January 1, 2019
As we mark the passage of another year, we struggle to find the clarity we need to reflect on the recent past and plan for the future, thanks to the pervasive toxicity of Trump’s presence, which crowds every space and forces us into a state of heightened watchfulness. We live in continual “fight or flight” mode, wondering precisely when Trump’s combination of uninformed impulsivity and hate-filled combativeness is going to plunge us into a crisis that we can’t readily escape.
The truth is that an honest reckoning of 2018 gives us cause for hope and alarm in equal measure. In 2018, Trump and his administration plumbed new depths of depravity, thoroughly unchecked by an an amoral Congressional majority too invested in confirming rabidly right wing judges to scrutinize Trump’s blatant lawlessness.
At the same time, the Special Counsel secured the conviction of Trump campaign chair, Paul Manafort, the guilty plea of his personal lawyer, Michael Cohen and the cooperation of his former National Security Advisor, Michael Flynn. Trump enters 2019 with six of his entities facing investigations, including his company, his campaign and his inauguration committees. New York A.G. Barbara Underwood has already forced the dissolution of his fraudulent foundation.
In 2018 we witnessed the horrific toll of gun violence in Parkland and the Houston suburb of Santa Fe, Texas, but the carnage engendered inspiring and unprecedented activism from young people that moved the needle on gun control for the first time in decades.
We saw brazenly anti-democratic moves on the state level in Wisconsin and Michigan and outright election fraud in North Carolina. Despite that, our tireless activism and mobilization led to a blue tsunami in the midterms, with Democrats capturing 40 seats in the House, and gaining seven governorships.
It is understandable if we face the New Year feeling genuinely tired, wondering if we have earned a rest. We’re tired of feeling the need to monitor the news on an hourly basis; tired of filling what used to be leisure time with Indivisible meetings, Congressional town halls, postcard and phone banking parties. Yet we are invigorated by the victories our hard work has secured, enriched by new friendships forged from activism and shared values.
If the last two years have taught us anything, it is the danger of complacency and the risks inherent in ignoring those injustices that don’t touch you directly. We have learned at our peril that democracy is not a spectator sport.
Let us go into 2019 with renewed zeal—energized by our wins and committed to thwarting the will of those among us who, led by the tinpot despot at the helm, would remake this nation as a white supremacist dystopia. In 2018, we learned anew the wisdom of Ben Franklin’s sage response to the query of what the Founders had created, “A republic, if you can keep it.” In 2019, let us resolve to keep it.
Very insightful analysis.