This is an emergency, and it's time to act

If not now, when?

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The time for mass activism is not someday. It is not after the next election, or when the courts finally “step in,” or when Republicans inevitably “go too far.” That fantasy has evaporated. The time is right now.

An Authoritarian Turn

It is 2025, and Donald Trump is back in power. But this is not the chaotic, improvisational Trump of 2017. This time he is governing like a strongman. He has floated suspending habeas corpus, cracked down on protests, and purged critics from federal agencies. He is firing entertainers for mocking him. What was once rhetoric has become authoritarianism in action.

The difference between Trump’s first term and today is experience. Back then, courts occasionally blocked his worst impulses. Cabinet officials sometimes slowed the chaos. But that guardrail is gone. The judiciary is stacked with loyalists. The executive branch has been stripped of dissenters. The MAGA movement is more disciplined and unified. This is not creeping authoritarianism. It is a sprint toward it.

Violence as Politics

The political climate is also darkening. After the killing of Charlie Kirk, the right’s reaction was not grief or reflection but escalation. Prominent MAGA figures have encouraged their base to see violence as just another form of politics. Rage is being legitimized, enemies redefined as targets.

The double standard is glaring. When the left organizes peaceful marches, police appear in riot gear. When the right hints at “Second Amendment solutions,” they are lionized as patriots. This asymmetry gives cover to extremists and normalizes the idea that political disputes can be resolved with bullets instead of ballots.

The Attack on Free Speech

At the same time, free expression is under siege. The firings of Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel are not about ratings or comedy. They are about intimidation. The message is clear: criticize the president and your career ends.

The same pattern is unfolding across culture. Book bans and censored curricula are spreading through schools. Independent media faces harassment and threats. The irony is unavoidable: the same voices that spent years railing against “cancel culture” are now orchestrating the most aggressive, state-backed censorship campaign in modern American history.

Lessons From History

None of this should feel unfamiliar. History shows what happens when people wait for someone else to act.

The labor movement did not secure the eight-hour day or the 40-hour week because politicians gifted them reforms. Workers organized, struck, and forced concessions. The civil rights movement was not won by court decisions alone. It was won in the streets, through marches, sit-ins, boycotts, and relentless pressure.

Around the world, from Hungary to Turkey to Russia, authoritarian leaders consolidated power precisely because too many citizens hesitated, believing institutions would hold. Waiting has always been a losing strategy.

Why Activism Matters

This is why the case for mass activism has never been stronger. Mass, visible, sustained activism is the only force that has historically shifted power in moments like this. Boycotts, strikes, protests, and nonviolent disruption are the tools that have forced elites to act when they would have preferred complacency.

These tactics worked for the labor movement. They worked for civil rights. They worked for ACT UP during the AIDS crisis. And they can work again.

Voting still matters. But ballots alone are not enough when democratic institutions are captured or compromised. Activism is what makes authoritarian regimes defensive. It is what puts entrenched power on notice.

A Career’s Worth of Perspective

I have covered politics for nearly twenty years, through the Bush years, the Obama era, Trump’s first presidency, and the Biden administration. I have never believed more strongly than I do now that mass activism is the only path forward.

The institutions many thought would save us have been co-opted. The elites who were expected to resist have gone silent. The “breaking point” people keep waiting for? It is here.

The Choice Before Us

So the question is not whether activism is necessary. It is whether people are willing to engage in it. Are we willing to risk inconvenience, discomfort, or even arrest to resist authoritarianism? Or will we retreat into passivity, scrolling through headlines while waiting for someone else to step up?

History leaves no ambiguity. The answer determines whether democracy survives or withers.

The time for mass activism is not tomorrow, not after the next outrage, not after another rigged court decision. The time is right now.

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MAGA cancel culture is real—and it’s coming for the press. But they can’t cancel what they don’t control.

Let’s keep building.

—David

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