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Saying No to Kings and Yes to the Future
In the fight against Trump, against fascism, against the MAGA right, we need to show vision: Can we create a system that does not destroy the Earth and takes into account the needs of humans and animals on the planet?
Mar 27, 2026
Millions of Americans are currently hard at work doing whatever we can to resist the fascism that has quickly taken hold in the United States. For as long as I can remember, many Americans were discontented with many aspects of the government—both people like me, who have always worked for environmental, social, and economic justice, and the people who would devolve into Donald Trump’s supporters—the same racist, nativist misogynists who have always populated this settler colonial state.
For those of us who value kindness, learning, fairness, diversity, working for a future for the environment, and all the other values hated by the MAGA cult, this is a time that feels like a daily nightmare. Every value we hold is being smashed into the ground by this cult that often feels almost supernatural in its pure evil.
Many of the federal agencies that have been sledgehammered into pieces were funding important programs feeding, educating, vaccinating, researching, and regulating, although often imperfectly. The percentage of our taxes that went to pay for imperialist military interventions was always massive and immoral. Trump’s minions even list some “cuts to woke programs.” These include Minority Business Development, the Environmental Justice program of the Environmental Protection Agency, preschool development grants, and so much more. But, we are now paying more for Trump’s personal Gestapo than all the federal law enforcement agencies together, as well as the massive military budget, including the Iran debacle, while we watch the government defund our states, cities, and towns.
Donald Trump’s regime has ramped up killing the Earth through global heating, discharges of all sorts of poisons into our environment, and mining anything with value to capitalism. We are witnessing the systems that Americans have relied on, maybe even thought would always be part of our lives, disappear overnight. If we had a problem with Social Security, there were offices everywhere, workers being paid to assist. Did we ever think we would need to worry about polio raging back? That a very unwell man with zero medical training would be making health policy, so we are unable to trust any health data and advice being promoted? That the executive branch of the United States would devolve from bowing to large corporations, but largely following the law, to possibly the most corrupt “leadership” in the world? That in 14 months, the corruption would be so pervasive that there is no part of the Trump regime operating without bribery and no-bid contracts?
We will need to be holding serious discussions about how to move ahead as a community, as a town or city, as a state—because we need to model what we want in order to bury Project 2025 in the ground forever.
What are we working for when we resist all of the above? And how much of the old system that has been decimated should return, and how can we work for a new beginning if we are able to eliminate Trump, Project 2025, and the rest of the ghouls who currently hold power? If we are able to overcome the very credible threats to elections by the Trump regime, and move past a likely coup attempt if a major election goes sideways for the fascists, what then? Is our only alternative the Democratic Party of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY)? A Democratic Party that stood idly by when then-President Joe Biden and Attorney General Merrick Garland let Trump skate on all his crimes, including the insurrection of January 6? A Democratic Party that did not prosecute Richard Nixon for Watergate, nor Ronald Reagan for the Iran-Contra scheme?A Democratic Party that was fine with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s genocide in Gaza?
This is a question we should all be asking, and when we work for change at this time, we need to be very clear about what changes we are looking to enact. Both parties presided over the immense and growing wealth gap, outsourcing of well-paying jobs for working people, a starved education system that put testing above critical thinking, an overwhelmed healthcare system, ever increasing housing costs, an ever growing war budget—these and more are what drove many poor and working class people to believe Trump’s lies that he and the far-right care about their needs. And now, the tech billionaires want to replace millions of jobs with AI—and leave those workers behind.
In the fight against Trump, against fascism, against the MAGA right, we need to show vision: Can we create a system that does not destroy the Earth and takes into account the needs of humans and animals on the planet? Our states are going to have to be a model for the future. Our communities are coming together because we understand how much we need each other at this time of the larger system appearing to disintegrate. We will need to be holding serious discussions about how to move ahead as a community, as a town or city, as a state—because we need to model what we want in order to bury Project 2025 in the ground forever. Going back to 2020 is not possible and not desirable. Creating a vision of a future that can support life on our planet in peace and justice is what we need to strive for.
No Kings!
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Top Democrats Face Rising Pressure to ‘Bring the Iran War Powers Resolution to the Floor Right Now’
Democrats may have enough votes to pass a war powers resolution before the two-week recess, but party leaders have still not committed to doing so, even as the president appears ready for a ground invasion.
Mar 26, 2026
Backlash is continuing to grow after US House Democratic leaders made the decision to push off a war powers vote on President Donald Trump's Iran war for more than two weeks, even though they may have the votes to pass it immediately.
With Trump appearing poised to make the deathly unpopular decision to deploy ground troops into Iran within days, momentum around an act to restrict his warmaking capabilities only continues to grow.
Most of the Democrats who killed the last war powers resolution are now reportedly on board. So is Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC), who emerged from a closed-door House Armed Services Committee briefing on Wednesday saying she was “even more” opposed to boots on the ground than when she entered.
But despite having introduced the resolution himself, Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY), the ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, appeared to get cold feet about bringing it to the floor for a vote before next week's recess, a move which was met with anger and confusion from progressive critics.
A spokesperson for Democrats on the committee told Common Dreams on Wednesday that Meeks was very much committed to passing a bill to "hold President Trump accountable for his reckless war of choice," but that one could not be pursued until April 13, after the recess, because some of the necessary "yes" votes had left Washington.
Drop Site News co-founder Ryan Grim described this as a "pathetic" excuse. "As Trump threatens a ground invasion, Democratic members of Congress are saying they won’t do the one thing they are elected to do: Show up and vote," he wrote on social media.
Additionally, Grim reported on Thursday that Reps. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) and Emanuel Cleaver II (D-Mo.) had since returned to town. The only Democrat not currently in DC, he said, was Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.), who said on Wednesday that his wife was undergoing a routine surgery.
Axios reported on Thursday afternoon that Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) is also absent due to the recent death of his father, and Rep. Jared Golden (Maine), one of the Democrats who opposed the last war powers vote, was still wavering as of Wednesday.
Even with some absences, Republicans are also not at full strength. Assuming that Republican Reps. Thomas Massie (Ky.) and Warren Davidson (Ohio) plan to vote yes, as they did in February, there may still be enough votes for the resolution to pass.
When asked by Drop Site reporter Lily Franks on Thursday whether there were enough votes to pass the resolution, Meeks insisted, "We can't win the vote."
"When you see me put the bill on the floor, that means we're going to win," Meeks said sharply. "I know how to count. I know how to do my job."
When Franks pointed out that enough Republicans appeared to be on board, Meeks—continuing to interrupt—told her to "go find out" herself if there were enough votes.
"If only there were some mechanism on the House floor to find out how somebody might vote," Grim quipped in response.
The Democratic spokesperson could not be reached for comment when asked by Common Dreams whether Meeks was now planning to push for a resolution vote before the recess, given that some Democrats have returned to Washington.
Nathan Thompson, a senior policy adviser for Just Foreign Policy, argues that even if Democrats do not have the votes to pass the resolution now, there is no reason not to bring it to a vote.
"Forcing a vote will make House Republicans own an increasingly likely ground invasion," he said in a letter sent to House Democrats on Thursday morning, which was shared with Common Dreams. "Even a vote that falls short will be painful for House Republicans and put real pressure on the Trump administration."
"The attendance excuse doesn't hold," he said. "Members can return by tomorrow to vote, and Republicans aren't at full strength either... An unfortunate scheduling error should not prevent Congress from weighing in at a critical moment in history."
Calls for a war powers resolution on Capitol Hill continued to grow after reports that the Trump administration is mulling several potential ground operations in Iran, potentially as early as Friday.
Axios reported on Thursday that the Pentagon is considering "invading or blockading" Kharg Island, Iran’s primary oil export hub—and sending American forces “deep inside the interior of Iran” in an effort to seize the country’s enriched uranium.
The concerns about the repercussions of a prolonged war—even for just another two weeks—are broadly shared. Speaking on MS NOW on Thursday, former Defense Secretary and CIA Director Leon Panetta warned that serious dangers exist that a short extension of the war could lead to a much more intractable situation.
"If we continue the war," Panetta said, "if we go another 16 days of war and we incur casualties, or they incur serious casualties, then the likelihood is that you're planting the seeds for a more permanent war."
As the risk of a more protracted conflict was magnified on Wednesday, Trump insisted that the US is not at war at all, but is simply waging a "military operation" against Iran.
This has heightened the urgency among many Democrats on Capitol Hill, including Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.).
"If it looks like a war, sounds like a war, and costs like a war… It’s probably a war," the former chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus wrote on social media Thursday. "Trump is admitting to violating the Constitution. No amount of doublespeak can change that."
"Congress must vote on another war powers resolution," she added.
Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.) told Axios that there was "absolutely" frustration among progressives that Democrats were planning to punt the vote to next month.
Meanwhile, critics are increasingly raising suspicion that Meeks—whom The Lever noted received more than $2.2 million from pro-Israel lobbying groups according to the watchdog group TrackAIPAC—is intentionally dragging out the vote.
A prolonged war and the resulting economic turmoil are brutally unpopular, including among Republicans, and the theory goes that Democrats may seek to let it become an albatross around their opponents' necks in this fall's midterms.
Independent journalist Aída Chávez has emphasized that Meeks held up the previous war powers vote by overinflating the number of Democrats likely to defect, and may have attempted to do so again.
But with Democratic stragglers on board and more Republicans "starting to break," Chávez said: "Democratic leadership can’t keep hiding behind process.
"Bring the Iran war powers resolution to the floor right now," she said.
Thompson of Just Foreign Policy warned Democrats that "failing to force a vote will be noticed and covered in the media," and that "the Democratic base is watching and expects their party to put up a real fight."
"Even if the vote falls short by a couple votes, the members who voted yes will have a powerful record to champion to their constituents," he said. "The members who voted no will have a very difficult record to explain if troops end up being killed and injured on the ground in Iran."
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Poll Shows Mills Attack Ad Left Platner With 2-to-1 Lead in Maine Senate Race
As the latest poll results were released, the Maine governor launched her second ad against her Senate primary opponent, again attacking him for comments he made online 13 years ago.
Mar 26, 2026
Days after Maine Gov. Janet Mills released her first attack ad against her rival in the Democratic Senate primary, Graham Platner, focusing on comments he made about sexual assault victims online 13 years ago, Emerson College Polling conducted the latest survey of likely primary voters regarding their support for the two candidates.
Between March 21-23, the polling group surveyed 1,075 Maine Democrats and found that 55% expressed support for Platner, while just 28% supported Mills—giving the first-time political candidate, oyster farmer, and combat veteran nearly a 2-to-1 advantage.
When asked about a hypothetical general election matchup with Republican Sen. Susan Collins, respondents gave both Democratic candidates an edge over her, but Platner had a more comfortable lead.
Forty-eight percent supported him over Collins, while 41% backed Collins and 12% said they were undecided or supported another candidate. Mills had the backing of 46% of voters compared to Collins' 43%, and 11% were undecided.
The poll was consistent with numerous other surveys that have been taken since Mills entered the race last October, at which point it came to light that Platner had written offensive messages on Reddit in the past and had gotten a tattoo while in the Marines that resembled a skull-and-crossbones that appeared on the uniforms of Nazi guards during World War II.
Platner said his views had evolved since he wrote the posts and said he had not been aware that the symbol was associated with Nazis; he then got the tattoo covered up and continued holding rallies in cities and towns across the state—often addressing overflow crowds—where he has been speaking out against oligarchy, pushing for Medicare for All, demanding a billionaire's minimum tax, and condemning the Trump administration's "authoritarian overreach" with its mass deportations agenda.
Polls taken in the weeks after the controversies broke suggested the negative stories about Platner's past weren't sticking. The University of New Hampshire (UNH) found in late October that 58% of voters backed Platner compared to 24% who supported the governor.
He was 20 points ahead of Mills in a poll by the Progressive Change Campaign Committee weeks later, and in February UNH found Platner had widened his already significant lead, with 64% of Maine Democrats supporting him and 26% backing Mills. He also had an 11-point lead over Collins compared to Mills 1-point lead.
Despite the evidence that the attacks on Platner's Reddit history were doing little to damage his chances of winning, Mills made his comments the focus of her first attack ad earlier this month—a move that was panned at a local Democrats meeting days later in Hancock County, with attendees telling the governor directly that the ad was "odious" and "underhanded" and demanding to know: “Do you believe in a Maine and a country where a person can be redeemed? Where they can change and become a better version of themself?”
At the meeting, several voters also expressed disapproval of Mills' record of vetoing drug pricing and labor rights legislation and her opposition to a red flag gun control law.
On Thursday, as the latest Emerson College poll results were released, Mills released a second ad that, like the first one, focused on Platner's 2013 comments about sexual assault.
"Since her last attack ad, he has only climbed in the polls against both Mills and Collins," said journalist Ryan Grim of Drop Site News. "All these ads do is tell voters that the Democratic establishment is still a closed-off world where you are not welcome if you previously held different views or said something offensive on the internet. Nobody wants that world."
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