Where are the Leaders?

 Before the election it was crystal clear to me that Donald Trump plans to become an authoritarian president and to follow the Project 2025 playbook to usher in a right-wing takeover of America. After the election, this is still clear to me.

Why is it, then, that leadership on the left, who warned us so passionately that Donald Trump is a danger to America, is now rolling over: running scared, clamming up, agreeing to compromise, or even complimenting the Trump administration? I thought this was called “anticipatory obedience”, the first ingredient to ensure an authoritarian victory.

As a voiceless, powerless person, I am so angry at the pathetic leadership on the left. First, were they exaggerating the threat before the election or they downplaying the threat now? Second, by being passive they are throwing average people who don’t want to live under an authoritarian president to the dogs, further proving that they really don’t care about us. As rich people, they know they will be fine.

  
Those in positions of power have an obligation not to be cowards and to lead us in a resistance. This is not a “wait and see” moment, we must resist now. I am not tired, I am not depressed, I am not afraid. I am ready to fight for the soul of this country with everything I have.

Where are the leaders that will take us there?  

Letters to a Friend: The RWTA

Hello, Screams,
It's been a while since I've written to you because things have been relatively stable and I only write to you when I've started to plunge into the abyss. But I was remiss in my duty to call on your council since the slow fall into the abyss started some time ago. It is now too late for you to help me. I wanted to tell you what is happening never-the-less. 

I am now trapped in an Owellian novel that I believe is reality, though I am leaving my mind open to the possibility that it is not. When DT was elected one month ago I thought, for sure, that there would be collective outrage among my fellow progressives. Instead, what I'm witnessing is a massive capitulation. Our leaders are withdrawing. The media is self censoring. Our heros are saying things like, "well, you know, we'll just wait it out" or "Actually, I agree with DT (the autocratic sociopath who is about to destroy America) on some things." They want to abandon our best ideas to become more like the "other side". 

I'll tell you what this is. It is anticipatory obedience. It is the first ingredient in the recipe for autocracy. Unity sounds nice until you call it something else: one party rule. 

Jon Stewart said in the days after the election, "Welcome to the resistance" and then,  in so many words, "I'm only kidding."  I knew then that we were in trouble. Though he is a comedian, not an activist, this hardened satirist's immediate surrender is indicative of the position of all wealthy progressives: "We will  climb aboard the Trump train to save our own skin. We'll be fine. We have money." They are leaving the rest of us poor slobs to fend for ourselves. 

As a person without money or power, I don't know how to stop it. I know that the resistance must come from the bottom, but my fellow activists are too tired, in denial, turning inward, etc. We need leaders to emerge from the swamp, but I haven't seen any to date. People just continue to post selfies, buy useless crap, and watch vapid T.V. 

I know it is up to me. I just don't know what to do, Screams. I don't know how to proceed. I used to believe that the arc of the moral universe bends towatds justice. It is something I no longer accept. We are caught in a battle between good and evil. So far, Screams, Evil is ahead. 

Love, 
Lara