SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
authoritarianism
Start Building the World You Want to Live in After Trump's Dark Age
As Trump demolishes the old and drives America toward a darker future, the Democrats’ instinct has been to grieve, resist, and dream of restoration. But restoration may be the wrong goal.
Oct 19, 2025
President Donald Trump recently followed through on his threat to use the federal government shutdown as an occasion to fire government workers on a mass scale.
Shutdowns are temporary, yet the effects of this one seem likely to be permanent. It’s a kind of limbo, a foretaste of the old government being phased out, but with little clue what might replace it.
Such things have happened before in history.
While imprisoned in 1930 for opposing Mussolini’s fascism, the Italian philosopher Antonio Gramsci famously wrote, “The old is dying and the new cannot be born; in this interregnum a great variety of morbid symptoms appear.” L.S. Stavrianos’ 1976 book The Promise of the Coming Dark Age now seems dated, but raises a provocative question for our time: Can something new and better evolve from these dark times?
We need to envision a positive future with equal and ample opportunities for everyone to realize their full potential.
As Trump demolishes the old and drives America toward a darker future, the Democrats’ instinct has been to grieve, resist, and dream of restoration. But restoration may be the wrong goal. That’s the rueful lesson Polish democrats are drawing from Poland’s shift back toward authoritarianism.
Even if Democrats’ dream scenario—retaking the House in 2026 and the Senate and presidency in 2028—comes true, the world we knew isn’t coming back. What the Trump administration has destroyed—for example, dismissing 1,300 State Department employees in 20 minutes—may take 20 years to rebuild.
Then there are the nightmare scenarios. Republicans might rig future elections. Trump could consolidate an increasingly repressive police state.
Either way, we face a prolonged dark age. Surviving it will require more than a diet of “resistance”—we also need hope. We need to envision a positive future with equal and ample opportunities for everyone to realize their full potential.
There are practical steps in this direction that communities can take starting now. Neither left nor right, such actions would help bridge partisan divides and hedge against national systems that may soon start failing. They could include:
Greater localism. We could start shifting from full-throttle globalization toward more diversified, sustainable, and self-reliant local economies.
Trump’s tariffs disrupt the world economic order via top-down fiat, without offering any path out of the ensuing chaos. We need the opposite: bottom-up strategies to buffer communities against market turbulence and repression.
Reinvigorated localism could also enable communities to supplement whatever remains of the national safety net by reviving traditions of mutual aid.
Stronger, smaller democracy. More localized economies could lay the groundwork for more decentralized, egalitarian, and participatory governance, empowering communities to shape their own destinies.
Face-to-face community. We could step back from our screen-saturated lives to rebuild in-person ties. American communities are increasingly siloed. We could foster healthy pluralism by creating more opportunities to build personal connections across differences.
Soulful work. What if we built a more enriching job market?
We could shift work toward “caring, craft, and cultural” occupations. We could focus automation, robotics, and AI on reducing dangerous and mind-numbing work, and on lowering the cost of strategic essentials like solar collectors and medicines. And we should resist allowing AI to displace people from fulfilling work.
Ideas like these once seemed fringe or utopian. But as our democracy morphs into corrupt oligarchy or outright fascism, they may soon become deeply practical—even imperative.
Fully realizing them would eventually require matching changes at the national and global levels. But communities don’t have to wait—they can start now, working with resources locally at hand.
We need to recognize that something profound has shifted and a new epoch is coming. But instead of abandoning hope, this transitional period is the time to envision and begin building the world we want to inhabit on the other side.
Keep ReadingShow Less
Some Signs I Saw at the No Kings Rally
If we are going to save the country, it’s clear it’s going to have to be done by the millions of people like those who attended this rally.
Oct 19, 2025
The rally was in Livermore, California, a burgh of about 85,000, 50 miles to the east of San Francisco. This is a small, exemplary sampling of the many hundreds of signs carried by the many thousands of protesters.
“Memo to the fascists: peaceful protest is not violent insurrection.”
“ICE is Trump’s Gestapo.”
“When cruelty becomes normal, compassion becomes radical.”
“If you love America, this is how you show it.”
“No Dick-tators.”
“Super callous fragile racist lying nazi POTUS.”
“No faux-king way we’re gonna take this.”
“It’s bad enough that even introverts are here.”
“The reason you should care is not that it could happen to you, but that it’s already happening to others.”
“Hate never made a country great.”
“So many concerns; so little cardboard.”
“If I had a nickel for every time Trump lied, I wouldn’t need Social Security.”
“No kings. No felons. No pedophiles.”
“When tyranny becomes law, rebellion becomes duty.”
“No troops in our cities.”
“Only YOU can prevent fascist liars”
“If you’re doing what’s right, why do you need to wear masks?”
“Citizens, not subjects”
“In a democracy, the opposition is not ‘The enemy within’”
“I’d rather be a fierce patriot than a loyal subject."
“Sorry, Trump; we are NOT intimidated.”
“Trump: Is Netanyahu blackmailing you? Release the Epstein files.”
“Orange lies matter.”
“The best way to protect our rights is to exercise them.”
“We are the King family and even we say ‘No Kings.’”
“Protest while you still can.”
“Freedom is not a state of mind. It’s an act.”
“If you love America, this is how you show it.”
“Trump: you can’t arrest all of us.”
“I will defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic.”
“Nobody paid me to be here. This is the 'Free' part of ‘Freedom.”
“Ikea has better cabinets than Trump.”
“Democracy dies in silence.”
“USA; King-free since 1776.”
“Why does Trump release Santos but not the Epstein files?”
“Trump is the real outside agitator.”
“Liar. Con man. Pedophile.”
“Not antifa. Just anti-fascist.”
“I don’t bow, to Kings, or anybody.”
“Silence is complicity.”
“Hey, Kristi Noem: We’re not animals. Don’t treat us like your puppy.”
“OMG GOP WTF.”
“Stop pretending your racism is patriotism.”
“The manifesto of resistance is called ‘The Constitution.’”
“Freedom doesn’t wear a crown.”
“I believe Stormy Daniels.”
“Hope is stronger than fear.”
“I’m not taking civics lessons from a 34-time convicted felon.”
“Power of the people is stronger than the people in power.”
“In a time of pervasive lying, truth-telling becomes a revolutionary act.” ~George Orwell
Trump has learned how to neuter those centers of power that might challenge him: law firms, universities, media, etc. His press secretary has called Democrats, “terrorists” and “criminals,” a predicate for silencing or eliminating them. If we are going to save the country, it’s clear it’s going to have to be done by the millions of people like those who attended this rally. Get YOUR signs ready. It’s going to be a long march.
Keep ReadingShow Less
'We the People Will Rule!': Millions Turn Out for 'No Kings' Protests Against Trump Tyranny
"As Trump and his henchmen take our democracy apart, we are called by our future to rescue it," a progressive congressional candidate in Maine said at one of more than 2,700 scheduled protests.
Oct 18, 2025
Democracy defenders took to the streets Saturday in big cities and small towns from coast to coast and around the world to protest President Donald Trump's authoritarianism and to show the world that "America has no kings, and the power belongs to the people."
Organizers said that more than 2,700 No Kings rallies are scheduled in every state and more than a dozen nations, in what could be the “largest protest in US history” in one day. Saturday's demonstrations followed June 14 No Kings protests that drew millions of people.
“I think that this is going to be a stronger push than the last one,” Hunter Dunn of 50501, a progressive organization that is one of the event's organizers, told The New York Times.
“I’m seeing more of an emphasis on the understanding that this is not just a sprint,” he added. “We are seeing a difference in the understanding of the general public, that this is a marathon.”
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) headlined a massive rally in Washington, DC.
" Mike Johnson, the Republican speaker of the House, called these rallies 'Hate America' events," Sanders told a huge crowd in Washington, DC. "Why does he have it wrong? Millions of Americans are coming out today not because they hate America, we're here today because we love America."
"Today... in this dangerous moment in American history, our message is... no, President Trump, we don't want you or any other king to rule us," Sanders continued. "We will not move toward authoritarianism in America. We the People will rule!"
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) also spoke at the DC rally, telling the crowd that "the truth is that Donald Trump is the most corrupt president in the history of the United States of America."
"The truth is that he is enacting a detailed, step-by step plan to try to destroy all of the things that protect our democracy—free speech, fair elections, an independent press, the right to protest," Murphy continued.
"But the truth is also this: He has not won yet, the people still rule in this country," the senator added. "And today, all across America, in numbers that may eclipse any day of protest in our nation's history, Americans are saying loudly and proudly that we are a free people."
Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) fired up an enthusiastic crowd in Seattle, affirming that "we will not back down, we will not give in" to Trump's authoritarianism and lawlessness.
"It would be easy to look around us at what's happening and throw up our hands, be angry, be frustrated, blame someone else, or just disengage, because there's too much hate and corruption, cruelty, and violence," Jayapal said.
She added that Trump is "clearly not well," calling him a "wannabe king who dehumanizes trans people and immigrants, and Black people, and poor people to distract you from his real agenda."
Jayapal decried a president "who sends National Guard troops and masked men into our cities, militarizing our streets, kidnapping and disappearing tens of thousands of people from our communities, and trying very hard to suppress our dissent."
"We are not caving in," she said. "Right now, let's show the power of this movement... We are the people's movement that will save our democracy."
Saturday's rallies were peaceful, joyous events, replete with signs inscribed with creative slogans like "Our Huddled Masses Will Defeat Your Fascist Asses" and "No Crown for the Clown!"
[image or embed]
— sharonfisher68.bsky.social (@sharonfisher68.bsky.social) October 18, 2025 at 8:11 AM
In Chicago, rallygoers erected a paper machete guillotine in Grant Park, where Black Sabbath's "War Pigs" blared from loudspeakers.
“No sign is big enough to list all the reasons I’m here," 26-year-old protester Mackayla Reilley told the Chicago Sun-Times. “With everything going on in Chicago, we have to protect immigrants [and] we have to stand up against Trump. We can’t normalize this type of polarization and this type of partisanship.”
"NO KINGS" PROTEST IN CHICAGO
[image or embed]
— Raider (@iwillnotbesilenced.bsky.social) October 18, 2025 at 11:21 AM
In Nashville, Tennessee, 9-year-old Iris Spragens who was attending a rally with her parents, told the Tennessee Lookout that she wished country music icon Dolly Parton were president.
“We don’t want Trump to be king because he can be mean to a lot of immigrants and he kicks out a lot of immigrants,” Spragens said.
Nashville, c’td#NoKings
[image or embed]
— Radley Balko (@radleybalko.bsky.social) October 18, 2025 at 10:13 AM
Wendy MacConnell, a grandmother who also attended the Nashville protest, told the Lookout that Trump and Republicans are "trying to whitewash this to make it seem like America doesn’t want this—but look around, look around at all these people."
In Pueblo, Colorado, around 2,000 people rallied at the Pueblo County Government Lawn.
“What the community is doing here today is coming together and saying we won’t take this, we want to be listened to and the people we elect should be listening to the people who vote them in,” 23-year-old Sydney Haney told KRCC, explaining that she was attending to protest US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) abducting members of her community and attacks on the Constitution, reproductive rights, and healthcare.
In Bangor, Maine, progressive congressional candidate Matt Dunlap told the crowd: “A dangerous time is again upon us. It is bad, and it can get worse, as Trump and his henchmen take our democracy apart, we are called by our future to rescue it."
“We can and must do more," Dunlap added. "We owe it to ourselves and the future of this nation to be bold and not afraid, to be hopeful and not despondent, to strive for our independence and reject subjugation by a king.”
In Atlanta, protester Linda Kelley told Fox 5 that "we are so close to being Germany, 1938, and it’s so terrifying."
"I never thought in my lifetime we’d be somewhere like this," she added. "People don’t realize what will happen if we don’t stand up."
Democratic San Diego County Supervisor Paloma Aguirre told KPBS in downtown San Diego that “I am here today in solidarity, so that we cannot continue to accept that our constitutional rights continue to be eroded and taken away from us."
“We have the right to free speech, we have the right to free press, we have the right to have our families not be separated in the dark of night and dragged away," Aguirre added.
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular