Where are we now? A precipice of violence or a better season?

As we approach the end of 2025, I think we can begin to believe that the Trump regime has lost most of its democratic (small "d") legitimacy. And also, some of its momentum. Sure, the Big Baby Man won the election in 2024, barely. But as for leading a government "deriving ... just powers from the consent of the governed" by way of that victory, his time seems to be running out. His polls are falling; Trump's approval is dropping into the low 40-high 30 percent range. In 2025, voters have elected Democrats, of multiple stripes, just about anywhere they can, from a mayor of New York, to governors in New Jersey and Virginia, to flipping 21 percent of all the GOP-held state legislative seats that were on the ballot this off-year. 

Americans don't like what the Republicans and MAGA are offering. Prices did not magically drop when Trump took office. In fact, prices for food, housing and electricity are rising; for many, health insurance in also way up. Very few people voted for masked thugs kidnapping their neighbors; the more people see of Stephen Miller's mass deportation agenda, the less they like it. And then we have to ask, why is the regime drowning small boats and their crews at sea and threatening to attack Venezuela?

Citizens all over the country are finding their resistance legs. For awhile last spring, many of us felt swept off our feet by Trumpism triumphant. No longer. Resistance is real.

In addition to the big marches, weekly vigils, and day-in, day-out support for neighbors under threat, a couple of biggish nodes of resistance are active online and making, if not yet a difference, at least one hell of an impeding fuss.

I want to highlight two, accessible to us all wherever we live:

• At Hopium Chronicles, Simon Rosenberg leads national weekly online gatherings of people he calls "proud, plucky patriots" who work, most remotely, on winnable Democratic campaigns, who keep their Congresscritters of both parties on notice with calls and meetings, and who are advancing local resolutions from local elected authorities denouncing the Trump regime's corrupt anti-democratic aberrations. The vibe is FDR-WWII-era popular activism; these people believe in the possibility of this country and don't quit.

• Indivisible has been around since the first Trump era. The organization claims over 2800 (!!) local chapters and holds a huge weekly online organizing meeting in which the founders,  Leah Greenberg and Ezra Levin, discuss real projects like how to assemble and participate in mass protests, what boycotts might work, how activists with different priorities might work with each other, and how to navigate the inevitable Democratic primary contests of 2026. This is a fully modern attempt to build an effective school of participatory democracy which seems to be meeting the moment.  

And that's not all that has sprung up in response to Trump, just a couple of big ones! Labor unions, churches, professional associations, even some non-profits, have bestirred themselves under threat of extinction. It's not everyone, and it's certainly not so many of our formal leaders in business and politics as should be resisting, but it's a lot of people. So many are doing so much in their own ways!

Students of resistance (yes, there are people who study this sort of thing; it's probably fair to consider me a practitioner) offer what seem several useful frames for the moment:

* M Gessen derives this chilling admonition from her interviews with Israelis resisting their own genocidal Israeli government: "To be a good citizen of a bad state, one has to do scary things." What specifically that might imply here and now we don't know yet, beyond popular resistance to the ICE thugs. But having implanted Trump as the government, we have no reason to expect it will not be applicable. This is very likely to get worse before it gets better as the Trump regime feels its grip slipping. More violence is likely. Courage is required.

 

* Scot Nakagawa is another longtime practitioner and student of activism who offers what seems practical advice for this moment;   

The strategic imperative is staying in the fight. Not just continuing to exist, but actively contesting power through every available channel: courts, elections, mass mobilization, economic pressure, and international solidarity. Competitive authoritarian regimes are vulnerable to sustained, strategic opposition precisely because they maintain democratic forms. Those forms can be exploited by movements that understand the terrain. ...

* But what do we want? What's all this for? Daniel Hunter at Waging Nonviolence has some prescriptions:

 ... we need to find our offensive footing. “No Kings” is the “no” message. We need to find the “positive” articulation of our demands.

I suspect we’ll land close to a message that’s like “freedom for all.” We need to assure each other that we are not leaving each other behind — that it’s all of us, or none. We’ll likely find mass action around issues that impact everyone: health care for all, housing for all, security for all, affordability for all. 

Finding unified demands organically will help us move towards mass collective action. Developing new skills will also be critical. We need strike schools, jury nullification trainings, election protection operations and mutual aid.  

And organizing is critical too. A mass action doesn’t start on social media alone. It happens when relationships are strengthened and even built with people we haven’t organized with yet. Trust must grow and people need to be ready to improvise. Major strikes don’t happen because they are planned, per se — they respond to unanticipated moments.  

Last, we must stay ready and not assume that because Democrats won the elections this [fall], we’re safe. Trump has made clear his plan to tilt elections until Republican control is inevitable. We have to stay on our game. 

So let’s look out for each other. Let’s care for each other. Let’s fight with everything we’ve got. We can get through this — and we can build something better.

All in all, as good a foundation for resistance as we might hope at the turn of this year!