Right off the bat, I would like to emphasize that as a middle-aged, straight white guy, my concerns about myself and my life, while real and of great personal importance to me, are a mere ripple in the ocean compared to the absolute carnage that will be done to disadvantaged communities in the US and around the world by this regime. So many people are going to suffer and die. The grief and anger I feel is primarily for those needlessly shattered futures.

I am older than you are, Jason, and my sense that these clowns have ruined all our lives, including the remainder of mine, is crystal clear and intensely upsetting.

Feeling all of this. I am optimistic because that is how I navigate the world. But if I were the type of person to bet, I would put money on the prediction that we are cooked for at least a generation.
Democrats have many electoral wins in their future, but the cultural Overton window is too far over in the direction of hating immigrants, distrusting government, and ignoring climate change.
I believe so much of this is related to financial inequality. We still mostly live our prosperous lives, so the average person doesn't think about this in revolutionary terms.

I think it's a safe bet to say whatever American era we were living in is dead and gone, but I don't think it's by any means a guarantee that whatever this is, is going to be the new American era going forward. People don't like this, people might like Trump, but they don't like this. And I believe, to an even greater degree, what's really driving people is their dislike of whatever that prior American era was which, if we are being truly honest, wasn't that great for large swaths of this country.

There are things endemic to this regime and this maximalist MAGA worldview that will precipitate another era change, chiefly the fact that a country that's governed by magical thinking will eventually be introduced to an uncaring reality. There will be crisis that we're under-equipped and ill-prepared for and the knives will come out as they always do and the opportunity for a new era will present itself. We just need to make sure this time, unlike with our response to Trump's handling of COVID, we can articulate a better vision for the future of the country, not just a reassurance to make things go back to the way they were.

We're definitely down bad at the moment, but it's too early to crown any of the possible future realities.

I absolutely have this feeling as well - it's one of the great political frustrations that I think a lot of people have is that the bulk of the Democratic Party leadership seems not to have grasped this fact yet and are playing an old and outdated game, expecting that somehow they can win the next couple of elections and everything can go back to how it was. It seems abundantly clear that while things can certainly get better, it won't be by returning to 2015.

In the meantime, I am married to an immigrant and have a disabled trans son, so as a family we are living with a lot of anguish at the moment. We are continuing to live our lives but are actively assembling a Plan B outside of the United States.

I have found continual solace in this letter from Nick Cave that Jason posted once: https://kottke.org/24/08/hopefulness-is-the-warrior-emotion

```
Hopefulness is not a neutral position either. It is adversarial. It is the warrior emotion that can lay waste to cynicism. Each redemptive or loving act, as small as you like, Valerio, such as reading to your little boy, or showing him a thing you love, or singing him a song, or putting on his shoes, keeps the devil down in the hole. It says the world and its inhabitants have value and are worth defending. It says the world is worth believing in. In time, we come to find that it is so.
```

Thank you for posting this.

I was visiting with a friend a few days ago; she's in her 80s. She was talking about "when the Democrats regain power in two years".

I'm not sure about the expression on my face but I think it must've been close to aghast. I told her that I did not anticipate any kind of real change in the power structure of this country in my lifetime (I'm 67). That we would be fighting explicitly and subversively for decades at best.

I don't think she was able to hear me and definitely not able to understand what I was saying.

When Hillary lost, I realized that my mother (who is 65) would probably never see a woman become president, and I was so sad for her.

When Kamala lost, which I fully expected, I realized that I (40 years old) will potentially never see a woman become president.

Keep planting those shade trees…

I am not yet that pessimistic. From my perspective, we are currently undergoing a “cold” revolution that seeks to impose an authoritarian regime. While we are losing many battles, the war is not yet over. The new regime has not yet consolidated its power on the federal level, let alone among all 50 state governments. Plenty of states are still run by Democratic trifectas and our federal system still gives those state governments real power. If more governors followed Pritzker’s lead in Illinois, there’s still a chance to start a liberal counter-revolution.

Law & Justice failed to overturn Poland’s democracy and its liberal opponents are currently in government (though Law & Justice retained a hold on the Presidency).

If the Democrats win the House, Senate, and Presidency in 2028 and play hardball, they can massively reform the judiciary through legislation. They could add 18 justices to the Supreme Court and change the rules so that a random selection of 9 Justices are chosen for every case. Then they could expand the district courts, add new circuits, and add seats to the current circuits. All it takes is a majority in Congress to pack the entire judiciary with judges who will uphold the Constitution. Once that's done, they could pass a flurry of legislation to reinvigorate the New Deal and the Second Reconstruction of the 1960s.

The President could use executive power to purge Trump’s collaborators. The DOJ could bring charges of treason and insurrection against those in the federal government who have made war on The People of The United States. (Trump himself has clearly committed treason—in his own words he’s sent the US Military to occupy Los Angeles. That is a clear violation of his oath to uphold the Constitution and an act of war).

FDR saved our Republic from fascism; it can be done again.

And then the hard work would really begin—amending the Constitution to prevent the fascists from returning to power.

Folks should not give up hope yet. That’s what the new Redeemers want. Just as the first Redeemers destroyed the first Reconstruction, the want to destroy the second and restore the White Man’s Republic of Robert Taney and the Confederacy.

The Confederacy lost. There are more of us than there are of them. We can crush the Redeemers through non-violent protest and direct action and then force the Democratic Party to do its job.

Right now I believe our time horizon should be months, not decades.

In 1905 all of Russian civil society participated in a general strike. The secret police couldn't arrest people because all the judges, prosecutors, jail and prison staffs, government bureaucrats, bankers, lawyers, everybody stayed home. The people of Russia brought the Tsar to his knees by simply not showing up to work.

Building up to that sort of action should be our goal. We need to literally shut the country down so the Democrats have no choice but to become counter revolutionaries in order to get things running again.

I read your post… and the comments… and the whole time Joy Division was on repeat in my brain.

But that which is broken… can be fixed.

Greatness is in the agency of one another.

Hugs to all of you.

I have the privilege of having moved outside the United States many years ago, for economic reasons (my spouse got a job, in a profession where it's hard to get a job anywhere).

From my distance (not far enough, just above the 49th parallel), I don't see how the U.S. can recover from this in at least a generation, and as much as I read the Substacks of the resistance, there's so little being done. It's going to take so long to undo -- not the crazy-ass reality show that has taken over, but the lack of resistance to it from the Democrats and the Supreme Court. They've proven that no one will defend the ideals of the American republic, the one I was taught to admire in high school government class in a red state. (Beyond some performative stalling in Congress. God forbid they support Mamdani or any renewal in the Democratic party.)

What I come away with from this is that there's a huge difference between "life, liberty, and happiness" and "peace, order, and good government". And give me the latter, any day, honestly. Rugged individualism has not helped the United States. It's very subtle unless you live here in Canada, and then you understand that there's still a community ethos here, where that doesn't exist in the United States. Every MAN for himself, and the women are collateral damage.

I am sad to see what the United States has become. And I think it is going to take a long time to undo the damage on the global stage, both here in Canada and in Europe where I also spend a lot of time.

Making things better is a bottom up thing.
Solidarity, community, us doing what we can for each other.
No wasting time waiting for our leaders to do anything. We fix things or they don't get fixed.
Besides what we do, literally thousands of AOCs and Mamdanis need to ru and be elected. Not impossible but shouldn't be counted on happening.
It comes down to us.
McMillan Cottom is correct.

As a way to meditate on these issues, I'm doing "No Buy July". Every time I reach for the button to make yet another silly purchase, it forces me to reflect, which is oddly soothing. I did have to buy a couple of notebooks yesterday for my teen's summer tutoring. After resisting additional impulse purchases while wending through the aisles, my total bill at the register was 96 cents for 2 quality notebooks that seem to have been shipped to Staples' local distribution center from India. What a world.

I feel despair because I want more people to care about everything that's being ruined in real time. But they're too busy and it's too abstract because they haven't affected personally yet.

Maybe previous generations of Americans took more of an interest in larger concerns, but that's not who are as a people anymore.

Strongly recommend Walter Salles’ I’m Still Here. I think that could be a decent blueprint for what we face - in terms of how normal and authoritarian worlds can exist side by side and also that they won’t exist forever.

I have been reading about The French Revolution of 1830 (aka the July Revolution) which has many parallels to our own time - a reactionary regime full of morons overreaches and within Three Glorious Days in late July 1830, the leadership changes in ways almost no one saw coming. I recommend Mike Duncan’s Revolutions podcasts season on it or David Pinkney’s book on the subject.

I believe justice in the natural balance of our world, even while injustice must exist along it simultaneously - but if the balance gets too imbalanced, there will be a change to restore order.

I feel all of this, especially biking. It's always been a bright spot, but lately it's been that one thing. Pedaling for miles on trails really helps bring me clarity and calmness. Riding with friends, having meaningful conversations and experiences — all while moving your body is a very good thing.

I've been a fan of Rivendell bikes and their way of approaching cycling for a very long time. They're all about “unracing,” resisting the relentless tech arms race in cycling, favoring leisurely, joyful rides over performance stats and leaderboards. Plus they're a likeminded company, doing what they can to improve the world, through charity and other means.

That's all to say, last month I finally purchased a Rivendell and it's been such a wonderful thing to behold and ride. The guys at Riv were so nice to work with and riding it has truly brought me so much joy.

I don't think many material things can really spark true joy, but riding a bike surely does.

Is there some group of people that feels relieved and/or happy about the Trump administrations actions over the last 3 months? Is there another side to this coin that none of us conscientious people see? Like, is there an antimatter equivalent to Kottke.org someplace? I'd love to see it just to know how to see something positive in this.

While I don't disagree, I think this will ultimately be an opportunity to build a better America. We will never go back to what we had before, but that has been crumbling for the last 20 years.

What we had was labyrinthine and beaurocratic. What will come next will be, by necessity since the old ways are now broken, will be broad and simple. This will be the opportunity for universal healthcare and UBI as solutions to society-wide problems.

We just need leaders that want to build fully new solutions rather than patching what came before.

The era of middle class success and bipartisan democracy in the 50s and 60s was largely an aberration when you look at world history as a whole. For millennia, oligarchy, corruption, and rule by might has been mostly the norm. And even during the 50s and 60s it wasn't rosy for all people - the American experience was different for people of color than it was for whites.

I agree that we are probably in this mess for an extended time. The bull has run through the china shop and has also opened the doors and windows to let in the snakes and the vermin. I am optimistic/pessimistic that the US will have some unforeseen event or movement that will accelerate the reversal of this regime. We never see the unforeseen stuff coming.

Was just reading Ezra Klein’s column in today’s NYT, and it’s about AI. It’s a fascinating and scary thing I’ve been following very closely, and it will be a big, big part of what happens next, no matter who is in charge.
We can’t look to the past for help in this. No one can even make an educated guess, because this is far different than anything that has ever happened. So, there’s that.