Quite a few years ago I spent three years working for a major oil company in Houston, Texas. I enjoyed Texas and I enjoyed Texans, at least Houston’s relatively liberal version of them.

Perhaps my fondest memory of Houston is the good eating—always a love of mine. The city has a rich restaurant history—the finest of the cities I’ve lived in—with a confluence of three major cuisines: seafood, barbecue and Mexican, all done splendidly. And then there was Alfred’s, my all-time favourite Jewish delicatessen. Good memories.

I am therefore saddened that a country that treated me most hospitably is now considered off limits by many Canadians. Our government has even issued a travel advisory. But even more concerning is the pessimism I hear from friends and acquaintances: the county is being lost to an autocrat they say.

I appreciate the fear as the Trump administration attacks the full complement of democratic institutions—the courts, the press, education, even the democratic process itself—while exploiting the instruments of the state to scapegoat immigrants and harass its enemies with fascist zeal.

Yet, risking naïveté, I remain optimistic. While American institutions have been undermined and to some degree corrupted, I believe they retain sufficient strength to withstand the assault.

The courts, for example, have absorbed many Trump appointments yet remain a major deterrent to his more egregious behaviour. A host of judges, including the Supreme Court which includes three he chose, dismissively rejected his claim that he won the 2020 election.

Among the mainstream media a couple of newspapers, including Jeff Bezos’ Washington Post, have muzzled criticism of the president, but others, such as the New York Times, my favourite read, are replete with articles taking his administration’s excesses to task. And then of course there are the late night hosts who continue to mock the Trump follies.

Not surprisingly, higher education has been a particular target of the administration. Universities tend to be a bone in the throat of autocrats. Accusations of antisemitism, hypocritical coming from right-wingers, have intimidated some schools into changing policies and even presidents, but others, notably Harvard, are putting up firm resistance to the bullying.

Trump has placed incompetent lackeys in charge of the military and the FBI, as well as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), so the muscle side of government is now of real concern. This may be where the greatest danger lies. Trump appears eager to display his military power—nothing could be more flattering to a narcissist. The military seem to be respecting the constitution, but If this line is crossed, the country will indeed be on a slippery slope.

ICE has been pursuing immigrants like some sort of Gestapo—men in plain clothes wearing masks picking up innocent people off the street. But not without protests from civil society which, I am pleased to say, remains alert and feisty.

Some of the agency’s targets, such as Columbia student Mahmoud Khalil, have received strong public support. In Los Angeles and elsewhere, protesters have taken to the streets to confront ICE immigration raids. If the German people had protested the arrests of their Jewish neighbours as vigorously, Hitler may have been dissuaded from the “final solution.”

California’s Governor Gavin Newsom has pushed back hard against heavy-handed immigration measures in California. In fact his state is suing over Trump’s use of National Guard troops and Marines for civilian law enforcement in Los Angeles. States such as California present yet another level of opposition to the MAGA agenda.

Not to be discounted in American resistance to the authoritarian threat is the country’s long history of not only overcoming great challenges but also its long tradition of dissent and rabble-rousing. Americans are a highly individualistic bunch, often I think too much for their own good, but in this instance it could be a great strength. They can be hard cats to herd.

So I am optimistic. But I don’t kid myself. Trump and his powerful backers have only gotten started. There’s four more years to come. My optimism is tempered therefore with a little finger-crossing.