“Republican politicians face threats of violence if they oppose [Donald Trump],” but a New York Times guest essay, published Thursday morning, claims that shouldn’t stop them from trying.

Steven Levitsky, Lucan Way, and Daniel Ziblatt are the three political scientists who wrote the essay. They study how democracies come to an end.

“America has, with stunning speed, descended into a world in which opponents of the government fear criminal investigations, lawsuits, tax audits, and other punitive measures.”

The writers added, “Even Republican politicians are, as one former Trump administration official put it, ‘scared’ out of their minds ‘about death threats.’”