Over the last 24 hours, I found myself despairing for our country’s future thanks to the unrelenting flow of distressing news. No, I don’t think the United States will cease to exist. Rather, I think it may cease to exist as a nation with any moral standing. Three stories pushed me over the edge. 

 

We Bomb Weddings

The New York Times reported yesterday that U.S. forces had bombed a wedding in Iran, killing several attendees. Our response, as usual, was that “the US never targets civilians.” Of course, an investigation will ensue, only to be forgotten about as it’s overtaken by fresher news. But it won’t be the last time innocents are killed. Our country has an insatiable appetite for remote-control warfare. Our “courageous freedom fighters/warriors” of the Department of War risk carpal tunnel syndrome in their trigger fingers because they’ve been ordered to “fight to keep America safe.” This false fight for America’s safety may entail killing thousands more Iranians, most of them innocent civilians. Where is the anti-war movement? Where are the people who call themselves Christians but tolerate wanton killing at the whim of the dictator in the White House?

 

We Drive Haitians to Suicide

Every news outlet in the country covered the death of a young Haitian-American man who committed suicide by walking into oncoming traffic on I-70 in Ohio. He was driven to his death by the sadistic racist cruelty of our government. The young man, an incoming freshman at Wright State University, had been a varsity soccer player at a high school. He had joined ROTC with an eye toward a military career after college. His hopes crumbled when U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement fitted him with a bulky ankle monitor in July while the agency decided whether to deport him. He was forced to give up soccer because the monitor got in the way; classmates at Wright State teased him about it. He sank into depression and drove his car to a spot alongside I-70 where he got out and stepped in front of an oncoming truck. 

 

Pierre Damas Bel was killed by us! Our government’s intentionally cruel mass deportation policy killed him as surely as if he’d been executed in the public square. Our white supremacist president’s dream of a lily white America killed Pierre Damas Bel. The 50,000 Republicans at the party’s 2024 national convention in Milwaukee who held up “Mass Deportation Now” signs killed Pierre Damas Bel. Every elected Republican in Congress who has not vocally opposed mass deportation —  98-plus percent of them — killed Pierre Damas Bel. And every person who votes for Republicans in 2026 will spit on his grave. 

 

We Rig Elections

As the decent Americans among us wring our hands, the Trump administration is scheming to overturn the results of the 2026 midterm elections if it appears that Democrats might take control of the House, the Senate or both. Thousands of agents from FBI and the Department of Homeland Security are being employed in transparent efforts to create voter fraud myths with which to interfere in the midterm elections.   The administration has just now asked the Supreme Court to allow the USPS to deny mail in ballots to states who don’t submit their voter rolls to the federal government. These efforts are centered on areas where black or brown people are concentrated. And what I am describing does not include the efforts of red states to restrict voting by closing voting locations primarily in areas where minority voters are concentrated.  Even if some of these tactics are thwarted by the courts as they should be, they serve to prepare a gullible public for lies about voter fraud that will flood the airwaves if the Republicans sense the slightest chance of losing Congress. All of a sudden, we’ll see Markwayne Mullin and Kash Patel working feverishly to flip the outcome of the election. 

 

The planning to subvert the will of the majority is overt and blatant. No one with a brain can miss it. It may seem impossible to stop it. Our Supreme Court is dominated by Trump friendly justices. Our Congress is impotent because tiny Republican majorities in both Houses are Trump ass-kissers. Despite 250 years of fair elections that ended after all the votes were counted, the 2026 midterms will almost certainly be contested. Will it lead to violence like it did on Jan. 6, 2021?

 

Nothing good comes from living in despair. I am determined to counter despair with action. We must all triple our efforts to fight against Trump today. 

 

What in the world does that mean? It means giving time and treasure to those fighting on the front lines — Democratic candidates anywhere who have a chance to win. It means supporting the organizations that are fighting Trumpism in the courts.  It means showing where you stand openly, not keeping quiet to avoid conflict. Wear your allegiance proudly: Buy a T shirt that tells people you are anti-Trump. Speak up even when in the company of Trumpy people. Convince them that they are supporting tyranny and white supremacy! Be impolite if that’s what it takes. You might change a mind and a vote.   Look for an opportunity to support a vulnerable immigrant living in fear of ICE. Demonstrate. Volunteer with a get out the vote organization locally to help people  negotiate the chaos that may plague the voting in November.  Let people know you’re in the majority of people who want the madness to end.  Don’t be telling yourself on November 4th that you wish you’d done more. Stand up and be counted! 

 

 Let’s dispel despair by fighting for what’s right. Let’s be happy and scrappy.

 

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