The reelection of former President Donald Trump represents a profound threat to American democracy.  As graduate students in history at Tulane University , we have studied the ways in which authoritarians have risen to power in the past, and we fear that Trump is on the path toward on autocratic presidency, one that will undermine American institutions and values.

Trump has vowed to be a dictator on “day one” in office. He has promised to use the Department of Justice to attack his critics. He has proposed using the military to silence the “radical left” and the “enemy from within.”  In his recent cabinet picks and threats to purge the military, Trump is acting like a classic fascist.

As the historian Timothy Snyder has said, “History does not repeat, but it does instruct.” If history teaches us anything, it is that democracies can only survive when citizens remain alert to potential threats and willing to act to protect the democratic order.

Like all authoritarians, Trump is trying to destroy citizens’ faith in the political process.  He is hoping that you will stop paying attention to the news, that you will stop joining protests and political organizations, that you will stop voting and fighting for what you believe in. The autocrat’s goal, as Snyder has noted, is to convince ordinary people to “withdraw into daily life” and to ignore their responsibilities as citizens. When that happens, “a party emboldened by a favorable election result or motivated by ideology, or both, might change the system from within.”

We cannot let that happen.  For generations, university students have been at the forefront of pro-democracy movements. During the early twentieth century, college students led campaigns advocating for women’s suffrage. As the threat of fascism loomed in the 1930s and 1940s, thousands of American college students enlisted, with many making the ultimate sacrifice in the name of democracy. In the 1960s, student activists constituted a critical contingent in the fight for Civil Rights, working to end discriminatory voting practices.

Now the call to action to defend democracy is upon us. It is our time, and it is our fight. We must honor the legacy of the generations before us who struggled to fortify the democratic ideals that this nation was founded upon. To do this, we must continue to be active citizens — voting, staying informed and remaining engaged in the conversation. We must remember that forming “a more perfect union” is a process, not a promise. The future of democracy is in our hands. Now let’s get to work.