OVER the past couple of months, I have become increasingly more discouraged with the reactions of “the left” – that term bothers me, but as a shorthand designation for “those who are opposed to Trump, the MAGA cult, and fascism” it works well enough, for now – to the daily atrocities being carried out the cabal that has seized power in the US. The reason I am discouraged is that, despite the pretense of “a movement” against Trump, there is no direction, no goal.
What I see instead is a lot of expressed outrage in social media posts, on YouTube channels, in the bulk of the content on Substack, and more and more frequently, in the streets – but all of it preaching to the choir, aimed at audiences who share the same outrage, and none of it with a message any more substantial than, “bad things and bad people are bad, and we dislike them.”
Don’t get me wrong; the outrage is entirely justified and based on reality. I share the same outrage, and I believe that every person who believes in basic human norms should be outraged, too. But outrage implies “the current circumstances are unacceptable, and must be changed,” and there’s where “the left” seems to lose it. Changed to what? I have yet to hear anyone suggest an end goal.
As I see it, there are only two possible goals that can be pursued, and I think that both of them are so intolerable to Americans who are living in a situation beyond their imagination that they are paralyzed. One goal would be to make the dissent so disruptive that Trump and his regime will have to change their ways – respect the Constitution and the rule of law, and respect basic rights and civilized norms instead of practicing institutionalized racism, discrimination, and misogyny. The other goal would be to overthrow the regime, remove the offending leaders of that regime from human society one way or another – kill them or lock them away forever – and replace it with a proper government.
Yes, I recognize that both of those options are problematic, but it’s got to be one or the other, and unless the American people – or at least enough of them to make a difference, which I think is easily possible – pick one or the other, there will be no change to the current woeful state of affairs.
No, check that. Things will get much, much worse.
America now is Germany in 1936 or 1937. The people behind the MAGA seizure of power have been preparing a long time for it – the first version of Project 2025 was written in 1980, and there has been one produced for every presidential election since – and now that they are in power, they are not going to be easily dislodged. Nor are they going be dissuaded from continuing their rapid dismantling and plunder of the federal government, nor stripping away the rights of everyone they consider inferior by the courts, or by “peaceful protest”; anything stronger, such as general strikes, might make a difference, or they might be violently put down. Either way, “the left” is too diffident, too spoiled, and too uncoordinated to pull that off, so it’s irrelevant, at least for now.
The Christo-fascists did not spend better than 40 years preparing for this to give it up easily, and if anyone still believes there will be anything like a legitimate election in 2026, and especially in 2028, they are a fool. The only way there will be is if the current regime is made so fearful of a threat to their survival that they “toe the line,” so to speak, and behave like a proper American government, or if they are removed – whether that’s on the gallows, in front of a firing squad, or in the bowels of a supermax prison, never to be seen or heard again makes no difference.
I think the first option is quickly becoming less and less likely to be successful as time goes on, but I don’t think it’s impossible, yet, if people act forcefully. The second option, of course, works every time; but that kind of effort needs leadership and it needs bravery, two things that the would-be resistance is completely bereft of at the moment.
So what are we doing? Are we going to fight back in some way that matters, or are we going to be this generations Good Germans?
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