | 14:39-14:45
“Congress tends to believe that it is the imprimatur of what democracy can be on the legislative side.”
The Hard Truth Democrats Must Face to Win in 2026 | Uploaded December 18, 2025 | 14:49-14:54
“Authoritarians understand they can do this at the state level, at the local level, through the tech space, through the economy.”
The Hard Truth Democrats Must Face to Win in 2026 | Uploaded December 18, 2025 | 14:54-15:05
“This isn't an extreme version. This is a new thing. This is American authoritarianism.”
The Hard Truth Democrats Must Face to Win in 2026 | Uploaded December 18, 2025 | 15:25-15:32
“It is virulent, it is embedded, and it will continue to expand even when we win elections in 26.”
The Hard Truth Democrats Must Face to Win in 2026 | Uploaded December 18, 2025 | 15:31-15:42
“We saw that from the House when the House stood up against the shutdown.”
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“Members of Congress, especially Republicans, stopped having town hall meetings.”
The Hard Truth Democrats Must Face to Win in 2026 | Uploaded December 18, 2025 | 16:16-16:21
“Democrats in Congress, Independents in Congress have to actually offer proof that democracy can deliver.”
The Hard Truth Democrats Must Face to Win in 2026 | Uploaded December 18, 2025 | 17:18-17:26
“That proof has to be done in concert with state and local leaders, in concert with state and local communities.”
The Hard Truth Democrats Must Face to Win in 2026 | Uploaded December 18, 2025 | 17:26-17:34
“DEI is more popular today than it was two years ago.”
The Hard Truth Democrats Must Face to Win in 2026 | Uploaded December 18, 2025 | 22:54-22:58
“Right now, we can't pass much at the congressional level.”
The Hard Truth Democrats Must Face to Win in 2026 | Uploaded December 18, 2025 | 24:35-24:38
“We may not have the levers of power, but we are not denied the levers of influence.”
The Hard Truth Democrats Must Face to Win in 2026 | Uploaded December 18, 2025 | 25:20-25:26
“The person who gets the most votes wins.”
The Hard Truth Democrats Must Face to Win in 2026 | Uploaded December 18, 2025 | 27:22-27:26
“We are more willing to go after their voters than we are to go after those who share our values but don't vote.”
The Hard Truth Democrats Must Face to Win in 2026 | Uploaded December 18, 2025 | 27:47-27:59
“I live in a region of the country that has perfected voter suppression.”
The Hard Truth Democrats Must Face to Win in 2026 | Uploaded December 18, 2025 | 36:27-36:32
“Georgia practiced its voter suppression in the primaries and perfected it for the general elections year over year over year.”
The Hard Truth Democrats Must Face to Win in 2026 | Uploaded December 18, 2025 | 38:41-38:49
“Fair Fight is the organization that I founded that really focuses on election protection.”
The Hard Truth Democrats Must Face to Win in 2026 | Uploaded December 18, 2025 | 40:32-40:38
“Hitler did not seize the government. He was put into power using their structure.”
The Hard Truth Democrats Must Face to Win in 2026 | Uploaded December 18, 2025 | 44:48-44:55
“They weaponized normalized violence. They went after the media, after truth tellers.”
The Hard Truth Democrats Must Face to Win in 2026 | Uploaded December 18, 2025 | 45:15-45:22
“They scapegoated vulnerable communities. And in Germany in the 1930s and 40s, that meant Jews, that meant the disabled, it meant the Roma…”
The Hard Truth Democrats Must Face to Win in 2026 | Uploaded December 18, 2025 | 45:24-45:37
“The Calais decision sitting in front of the Supreme Court. That can gut the Voting Rights act and not only cost us 18 to 27 seats, that…”
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“We could lose up to 200 state and local, local seats, state legislative seats, which means that when the maps get redrawn, we can never have…”
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“There are communities that have no freedom, that have. They don't have basics.”
The Hard Truth Democrats Must Face to Win in 2026 | Uploaded December 18, 2025 | 51:06-51:11
“If you think about all of the people who fled Venezuela, it's not because they were simply angry. It's because they lost everything.”
The Hard Truth Democrats Must Face to Win in 2026 | Uploaded December 18, 2025 | 51:12-51:20
“Politics is about power, who has it, who wants it, who gets to use it. But it's also about values.”
The Hard Truth Democrats Must Face to Win in 2026 | Uploaded December 18, 2025 | 52:45-52:54
“There are a lot of folks who may disagree with some of the tactics that Trump has used, but they don't disagree with him fundamentally.”
The Hard Truth Democrats Must Face to Win in 2026 | Uploaded December 18, 2025 | 52:58-53:06
“The MAGA movement believes what they believe.”
The Hard Truth Democrats Must Face to Win in 2026 | Uploaded December 18, 2025 | 54:26-54:29
“As someone who is pro choice, someone who is pro democracy, someone who believes in civil and human rights, as a native good, someone who…”
The Hard Truth Democrats Must Face to Win in 2026 | Uploaded December 18, 2025 | 54:32-54:48
“We did a whole series on [On Tyranny] and anchored me.”
The Hard Truth Democrats Must Face to Win in 2026 | Uploaded December 18, 2025 | 1:02:19-1:02:25
“We are facing [a] rise of authoritarianism.”
The Hard Truth Democrats Must Face to Win in 2026 | Uploaded December 18, 2025 | 1:05:13-1:05:17
“Power is borrowed from us.”
The Hard Truth Democrats Must Face to Win in 2026 | Uploaded December 18, 2025 | 1:05:36-1:05:39
“One of the young people basically asked me, would we have a country in a decade?”
The Hard Truth Democrats Must Face to Win in 2026 | Uploaded December 18, 2025 | 1:08:47-1:08:53
“In a moment of just extraordinary darkness, when people are being kidnapped, when children are being starved, when the worst impulses and…”
The Hard Truth Democrats Must Face to Win in 2026 | Uploaded December 18, 2025 | 1:09:44-1:10:04