I agree with your general point, but the comparisons to Russia don't work.
Russia was barely a functioning democracy in the 1990s and had no democratic tradition before that, just different flavors of authoritarianism for centuries.
The problem is the US only really has traditions. We were hardly a democracy at our founding in the modern sense of the word and as such the guard rails are fairly weak. The electoral college wasn't established in some brilliant attempt to moderate the votes of states, it was so rich land owners could control who ran the country.
Yeah, ok? I'm not sure what your point is.
At the time of founding the USA was probably still the most liberal and democratic government in history of the world.
This is why people don’t fear what is coming, they have no clue about history.
Russian democracy did die with a grand take-over event, the 1993 coup, with literal tanks shooting at government buildings.
I'm shocked that you would use Russia as an example of a slowly dying democracy.
What Russia are you talking about?
The brief highly instable 1990s after the Soviet collapse that was followed by Putin’s rapid consolidation of power?
People assume that there's going to be some grand take-over event, a third-world coup d'état if you will.
In reality, modern democracies die slowly. Russia was once a democracy, now it's democracy on paper only. What will Americans do, when their courts are infringing their freedom?
Again, it happens slowly. Bit by bit, in the boring court rooms.