In a previous blog, Let’s Talk about That 3.5% Idea, I mentioned that different people have very different goals in mind for our movement. For many, the sole goal is to topple tRump. His ability to influence voters and intimidate politicians is toxic, and is helping destroy the vestiges of our federal government. His actions are leading to existential despair in too many people, some of whom, rather than respond by voting, are instead withdrawing from politics altogether.
Yes, we absolutely must get rid of tRump. But let’s not forget that tRump did not write Project 2025, and that he would be powerless without his enablers. He is a symptom rather than the problem itself. An entire movement exists—of media companies, think tanks, influencers, politicians, and billionaires—seeking to concentrate ever more wealth into the hands of the few. This movement wishes to turn people of color, the poor, and even many formerly in the middle class, into little more than indentured servants waiting on the wealthy, or profitable prisoners in for-profit prisons and detention centers, doing low-cost work for large corporations. People in this movement are happy to destroy our environment, educational system, and health care to institute a police state — to throw more and more people into various types of prisons, rather than invest in communities. These people will not simply disappear when tRump goes to prison or his grave.
I understand the fatigue of many activists, some of whom have been fighting for decades on various issues. Others have only recently joined the battle as they see the carnage infringe on their own comfort. But America has not been a paradise for many people since its founding, and too many of us have paid too little attention. In her book The Sum of Us, Heather McGhee writes about Black women asking, after the 2017 women’s march, where white women had been all this time.
No, this isn’t how most of us envisioned spending our retirement or our limited free time. But those on the far right have not rested. There was an active campaign to overturn Roe v. Wade for fifty years. The campaign against people of color voting had some setbacks but those determined to overturn voting rights have continued working towards this goal. In the past decade alone, nearly one hundred bills have been passed in the country to make it harder for Americans (particularly people of color) to vote:
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The drafters of Project 2025 knew how extremely unpopular their agenda was, but worked tirelessly to get sufficiently servile and vile politicians elected to be able to enact its heinous measures.
Shall I go on? The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) has made it nearly impossible for politicians to say “No” to sending arms to Israel, despite the war crimes and mass starvation in Gaza. How many people have been actively fighting AIPAC, to reduce their power and allow politicians to stand up against Israeli atrocities? The lack of support for Palestine has been one of many reasons why people have turned against the Democratic party.
What about campaign finance reform? We all know we need it, but how many of us have worked actively to achieve it? Without it, billionaires continue to buy politicians and elections, again turning many people against politics, which they see as hopelessly corrupt, pointing to corporate Democrats as proof that both parties are a lost cause.
If a politician says she wishes to enact reparations, or otherwise address the unconscionable income gap between the races, and the extreme racism in our criminal justice system, would she get elected? If a politician does vote her conscience, will she stay in office? Like it or not, that’s on us.
Would you prefer a more local focus? I have heard people rage against Michelle Lujan Grisham and Deb Haaland, for being in the pockets of the oil and gas industry and failing to act when they had the power to protect the environment and native lands.
Being good on reproductive rights and some other issues is important, nay, absolutely vital, but hardly sufficient. Is that really the best we can do?
So yeah, we need to dump tRump. But that’s only the first step. Do we honestly believe that—other than his total lack of magnetism—JD Vance, with his billionaire backers, would be any better? Or, so many wealthy Republicans who would happily take the helm and continue to advance the Republicans’ racist, sexist, classist, homophobic, transphobic, anti-labor, xenophobic, anti-science, anti-immigrant agenda.
Yeah, we’re all tired, but guess what, these issues matter.
We’d better find a way to enjoy this work and keep restoring our energies, because there’s a lot to do.
If we succeed in getting Democrats—preferably more progressive, not corporate-owned Democrats—back in power, there will be an enormous task of rebuilding what DOGE and Project 2025 have destroyed.
And there’s more.
We need to rebuild democracy, to make it more humane. We need to find serious measures to address the climate crisis and the disproportionate role that Americans play in aggravating it. We need to address issues of the environment, prisons, education, racism, equity, immigration, voting rights, foreign policy, affordable housing, Palestine, and reducing the wealth gap across classes and races. We need to get corporate money out of politics. Reform the Supreme Court. Tax the rich and corporations at rates that will help reduce their power and redistribute wealth downwards. Shift subsidies from huge corporations to rebuild local economies. Make politics something to get excited about, not because it’s entertaining, but because people see the possibility of transformational actions that will make their lives and our country better, the way that Zohran Mamdani mobilized young New Yorkers.
It won’t be easy. It won’t all be possible. I don’t expect everyone to be on board. But we need at least some activists, present and future, to see the bigger vision and realize that we should NEVER take democracy or rights for granted, even with Democrats in power. Our goals should include righting generational wrongs; those of us with privilege have an enormous debt to pay. Fighting hard to address injustices and inequities is simply interest on our moral loan. That refers to the shifting of wealth of Black and Latinx people, as well as the stealing of land from Native Americans. The fact that these issues are neither easy nor comfortable speaks to their importance.
Honestly, I’m daunted by all that we need to do. But I also realize how spoiled I am as a comfortable White American. Far too many people in this country have never had the privilege of leading a comfortable life, simply because of the color of their skin. The fact that almost everyone will suffer under the current regime is a darned good reason to be active; the fact that even after the regime crumbles, many will continue to suffer is a darned good reason to keep fighting.
