The Miscellany News

On Tuesday, Sept. 16, former senior national security official Steven Cash ’84 delivered a lecture, “National Security and the Future of American Democracy.” Cash’s talk focused on what he views as the recent backsliding of democracy and the repression of free speech under the Trump administration.

Throughout his career, Cash has held senior leadership positions within the Department of Homeland Security, at the Central Intelligence Agency and on Capitol Hill. Currently, Cash serves as the Executive Director of the Steady State, a non-profit advocacy organization composed of over 300 former national security officials, diplomats, journalists and scholars. Before Cash introduced himself to the large audience of students gathered in Rockefeller Hall 300, he described the tenor of his return to Vassar, noting, “I’m a little sad to come back here today…this isn’t fun. I’ll tell you right now, what I’m bringing to you tonight is going to be a bit grim.” 

After explaining to the audience that he hoped his presentation would serve as a warning as well as a call to action, Cash described the unique historical position America finds itself in today, saying, “This is a moment in history that we may not have really seen since the year Main Building was built…1861.” Cash argued that America has not faced an existential threat to democracy as great as the Trump administration since the Civil War. “In some ways, that was the last time that the very fabric of the nation was called into question…that was the last time that people were not fighting on the game field of constitutional democracy,” explained Cash. “The system failed and we solved that problem by killing millions of people… That’s the closest we’ve been to where we are today.”

In addition to drawing comparisons to the Civil War, Cash likened the state of America’s current government to atrocities committed by foreign leaders. He referenced the regimes of Benito Mussolini, Adolf Hitler and Vladimir Putin, claiming that all of those leaders exercised power in a very similar way to how we are seeing Trump use his authority as president. Cash explained that most of his colleagues in the Steady State have spent their professional careers analyzing how governments transition to despotism. Cash noted, “[This transition begins when] a would-be autocrat takes over the security services and law enforcement services and turns them on political enemies…takes on the media…private industry, the legal system.” Recently, President Trump has been accused of threatening judges and lawyers, coercing media companies to cancel shows that challenge his administration and using the National Guard to suppress political protests.

Throughout his talk, Cash spoke bluntly about the future of American democracy. “We spend a lot of time looking at the indicators of incipient autocracy…and here’s the bad news, we’re seeing pretty much every single one of them right here in the United States, and they’re coming faster and with a greater intensity than we have ever seen anyplace else,” he said.

In his presentation, Cash described an insight that originated from his collaboration with other former intelligence officials at the Steady State: “If you took my organization and asked them to make a bet, they would say there’s a 50/50 chance that none of you in this room will vote again in a free and fair election, that we are done.”

In addition to highlighting the state of American politics, Cash spoke about the special power that students have to resist oppression and influence widespread, national change, noting: “Free effective colleges, universities and education are the kryptonite of despots and autocrats. Why, because…you think critically, you ask questions, you are willing to take on authority.” He argued that Vassar’s culture and liberal arts curriculum make it uniquely qualified to counter authoritarianism: “If you’re facing the moment of crisis like the one I’m about to describe, you and I share something, this institution, which trained me and is training you to be equipped… You will remember what you learned in this building, I guarantee you, and it will make you really dangerous.”

Vassar students left the presentation with what they described as mixed and powerful feelings, with many feeling compelled to make their voices heard. After attending Cash’s lecture, Clarisse Gonzalez ’28 said, “It just fills me with a sense of urgency, like we should be doing something, and I think attending these talks, educating ourselves is very important right now.” Mayte Segura ’28, another student who attended the talk, said, “[Cash] actually reaffirmed changes I’ve already been trying to make, like looking into local organizations and also actively going to these conversations… I think it has pushed me. It’s made me more determined and given me more courage to, if there’s not a space for these conversations, make that space and make that time and find people who also want that.”

In an interview with The Miscellany News reporters, Cash explained, “This is all going to be about coalition building, alliances and communication.” In order to effectively resist further attempts to undermine democracy, Cash insisted, “[We must put] in the time and effort to engage with people who you may have spent the past three years fighting with… I think what is necessary as an opening premise is, ‘Do we all agree that it is necessary to preserve democracy in the United States…and are we willing to work together?’” 

Cash elaborated on a term he repeatedly used throughout his lecture—“strange bedfellows”—to describe the importance of finding common ground with unlikely allies. “The strange bedfellows are also students and faculty, and frankly, students and administrators… Seeing each other as allies and not adversaries is going to be essential,” explained Cash. Similarly, Teddy Golumbeski ’27 said, “[Students need to] see what you have in common with people that you would normally disagree with, because I think there’s a lot of fractioning of people who agree about 95 percent of stuff, and at this point we’re all just focused on the 5 percent. Paying attention to those similarities is one of the key ways out of the system that we have.”

Looking forward, Cash is focusing on the midterms, particularly the likelihood of another free and fair election taking place. He noted that the results of the midterms will have a profound effect on the statistical probability of whether or not American democracy survives. Cash, however, also recognized that this probability depends on the level of engagement amongst young voters: “[Trump is] counting on the younger voting sect…having the kind of reaction we saw in 2024 when many of that cohort didn’t vote or sort of saw no point in voting, and saw no difference between the candidates in the national elections and was very much distracted by specific issues, all of which were important, but made them not as much of a player in making a decision on what turned out to be a decision on whether we really wanted to be a democracy.” 

When asked about the likelihood of reversing democratic backsliding in the 2026 midterms, Cash seemed skeptical, noting, “My guess is that the Trump administration is counting on the people I talked to last night [Vassar students] to be passive and ineffective.” Yet, throughout his lecture and interview, Cash repeatedly emphasized his belief that students are the most important weapon against authoritarianism.