I am deeply appreciative that more and more people seem to be outraged by what is happening in Minnesota, across the country, and around the world.
I am glad that more people are willing to say out loud that ICE must be abolished.
That Democrats in Congress are beginning to stand more firmly as a bulwark against an unbounded authoritarian regime.
That more in the press are finally resisting the reflexive “both sides” framing.
That the word fascist is increasingly accepted as an accurate description for a militarized force used to terrorize the public in service of a despotic leader.
I am glad that some who voted for this tyrant are having second thoughts. Or have even begun, however haltingly, to speak.
I applaud those who have stood up and shown that courage is a successful strategy, from many in the federal courts to some universities, institutions, and businesses.
I am heartened that public opinion is shifting, as more Americans say clearly that this is not who they want to be.
But let’s be very clear. None of this is a surprise. None of it. Not the cruelty. Not the corruption. Not the recklessness.
Not the lawlessness, the scale of the terror, or the damage to the world order.
Not the attacks on science or civility, the rewriting of history, or the wrecking ball taken to our constitutional order.
We knew this would happen.
And by we, I don’t mean a handful of prophets or people blessed with special foresight. You knew it and said so. So did people you know and love. So did candidates for office, former presidents, and leaders across society. Tens of millions of voters cast their ballots fully aware of what was likely to come.
When the history of this age is written, there will be no shortage of evidence about what went wrong. There will be no plausible claim of ignorance.
Scholars looking for reasons for how we got here will analyze the media ecosystem, the long shadows of the pandemic, and decades of economic and social disruption. But as they catalogue the speeches, the court filings, and the protests, they will see time and again how clearly the danger was identified and documented in real time.
These future historians will have nearly infinite contemporary sources warning that the Supreme Court had been corrupted. That the violent insurrection of January 6 should have forced a lasting recalibration of American democracy. That the current president should have been barred from re-election. That science was under attack. That corruption was rampant. That this regime was beholden to tyrants abroad and intent on the destruction of democracy at home. And the list goes on.
Those voices were everywhere. And they still are. But that is only half the story.
Looking more closely, those who look back will find something else that demands explanation. They will see that the people who most clearly recognized the danger were often dismissed and ignored — not only by MAGA true believers, but by those in positions of power in media, politics, and business who congratulated themselves on being sober-minded and pragmatic. Too many who understood what was coming were labeled hysterical. Alarmist. Radical. Unserious. They were told to calm down. To respect norms that were already being shredded. They were chastised by a mushy mainstream that prized decorum over diagnosis and tone over truth.
Now, what comes next matters. It will not be enough to replace this regime with an administration that promises a return to the norms of the past. Those norms helped create the conditions that brought us here. Accountability is essential. But so is a reckoning with how we assess and share information, how we define what is responsible and mainstream, and whose voices are elevated or dismissed.
This work cannot wait. It must move alongside resistance and rebuilding, because all of it is of a piece if we are serious about saving our democracy.
We knew what was coming. We said so. We are fighting for our country now. And we welcome new allies.
But “never again” cannot apply only to this regime. It must also apply to those who had the power to stop this earlier. Those who dismissed the truth-tellers. Those who defied the warning signs when there was still time to act.
