America’s ship of state is in the grip of a political perfect storm which threatens either dictatorship or a severe, paralyzing internal divide. It can be useful to remind ourselves of the history that brought us to this pass, if only to recognize that we have not always been what we now are and that we got here by collective choice. Hopefully, this implies we still possess a measure of choice regarding our future. Therefore, as many a therapist has said, let us begin with the Great Depression.
One of our greatest presidents, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, was elected to the first of four terms in 1932, three years into the global Great Depression that began in 1929. He immediately galvanized the federal government into alleviating the suffering of the working class. His Works Progress Administration employed millions to build up the nation’s infrastructure, including 29,000 bridges, the great majority of which are still in use. He instituted Social Security and championed labor unions’ right to organize. After we entered into a two-front war against the Axis powers in World War II, his leadership was a driving force behind the Allied victory. His achievements (unfortunately he died at the very beginning of his fourth term in April, 1945) revolutionized the role of the federal government and created an expectation that it could be a potent force for social and economic justice.
In the wake of these national, presidential, and generational successes, the 1945-1981 era held a baseline expectation that the federal government had a duty to invest in improving the lives of the general population. This commitment was reinforced by the fact that after World War II the U.S. was the world’s only intact industrial super-power. Prosperity bloomed and the myth of the American dream was elevated to the status of reality. But the gravy train could not last forever. Nor could social ease as the country was divided over civil rights, school desegregation, protests against the Vietnam War, and the 1973 Roe vs. Wade Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion. It is worth noting, in these divided times, that three of the justices who supported abortion rights had been appointed by staunch Republican President Richard Nixon, and one of the two dissenters by Democratic martyr John F. Kennedy.
The federal government’s liberal tilt was not merely a swing of the political pendulum. In the six decades (1865-1929) between the end of the Civil War and the onset of the Great Depression, the U.S. underwent fantastic economic growth and developed world-changing technologies that opened new vistas of power and wealth for the country. Opportunity beckoned former slaves and their descendants who traveled north and west and the millions of immigrants from southern and eastern Europe. America needed these people and could not afford to alienate them every time the economic cycle took a dive. No longer were 70% of the population small farm owners. Corporate power grew by leaps and bounds as did the middle class. The federal government had to expand, as every civilization’s central institutions must, simply to avoid chaos.
Yet the old infections still festered. FDR’s own patrician class, the bankers and industrialists who felt they owned the country and whose religion assured them they ruled as their God’s elect, hated him and considered him a traitor, even plotting to remove him via a coup. The powerful right-wing of America’s ruling class was unalterably committed to undoing the social advances that began with FDR and continued to upgrade American society throughout the heady and turbulent 1960s and 70s.
They had fertile ground upon which to work. American racism was so deeply rooted that a chart of it would resemble a weather map: deep crimson for the south, red-orange for the midwest, and orange-yellow for the north. And despite the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965, and Roe vs. Wade, racial and sexual divides widened. Feminism and gay liberation were depicted by their opponents as threats to the “traditional” American family. Anti-war protesters shocked the “silent majority” who could not understand how a bunch of arrogant, pot-smoking, long-haired, bra-less kids dared challenge the commands of their government and the platitudes of their military for the sake of little brown people being napalmed half a world away. After school desegregation became law, many whites pulled their kids from public schools, often placing them in schools run by religious groups preaching a fundamentalist doctrine of obedience, patriarchy, and white stewardship of the nation.
This racist notion of “white stewardship” was the prevailing social and scientific doctrine in America and much of Europe at the beginning of the 20th century and it never died out. It was tendered in the right wing extremities of the ruling class which, as they had done during the slavery era, kept racism’s inflammatory lies circulating. As President Lyndon Johnson pointed out, “When you can convince the poorest white man that he’s better than the best ‘colored man’, he won’t realize you’re picking his pocket. Give him someone to look down on and he’ll empty his pocket for you.” American Evangelical Christianity, politics, and corporate world view were infused with the belief that the “Teutonic” or “Anglo-Saxon race” had a duty to bring Christ, Capital, and Civilization to the “inferior races” of the globe and damn the collateral damage. Of course they were “shocked, shocked” that this mission, from the slave and drug trades on, proved extortionately profitable
In the wake of the 1960s’ civil rights victories, segregationist Southern Democrats deserted to the Republican Party. Republican leaders recognized the political gains to be won by fanning the paranoia, racism, and discomfort of what they called “the silent majority”. Thus a series of hot button issues were exploited: “welfare queens”, “inner city” anything, and other racist memes; abortion; gun control; the “threats” of feminism and gay liberation. Riding a wave of reaction, Ronald Reagan won the presidency in 1980 and severely cut back the federally funded socio-economic safety net, the rights of labor unions, and federal oversight of business and the environment. It is a sign of the depth and necessity of such programs that it took 45 years before the Republican Party delivered the fatal blows this past year.
And now the right-wing’s long-cherished vengeance tour is in full swing. The dismemberment of the federal government was not Donald Trump’s idea. It was planned with military precision by the Heritage Foundation, Federalist Society, and other long-term right wing influencers. The script was written and the necessary “useful idiots” (Trump, Vance, Stephen Miller, Noem, Mike Johnson, RFK Jr., the six Supremes, etc.) played their parts. Farewell to federal regulation of corporate and financial behavior, environmental protection, public health, affordable private health care, an effective Center for Disease Control, vaccines, education, Social Security (coming soon!), food programs and food safety agencies, voting rights for blacks, and a diverse society and government in which dissent and protest are welcomed as a significant and necessary part of public discourse.
Today, abusive dictatorial power extends its tendrils into every aspect of our lives. Looking to the 2026 elections is not enough. Nor are occasional nation-wide protests. Trump’s presence, like Hitler’s or Mussolini’s for their fascist parties, unifies MAGA, but his departure will not assure a return to an ordered, rational government. The right will splinter into factions, some undoubtedly violent. There will be little satisfaction over the fall of MAGA if, given our society’s complexity and our reliance on vital services and utilities, we descend into chaos and collapse.
Corporate-owned media must be pressured to reflect this profound crisis. Too many important stories are buried by the Washington Post, NY Times, CNN, network news. Too many lies are reported as neutral political statements. The alternative press has been uncovering countless abuses of power, near-slave conditions throughout American industry, brutality on the part of ICE, and violation of basic rights that the corporate media either ignores, downplays, treats with an inside-page article, or pretends like their more outspoken op-ed columnists speak for the entire paper. What should generate headlines, press campaigns, and calls for protest and investigation instead seeps out like toxic mold staining the Capitol walls. Whether the media’s avoidance is due to fear, greed, complicity, or timidity doesn’t matter. They’re all the same at this point.
We still have power, some would argue we got the power if we can only figure out how to use it. Several spontaneous demonstrations in Charlotte, Chicago, and New York City have obstructed ICE raids, with the NYC protest blocking ICE’s operation. A nationwide ICE-alert network could direct crowds of people and cars to ongoing ICE operations and create traffic jams that grind ICE’s efforts to a halt. No need for violence, no confrontation with the local police. I’d gladly sit in my car for hours to provide that public service.
Resistance to this authoritarian takeover requires national coordination of locally led efforts based on the strategies and tactics that worked for other social movements. One goal is to make sure the 2026 election is not canceled or corrupted, but we must begin organizing and lobbying and speaking out now. The answer to “who can save our country?” is in the mirror.
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