We’re just nine months into President Trump’s second term but the extreme harms caused by his administration and its enablers makes it seem like a lot longer. The assaults they’ve launched on people, policies, institutions, facts, science—our very democracy—have been relentless. At times like this, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed and even afraid.
But we can fight back, and we must. On October 18, millions of people across our country will come together in the streets for No Kings rallies to resist the rise of tyranny, to demonstrate our collective power, to show our love and care for each other, and to strive for the “more perfect union” we can build together. Please join if you are able to, and if you feel safe enough to.
Reckoning with the destruction and disorientation
Some of us have had the (dubious?) privilege of being steeped in the news, following every twist and turn of this administration’s destructive actions. It’s a daunting list. Attacks on public health; decimating climate and clean energy progress; boosting fossil fuels (and lying about climate science); creating (and then hiding) more food insecurity; rollbacks of pollution standards; jacking up tariffs that ultimately harm US consumers along with producers, farmers, and taxpayers; unlawful arrests and deportations of people; the installation of ruthless or inept federal agency heads; mass firings of dedicated scientists and staff at agencies; weaponizing the Department of Justice for personal and political vendettas; deploying National Guard troops in US cities under false pretenses and over the objection of local leaders; wresting away Congress’s constitutional power to make decisions about federal government spending; upending decades of multilateral cooperation… the list goes on and on.
For others, the pressures of daily life combined with the administration’s ”flood the zone” strategy have kept them from being able to focus on what, precisely, we are losing. It’s deliberately disorienting and designed to make one feel hopeless and helpless. And that’s why joining together in large numbers to speak up for democratic institutions and rights is an essential part of our path out of this dark time.
What keeps me up at night
My day job, my passion, is fighting for action to address the climate crisis.
I try to keep abreast of the latest science: what it’s showing about the climate impacts we face today. and how much worse they will get if we fail to sharply curtail heat-trapping emissions. I focus on the solutions we have at our fingertips, including renewable energy and climate resilience measures, and how we can get them quickly deployed everywhere. I keep my sights trained on who’s getting in the way (fossil fuel interests, people who reap profit or influence from the status quo). I’m also focused on how we can push forward policies that instead place people’s interests at the forefront, especially the people who live in communities polluted by fossil fuels, the people who live in places around the country and the world on the frontlines of climate disasters, and the people eager for affordable clean energy and all the benefits that it brings.
I thought I had enough to worry about already—certainly enough to keep me up at night, alarmed about where the world seems headed. And I know many people have more compelling and pressing things on their mind as they try to keep food on the table, pay their bills, and keep their kids safe. But what we face now as a nation is a greater, more urgent call to action.
Authoritarianism is here
Those of us living in the United States are undeniably facing the rise of an authoritarian regime. The radical overreach for unlimited presidential power that we now see unfolding puts at risk everything we care about in our constitutional democracy. History shows that allowing the administration’s actions to continue unimpeded will only lead to a further consolidation of its power without any guardrails, and a further erosion of our rights and our democracy.
Right now, we exist in a new dual state, where it seems life can continue as normal for some (maybe even most) of us while we watch the news about others being targeted by vindictive court cases, fired without cause from their jobs, or being violently deported without due process. Make no mistake: the administration and its enablers are coming for the people who are easiest to target first, and that’s reason enough to speak out. AND, all of us are at risk of being targeted eventually if the slide into authoritarianism continues.
I am no expert on authoritarianism. Like many of you, I am trying to stay on top of the news, read deeply, and learn from history. But I think we all know that what is happening is NOT normal. This is not about party politics or differences of opinion about policies or how to implement them. The level of cruelty, the scale of wanton destruction, the blatant violation of the Constitution and rule of law, the violence and grasp for power and money—it’s all well beyond the pale. It puts us all in danger.
Resisting together, we are not alone
These are dangerous times because it can feel like all our democratic institutions are fraying. All the checks and balances we took for granted are teetering. Facts are distorted beyond recognition and replaced by propaganda. People in our communities are being arrested, even disappeared, in violation of their rights.
We all have a role to play in what comes next. None of it is preordained.
Federal Judge William Young’s recent splendid defense (so worth reading!) of First Amendment free speech rights ends thus:
I fear President Trump believes the American people are so divided that today they will not stand up, fight for, and defend our most precious constitutional values so long as they are lulled into thinking their own personal interests are not affected. Is he correct?
It’s up to us to answer that with a resounding “No.”
We need all our democratic institutions to stand strong—Congress, the courts, the independent press. Pressure your lawmakers to stand up for people and not give in to the unlawful dictates of this administration. Ordinary people like you and me must show up and be willing to put the collective good above narrow partisan squabbles.
We need big, powerful US companies to do the same—to show that the long-term well-being of our country matters more than bending the knee to boost their quarterly corporate profits. Educational institutions must stand up to attempts to restrict their freedom and independence. Scientists must speak up for facts. Media outlets must refuse efforts to stifle independent journalism. This is what collective resistance to authoritarianism and the rise of tyranny looks like.
These are defining times. These are also frighteningly clarifying times. No one is coming to save us but ourselves. So, if you can, if you feel safe enough, please join a peaceful, powerful No Kings protest near you. UCS will be there too, putting our shoulder to efforts to save science and democracy, neither of which can thrive without the other.
Together, let’s reclaim the people’s rightful power in our democracy,