I share the dread of millions of people across my country and around the world that the US is sliding towards a fascist nightmare. But I also have hope in the people’s capacity to not resist, undermine, and weaken the efforts by right wing authoritarians to impose their anti-human policies. I don’t have a lot of faith in our institutions: the right has been effective in filling the judiciary and other high placed officials with sympathetic ideologues, cronies, and thugs; and Democrats in government have been doing a lot of “obeying in advance” based on the false premise that they had “gone too woke” during the election. It’s possible that the incoming administration and Congress, full of self-serving incompetents, will do a lot to undermine themselves.
However, I have more faith in workers, particularly organize labor, mutual aid groups, and the collective action of ordinary people. This is going to be a hard four years, make no mistake. I know a lot of people who are preparing to move to another country to escape repressive laws already affecting women, trans folks, and the disabled. So my hope is mitigated with a lot of worry. I wish y’all the best.
