On Friday afternoon, I had the privilege of moderating a keynote conversation with Congresswomen Delia Ramirez, Summer Lee, and Ana Lilia Mejia at Netroots Nation. Our discussion centered on what’s possible in America and how grassroots activists can take the lead, pressuring their elected officials to get on board.

What struck me as I was reading bios and preparing for the panel is how all three women have experience as grassroots activists on the outside before being elected to public office. Giving them a unique view into how to move the needle and what works to pressure our elected officials to actually lead. Their counsel on this particular topic was everything I hoped it would be, and you can tell from the audience’s response that it was enthusiastically received. I wanted to make sure you had the opportunity to enjoy it as well.

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Next Sunday, we’re back to regular programming. Talk to you again in one week!

The Ask

CARD is once again an independent operation, and I have some big plans ahead, including:

• Moving off of Substack next month

• More livestreams

• A new website.

To keep the newsletter going, I need to raise $15,000 between now and December. Currently, we’ve raised $2,905.00 towards my goal. A solid start, but we still have a long way to go. Can you chip in with a one-time or recurring contribution on ActBlue?

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Stop telling me to vote harder is a sentiment I hear from readers and see online fairly often. I understand it, and I feel it too. After Trump’s win in 2016, Democrats won several subsequent elections and special elections. And yet 10 years later, we find ourselves here again. With a Trump 2.0 that’s objectively more destructive than his first term in office, on a scale so vast it’s difficult to quantify.

The majority of Americans don’t want to live in a dystopian hellscape (something I still believe), and yet here we are. A competitive authoritarian system where the worst people you could dream up are tearing our country apart piece by piece, all while enriching themselves at every opportunity.

And still vote harder remains at the center of the conversation. Especially from elected officials and the organizations set up to win campaigns. Even in pro-democracy spaces. I’m guilty of it myself! And yet, as many of you have pointed out to me, that message is going out to an audience who did exactly that. Repeatedly.

I hear you, and I feel your frustration. Which is why I’ve been on a mission to find different ways to fight back and deepen engagement. I’ve worked to find the doers, especially folks doing innovative things that can inspire action in other communities.

Earlier this year I asked readers for examples of how they were organizing in their local communities and y’all came back to me with some incredible stories. Some came from Minnesota, where the state’s twin cities were essentially being occupied by ICE, but I heard from folks all over. Anecdotes included efforts for rapid response, mutual aid, educating one another politically, and working with vulnerable communities to ensure they were protected. Since then, I’ve been on a deep dive to learn more about anything and everything people are doing in their own communities to fight back.

The best definition for this kind of activity I’ve seen is community defense. Local and hyper-local efforts for neighbors to protect and defend one another, outside of the typical organizations we’ve built for advocacy and services. It’s a broad term that includes actions that are more traditionally political, such as pressuring elected officials or election protection, as well as actions that are apolitical, like mutual aid or documenting ICE activity and rights violations in a community. Minnesota is the best-known example of community defense in action, but there are efforts underway everywhere. Since folks are self-organizing and working outside traditional structures, it’s hard to quantify just how much is happening. But my sense, and that of experts I’ve talked to, is that there’s a growing movement of community defense efforts in communities large and small.

This week, I did a livestream with Jill Garvey, a co-founder and co-director of States at the Core. STAC is a newer organization that supports local community defense efforts. They hold frequent public trainings, which I highly recommend if you want to learn more about how to join or start community defense efforts where you live. Our full conversation is worth watching.

A couple of important takeaways: first is that when it comes to elections, the answer isn’t vote harder, but yes and. We already know that the Trump Regime doesn’t want elections to be free and fair, and that the Supreme Court has empowered them to take steps towards that end. But we also know that in the US, elections are run locally, so in addition to voting, it’s on all of us to do everything we can to ensure elections are free and fair in our communities. By protecting not just our vote, but the right of our more vulnerable neighbors to vote and have their voices heard, too.

The other big takeaway is the importance of documentation and storytelling. Minnesota inspired folks all over the country to step up and get involved. Jill told me that more than 50,000 Americans have attended a STAC training, and that she believes potentially millions of Americans are engaged in some kind of community defense activity. There’s a balance of keeping people safe and not exposing vulnerable communities to even more risk, but we also need more people to join the fight. And nothing will inspire others like stories of what ordinary people are doing every day to fight back with their neighbors and friends. We keep us safe, and as Jill points out, the more people join in the fight, the safer we’ll all be.

Thinking about resistance at a large scale, especially the often touted 3.5% rule, community defense is a key piece of that puzzle. Self-organized groups that trust one another and have built trust with a larger network where they live can accomplish a lot. I’ve long thought we don’t have the infrastructure we need to fight the Trump Regime and the MAGA Right, but as I learn more about community defense, I’m realizing that a new infrastructure is being built all around us. A decentralized network of citizens who are fed up with how things are, unhappy with what’s been offered by the opposition, and willing to step up to do things in a new way. The possibilities are limitless.

Next month, STAC is holding a series of four virtual trainings: Smash Authoritarianism Summer Camp. Over the course of a week, the camp will cover everything you need to know about community defense. It’s a crash course in community defense that will include both up-front presentation and breakout ask-me-anything sessions with experienced organizers. I encourage CARD readers to sign up and attend one or more sessions. I’ll certainly be there.

I’m still learning as I go, so if you have a story about community defense that I should know about or someone I should talk to, please hit me up. You can reply directly to this email or leave a comment.

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The Ask

CARD is once again an independent operation, and I have some big plans ahead, including:

• Moving off of Substack next month

• More livestreams

• A new website.

To keep the newsletter going, I need to raise $15,000 between now and December. Currently, we’ve raised $2,805.00 towards my goal. A solid start, but we still have a long way to go. Can you chip in with a one-time or recurring contribution on ActBlue?

If you’ve saved your payment information with ActBlue Express, your donation will go through immediately:

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If you’re already subscribed, donated, or you’re a Patron, thank you. Your contributions help keep the newsletter free for everyone. I want to make this content available to as large an audience as possible, and I’m so grateful for your help and support.

And if you want to sponsor the newsletter, advertise, or partner in some way. Hit me up.

ICYMI

• Your Values Are Nothing If They Aren’t Tested This essay from Ijeoma Oluo -- about where movements fall short and the importance of living your values even when it’s a challenge -- has stayed with me ever since I read it a week ago. A meditation on where we fail and what to do about it.

• White House Seeks Federal Spending Data On Dozens Of Nonprofit Organizations (Federal News Network) Another brazen weaponization of the Federal government to punish Trump’s political enemies.

• NAACP Calls for Black Student-athletes to Boycott Southern Schools Amid Redistricting Backlash (NBC News) I’m following this story closely. Because I hope it has legs, and because I have a lot of faith in young people generally.

Coda

That’s all for now. No newsletter next week as I’ll be in Philadelphia for Netroots Nation. If you’re attending, be sure to catch the keynote panel I’m moderating on Friday evening. Featuring three progressive fighters in Congress: Rep. Delia Ramirez, Rep. Summer Lee, and Ana Lilia Mejia.

There’s still time to join us in Philly and CARD readers get a 15% discount on registration. Use the CTRLALT code.

I’ll be back to it on Sunday, June 14!

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Sign up for STAC’s series of trainings in June at the link below!

States at the Core

Smash* Authoritarianism Summer Camp

Over the last year, we’ve seen exactly what happens when local communities stand together: we win…

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18 days ago · 11 likes · States at the Core

If you want to support CARD and are in a position to contribute, now is the perfect time to take the plunge. I need to raise $15,000 between now and the end of the year to stay afloat.

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“That is why the effort by Trump and Republican state leadership to gerrymander Black representation out of Congress must be understood as not only an attack on Black people, but on democracy itself. If the Republican racial gerrymandering effort is successful, the U.S. will lose any claim to democracy for a generation or more.” -Sherrilyn Ifill

White Supremacy is why we can’t have nice things.

Everything from public pools to universal healthcare. Name a potential public good, benefit, or right that is wildly popular but hated by the MAGA Right, and white supremacy is why Americans don’t have it. And as Sherrilyn Ifill pointed out in her excellent newsletter this week, white supremacy is also why we don’t currently live in a democracy (and why America hasn’t been one for most of its history.)

This week, I’ve been thinking a lot about Democratic backsliding and erosion. Mostly because we’re seeing the Supreme Court of the United States engage in it so blatantly. The same court that happily took away women’s rights has now set its sights on Black voters with a new level of aggression. This week alone, SCOTUS continued wreaking havoc in Alabama and Louisiana, allowing both states to pause primary elections already in progress in order to implement new maps that eliminate minority-majority districts entirely.

The Right doesn’t believe in free and fair elections. This has been true for some time (arguably, it has always been true), but the U.S. and Virginia Supreme Courts have really driven the point home over the last couple of weeks. Writing in his Democracy Docket newsletter, voting rights attorney Mark Elias lays out what’s happening in plain language:

The pattern is unmistakable. In case after case, the window in which courts may act to protect Democrats and Black voters has been shrunk to nearly nothing. Meanwhile, the Court has moved with urgency to protect maps that favor white voters and Republican candidates, even when doing so required acting closer to an election than it had previously deemed acceptable.

It is impossible to view this honestly without concluding that the Court has not been applying a neutral principle. It has been choosing sides.

Alabama is particularly egregious, given that the Supreme Court had already ruled against the state’s maps in 2023. At the time, the MAGA Right didn’t take kindly to the court their donors had bought and paid for offering even minimal resistance to their voter suppression agenda, and there were calls for Alabama to simply ignore the ruling altogether. But of course, none of that matters now that SCOTUS has essentially reversed course and given the state the green light to suppress away.

(Note that these decisions have come via the shadow docket. John Oliver covered the shadow docket and the ways it’s being exploited and abused just last week. It’s worth watching.)

I’ve written extensively about how the Supreme Court is no longer a legitimate institution and that we should treat it accordingly. That’s still the case. But this week, I want to talk specifically about the impact of these decisions on the next couple of election cycles and how they contribute to democratic erosion by making it impossible for Black voters to be represented, while impairing Democrats’ ability to govern once they’re elected.

It’s a vicious cycle that’s important to spell out. When Republicans have a majority, they do everything they can to further enshrine it. So even when Democrats win, they don’t have as large a majority as they should, making it difficult to govern and do what voters elected them to do. Voters then become further disillusioned, making it even easier for the Right to win back majorities again. Each time, Democrats lose more ground and our base of voters becomes more disenfranchised.

We also have to acknowledge that Democratic elected officials haven’t always understood the assignment, and that they have contributed to the problem. For far too long, the Party has been playing defense, focusing on preservation of norms and the status quo rather than fighting for America. I’d like to think the tide is turning somewhat on this, but Democrats in Virginia opting to all but give up the redistricting fight this week is a stark reminder that we still have a leadership vacuum on the Left. These folks either don’t understand what’s happening or have made a calculation that they can live with it, the rest of us be damned.

Still, there are signs of life and hope from Democratic leadership. Mad as I am over the current strategy in Virginia, support for redistricting in Blue States, and become a mainstream party position almost overnight. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries has been particularly bullish in his rhetoric, promising that Democrats in Congress will launch “a decisive and overwhelming response in advance of 2028.”

Court reform is the next battle and there are signs of life here as well. Kamala Harris, a likely 2028 contender, called for reforming the Court and considering “bold” political reforms that “may be about assuming some risk,” including court expansion. Journalist and commentator Joan Walsh reacted to Harris’ stance by saying, “This is a required stand for anyone running in 2028.” A sentiment I completely agree with. Democrats need to adopt this as a baseline with the same speed they did with blue-state redistricting.

Politics is a game of inches, and elected Democrats have also been hamstrung by those numbers. Our wins haven’t resulted in the changes voters want, and gerrymandering and voter suppression contribute mightily to that. It’s an erosion of American rights and freedoms happening over decades. If you feel disillusioned by the system, it’s vital to understand that the MAGA Right has been a huge part of the problem. I’d even argue that their tactics have led to some of your least favorite Democrats being elected in the first place, rather than candidates who more closely align with the base’s priorities and values.

Trump and the MAGA Right don’t want free and fair elections. This movement has already attempted a violent coup once before, and I have no doubt they’d attempt another without a second thought. But I also think it’s important to understand that a Democratic majority where we don’t have the numbers to accomplish anything is also a win for the MAGA Right. If our elected officials are hamstrung, if they can’t deliver, Americans will lose even more faith in democracy as something that has any impact on their daily lives. And the cycle continues.

So what do we do? I’ll be honest, I always struggle when talking about this because the scale of the problem can feel overwhelming. We need people to fight the disillusionment and vote in large numbers. We need to fight for marginalized communities because we’re only as free as the most vulnerable among us. But I think it’s important to acknowledge that white supremacy is why we’re here, and that the game is rigged against our favor. This isn’t a fair fight by any means, but it’s still winnable. The recent election in Hungary showed us that.

Voting matters. So does working to ensure that our elections are free and fair, starting in our own communities and states. We’ll also need to keep pushing the leaders we do elect to get creative in their strategy, find new levers to build power, and defy the Regime at every turn. It’s only because of pressure from us that Democrats are finally mounting a fight. We can’t allow that to stop in November or in November of 2028.

Finally, we have to believe that we deserve better, envision a better country, and demand it. Playing defense doesn’t get us anywhere. We’ve learned that lesson time and time again. America could have a government that serves the common good. We could have universal healthcare, childcare, paid leave, better schools – anything is possible. If we fight against White Supremacy and for a multiracial democracy, America could have nice things.

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Join Me at Netroots Nation in Philly!

Netroots Nation is just a few weeks away, June 4-6 in Philadelphia! Come join the largest annual gathering of progressive organizers in the country with 150+ hours of trainings, panels, and strategy sessions.

CARD readers receive a 15% discount on registration using the code CTRLALT. Register Here>>

I’m proud to serve as Chair of the Netroots Nation c4 board because it’s an organization I love dearly. I’m excited to see folks I’ve known for years, and to meet and learn from folks joining us for the first time. If you’re planning to attend, please drop me a line so that I can say hello. I love chatting with readers and hearing about their own experiences at the conference.

A Goodbye and an Ask

Ctrl Alt-Right Delete is saying goodbye to COURIER, and this is the last newsletter that will be published under the COURIER banner. I want to thank Tara and everyone at COURIER for the partnership, which came at a time when I really needed it and helped me keep things afloat through some rough times for my family and me. I’m sad to part ways, but I remain a big fan of what they are doing, especially in building out local newsrooms. If you’re in a state with a COURIER outlet, I encourage you to become a daily reader.

Don’t worry, though, Ctrl Alt-Right Delete isn’t going anywhere. I’ve been working behind the scenes and some big changes are ahead, starting with migrating off Substack and adding ActBlue for fundraising. I’m planning more collaborations, some slight editorial tweaks, and new branding. And if you’re interested in partnering, sponsoring, or advertising, let’s talk! You can reply directly to this email.

In the meantime, I do need to make up for the lost income and raise $15,000 between now and the end of the year. Every dollar raised helps me keep the newsletter afloat, produce more content, and keep it free instead of behind a paywall. That’s something I’m especially passionate about, since I want as many people as possible to have access to the information and analysis. If you want to support CARD and are in a position to contribute, now is the perfect time to take the plunge.

As I mentioned, we’re now set up on ActBlue.

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I’m taking next week off for Memorial Day weekend. Back at it on Sunday, May 31!

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By now, you might have heard the news, but as of next week, Courier is ending its relationship with Ctrl Alt-Right Delete and will no longer be publishing the newsletter. It’s bittersweet news because I’ve always enjoyed working with Courier, but it also gives me the opportunity to make some long-overdue changes. Over the next month, I’ll be moving the …

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“Our victory shows the importance of holding power to account and the importance of fighting instead of folding.” -Media Matters President, Angelo Carusone

This week, Media Matters secured what the organization called a “complete and total victory” in its case against the Federal Trade Commission. The FTC had opened a politically motivated investigation into Media Matters and the organization hit back hard — filing a lawsuit to halt the investigation. After a few rounds in court, detailed in this press release, the FTC “ultimately agreed to a binding agreement that guarantees it will never reissue the investigative demands to Media Matters and confirms that Media Matters is not a target.”

(Full disclosure: I was a visiting fellow at Media Matters in 2018.)

I believe in celebrating the wins, and this is a big one. As Media Matters’ Counsel points out, the settlement “provide[s] a roadmap for anyone who is similarly targeted. This historic victory shows that the rule of law matters — and that courts can and do hold this government accountable.” In other words, Media Matters didn’t just win for themselves; they also made it harder for the FTC to launch similar politically motivated investigations against other organizations, most of which aren’t as well-resourced or funded.

I also want to acknowledge that this particular win didn’t come easily. Media Matters as an organization had to make real sacrifices along the way, including significant layoffs. Last year, the New York Times reported that donors were getting “skittish” and that there was some discussion of the organization potentially having to close. Elon Musk and MAGA have been targeting Media Matters for several years through various lawsuits and investigations, and that kind of sustained pressure takes both a financial and emotional toll.

What I love about Media Matters is that they don’t cave, and I never once had to worry that they would. It’s built into the organization’s DNA. Media Matters knows better than anyone how dangerous the MAGA Right is because they’ve been researching and reporting on them doggedly from the start. If anyone knew how tough a fight this would be, it was them. They took it on anyway. Because what they understand is that the cost of caving is that you eventually lose everything. The only way to survive is to stand with your community, hold your ground, and fight.

A good lesson for us all. We won’t win every fight that we take on (something SCOTUS and the Virginia Supreme Court reminded us of over the last couple of weeks), but we also won’t win any fights we don’t engage in. We have to be in it to win.

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ICYMI

• 2026 Social Media Safety Index (GLAAD) “The annual GLAAD Social Media Safety Index & Platform Scorecard evaluates six major social media platforms: TikTok, X, YouTube, and Meta’s Facebook, Instagram, and Threads, providing findings and recommendations for social media companies to improve LGBTQ safety, privacy, and expression online.”

• 14 Theses Concerning Online Political Violence (J.M. Berger) “Allow me to nail to the wall 14 theses on the current state of political violence in the United States and its facilitation by media, social media and generative AI companies.”

• The United States is Turning 250 Years Old. For History Teachers, It’s a Complicated Lesson. (The 19th News) “As its 250th anniversary nears, teachers, who in K-12 are overwhelmingly women, face the challenge of bringing the nation’s founding documents and the Revolution alive while presenting an accurate account of what happened — and what it all means today.”

Did you know CARD is now on ActBlue? You can make a one-time or recurring donation. We have some big changes coming (including exiting Substack), and your support will enable me to keep the newsletter going and keep it free for everyone to read.

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Coda

Blatant Self-Promotion: CARD is in a museum now! No, really, I’m honored to be included in Imagine Your Impact at the Obama Presidential Center, a collection of real stories from changemakers working to make their communities better. As I wrote earlier this week, my story is also your story, and I’m so grateful that you continue to support the newsletter. Thank you.

Learn more about the Obama Presidential Center and get your tickets here.

That’s all for now. Talk to you again next week!

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This month, I’m taking my kids on a family trip to Chicago, and I’m really excited about it. We’re going to visit the Obama Presidential Center. Where they get to see their Mom in a museum exhibit.

Yes, you read that right. I’m honored to be included in Imagine Your Impact, a rotating collection of real stories from changemakers who are making their communities better. Museum staff interviewed me about writing this newsletter and the organizing work of helping readers feel informed and empowered. As well as my work with policymakers, organizations, and collaborations with researchers, journalists, and practitioners behind the scenes.

This is all is admittedly overwhelming. Countless people in communities around the world are working to make things better. I love the work that I do, but right now, when we’ve suffered so many bruising losses in America in rapid succession, it doesn’t feel like enough most days.

But then I remember y’all. My readers work tirelessly to make the world a better place. Through your activism, volunteering, journalism, research, and citizen advocacy. You show up in big and small ways, and I’m proud that this newsletter and my work have helped you do what you do.

The exhibits won’t be about just one person. There will be 33 stories from changemakers in the rotation, and each story will also include the community of people alongside them.

When I step back, I’m reminded that my work has helped people become better informed about what we’re up against and find the courage to stand up and fight back. It’s had an impact on journalism, policy, and funding priorities. Readers are why I keep going, even on days when I want to throw my phone into a pond.

When I think about the collective impact over the past decade of writing this newsletter, and the arc of my work in politics and advocacy, it’s easier to grasp the idea that my story could inspire visitors who come to the Obama Presidential Center.

But the two people I want to inspire most are my five-year-old sons. The Obama Campaign and Administration have played a huge role in their parents’ personal and political lives. I’m proud to have been a USA Leader for the Obama Foundation in 2023 and of my work on the 2012 reelection campaign. My husband, Micheál, was one of the first staffers on the ground in Iowa in 2008. He helped the campaign win the Iowa Caucus, lived and worked in multiple states during primary campaign, and ended up in Florida for the general election. I can’t wait to show the boys every inch of the Obama Presidential Center, and bring our stories to life for them.

Hope is a practice. I want my kids, all of our kids, to know that the way the world exists in this moment isn’t how it always has to be. Barack Obama’s campaigns and presidency are a reminder of what can happen when Americans choose hope (just as we’re currently being reminded what happens when Americans choose fear.) I love that the Obama Presidential Center isn’t just the unlikely story of Barack Obama, but everyone who came along with him on the journey. I love that it’s not just a museum but a campus intended to foster and inspire future leaders and changemakers.

The Obama Presidential Museum opens to the public on June 19th, and as of yesterday morning, tickets are available for purchase. If you’re in Chicago, or planning to be in Chicago anytime soon, you can learn more about the Center and purchase your tickets here.

The timing of all this is fortuitous as I’m currently working to evolve the newsletter once again. In a few weeks, CARD will no longer be under the Courier banner, and I’ll be independent. Courier was a good publisher, and while I’m sad they’ve decided to end our relationship, I also see it as an opportunity to make some changes. The first is getting off Substack and back on Action Network, which has graciously come back on board as a sponsor. I’m also now set up to raise funds on ActBlue.

I’m going to be honest, the loss of income from Courier is a financial blow. To make that income up I need to raise $15,000 between now and December. This newsletter has never been my primary source of income but the funds have allowed me to devote more time to it rather than finding more client work. To keep going at the level I currently do, I need to raise more money. So I’m putting the hat out.

If you can support CARD financially, please consider donating via ActBlue. All contributions will go directly to me.

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Thank you for all that you do. Today and every day.

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Initially, they planned to continue with dinner. More than a week later, I still can’t quite believe that was the first impulse. If anyone should understand the gravity of someone attempting to assassinate Trump, members of his cabinet, or journalists, it should be the White House Correspondents’ Association. Yet somehow, until law enforcement intervened, the plan was to keep the party going.

Then again, perhaps the WHCD understands the public’s mood better than I do. Because the events at the dinner became meme-ified in real time. In a room full of reporters, where everyone had a phone, images and video from the room burst all over the internet in real time. There was Salad Guy, the wine-stealing ladies, and Cheryl Hines. Within hours, memes had seemingly overtaken the conversation around the shooting, a trend that has continued. By Tuesday, comedian Josh Johnson had recorded and released a 60-minute comedy set on the shooting on YouTube. (I’ll admit it. I watched, and I laughed. Johnson is adept at taking on how absurd this all is.)

America has become so desensitized to political violence and gun violence that what we now understand to be an assassination attempt against Trump and multiple members of his cabinet has become a punchline. A country where every time our president isn’t seen for a couple of days, terminally online people start openly hoping it means he’s died.

Social media has also been flooded with false conspiracy theories claiming the attack was staged. Folks on the left and right seemed to believe this, partly because Trump and MAGA influencers immediately pivoted to the shooting as a reason why Trump’s White House ballroom was a necessity. The argument makes no sense whatsoever, but that hasn’t stopped MAGA from going hard trying to convince us anyway.

Trump is flailing. The sympathy and goodwill you’d expect to see after an incident like this is non-existent. Early polling indicates that most of the public doesn’t buy the ballroom argument, rejecting it 2-1. He’s spent this week attempting to get Jimmy Kimmel fired again (with Melania’s help) and indicting James Comey for – I kid you not – posting a meme. Both reruns of past failures that don’t even qualify as Trump’s greatest hits.

This is the political and media environment that Trump wanted and helped create. He and his MAGA movement have spent more than a decade sowing distrust, inciting violence, and attempting to manipulate both traditional and social media. If people online routinely make jokes wishing for Trump’s death, if they believe he faked an assassination attempt to garner sympathy for himself, if they can’t be bothered to care that the shooting happened in the first place – well, Trump only has himself to blame. He created this dystopian meme-ified hell that we all now live in.

The monster that Trump created has turned its might on him. Now he knows (or he would if he had any self-awareness) how the rest of us feel.

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ICYMI

• City Learns Flock Accessed Cameras in Children’s Gymnastics Room as a Sales Pitch Demo, Renews Contract Anyway (404 Media)

• No Attorney General Can Deliver on Trump’s Retaliation Agenda (If You Can Keep It)

• Iran’s Meme War Against Trump Ushers In a Future of ‘Slopaganda’ (New York Times, gift link)

Want even more content? Subscribers receive bonus content on Fridays.

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Coda

Thanks as always for reading and supporting Ctrl Alt-Right Delete. I’ll see you again next week. Same bat time. Same bat channel.

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I knew it was coming, but Wednesday’s SCOTUS ruling was a gut punch. Right-wing donors have spent hundreds of millions of dollars over decades to make this happen, attempting to buy America’s entire court system to accomplish their goal. The six right-wing justices sitting on the bench are bought and paid for. They might have the title of Justice, but they’re political operatives first and foremost. Now the Voting Rights Act is all but gone.

The decision was devastating for Black and Brown communities in the South and Southwest. As Stacey Abrams explains in an op-ed for MS Now, the ruling is a “direct hit to the heart of the Voting Rights Act and to the fragile promise that every American’s vote should carry equal weight. The VRA ended Jim Crow. Full stop. With this decision, it’s open season — once again — on Black and brown voters at the ballot box.” It’s a death knell to the ideal that everyone in America deserves representation and the ability to vote for their representatives from and for their communities.

Republicans immediately got to work taking away the rights of their Black and Brown constituents. One hour after the ruling, the GOP-controlled Florida legislature voted for redrawn districts. That evening, Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry immediately halted a primary election in which absentee ballots were already being counted, and early voting was set to begin yesterday. I expect them to do anything and everything in their power between now and the election to redraw the maps.

At the same time, I’m also hopeful about what comes next. Because, as I wrote just last week, Democrats from Rep. Ocasio-Cortez to House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries are game to fight fire with fire. If MAGA insists on rewriting the rules and redrawing the maps in real time, there’s no reason blue states can’t do the same. And the appetite to do so is clearly there.

Beyond that, we need to redouble our efforts to ensure that the midterm elections are free and fair. Especially since the Trump Regime is doing everything in its power to ensure that they aren’t. States run elections, which remains our advantage, helped by the fact that Democrats in Congress have so far been able to kill Trump’s SAVE Act, which would have taken some of that power away from the states and given it to the Federal Government. As citizens, we have our own levers of power to pull, and a growing willingness to leverage them. In the face of this week’s defeat, that’s a good and hopeful reality.

From a numbers standpoint, I don’t think this is a fight Republicans will ultimately win. Their attempts to destroy American Democracy have always banked on mainstream elected democrats continuing to fight only nominally to preserve the system. But every day, more and more Americans seem to realize that the old system is gone and that we, too, need to play by the current rules of engagement.

Or better yet, start making our own rules.

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Author’s note: I wrote this before last night’s events at the White House Correspondence dinner. Initially, I planned to hold this post and write something more current, but I’ve decided to leave this one as is. Mostly because whatever aspect(s) of last night you’re upset about —guns in America, mass shootings, our current politics, conspiracy theories, our current political media, or something else entirely — the way forward is to fight for the future we want. Recent events don’t change that.

-Melissa

Donald Trump started the redistricting war, but we finished it. This week, voters in Virginia, a key swing state, sent a decisive message to the Trump Regime: Stop messing with our elections.

I love everything about how Democrats engaged in this fight, starting with the fact that we fought it in the first place. When Trump started demanding red states push through redistricting bills, I fully expected Democratic leadership to make speeches and statements about Trump subverting democracy, and do nothing more while he went ahead and reengineered the makeup of the House.

Instead, we mounted a fight, starting in California. Even better, every mainstream Democrat from Speaker of the House Hakeem Jeffries to former President Barack Obama got on board, urging Democrats in California and Virginia to vote for blue state efforts to counter Trump’s dirty tricks. It felt so good to see Democrats acknowledging reality and fighting the system that exists now rather than pretending the old one was still in place.

Two big takeaways. The first is that when we fight, we win. We won’t win every time, but you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take. The more frequent complaint from Democratic voters is that the party isn’t fighting hard enough. When party leadership shows up with more than just rhetoric, voters will show up too.

Second is that we can continue to fight smart and get creative. MAGA is doing everything it can to destroy America, taking it apart piece by piece and selling to the highest bidder. American Democracy as we knew it is gone, rapidly evolving into a system of competitive authoritarianism. The system is broken and beating the current Regime requires a new playbook.

My sense is that the last couple of years have radicalized many of us. We’ve grown tired of fighting to preserve a system that’s long gone and what I hear from people more and more is: What can we create? What can we build? What comes next?

The redistricting fight shows us what’s possible. We can and should bring that energy and innovation to every fight moving forward. From expanding the number of Justices on SCOTUS and revamping our court system to rewriting the social contract of what a government by and for the people should be providing. From electing insurgent outsider candidates like Zohran Mamdani and Katie Wilson to public office, to insisting on full accountability and prosecution for the criminals in the Trump Administration. With creativity and innovation, we can stop playing defense and start to build a better America for the future.

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ICYMI

• More Than 70 Minnesota Children Detained in Operation Metro Surge, Data Shows (Sahan Journal)

• War Memes Are Turning Conflict Into Content (Wired)

• The Cascading Consequences of the Terror Campaign Against Children’s Literature (Rick Perlstein)

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Coda

Questions or feedback? Reply directly to this email or leave a comment below. I love hearing from readers, and many of your ideas and questions have become articles. I read everything you send and respond to most messages.

That’s all for this week. Talk again next Sunday!

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Since SPLC has both shared information with law enforcement agencies in the past, and touted this work to donors, press, and in their own publications, I’m not sure how Blanche and the DOJ think they’ll be able to prove fraud.

Or maybe they don’t care. Because the harassment from the State is the point. Neoreactionary MAGA influencer, Curtis Yarvin, gave the game away when he tweeted about the charges:

“What’s cool is that I don’t really see a strong legal case that the SPLC shouldn’t be able to run these kinds of wacky black ops. That means DOJ is prosecuting the SPLC just because it (kind of) can. If so this would be an unusual sign of “finally getting it.””

To put it another way, the DOJ is prosecuting SPLC just because it can. Because Trump and the MAGA Right want to punish their opponents, especially an opponent with a track record as successful as SPLC’s. The DOJ claims that SPLC’s actions actually further empowered hate groups, but that claim is ridiculous. As Chris Geidner details in Law Dork SPLC’s lengthy history of fighting hate groups, starting with how the organization bankrupted the KKK 40 years ago, having used the same evidence-gathering techniques speaks for itself.

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Geidner also uses quotes from a Klan newsletter from that time, decrying SPLC’s tactics, another data point that everyone -- including the hate groups they targeted -- knew that SPLC infiltrated their groups and paid informants as part of that work. The KKK knew even then that SPLC was out to destroy them.

Bryan Fair, SPLC’s Interim President and CEO, said in a video message about the indictment, “they have made no secret of who they want to protect, and who they want to destroy,” but I think it goes further than simply protecting hate groups. The Trump Regime is morphing the Federal Government apparatus into a mega hate group. Every action and policy, from ICE abductions to Hegseth’s purging people of color and women in military leadership, to the ever-growing list of civil rights rollbacks across government agencies, and even the destruction of USAID by DOGE. The Trump Regime is using every lever it can pull to enshrine and enforce white supremacy over America.

I was glad to see SPLC come out swinging right before the charges were announced, allowing them to frame the debate somewhat. I hope that posture continues. Certainly, SPLC has the resources to fight back forcefully. It should use every lever and resource available

SPLC is an organization I like a lot, and I’ve enjoyed strong professional relationships with folks who work there, as well as folks who cut their teeth at SPLC, over the course of writing this newsletter. I’m an activist, not an investigative reporter, and SPLC is an organization whose work I’ve often cited as I help readers understand the MAGA Right. I’ve also learned a great deal from their researchers and investigators, folks who have always been generous with their time and patient with my questions. I want to be clear that I stand in absolute solidarity with SPLC in this moment and encourage others to do the same.

I also won’t pretend SPLC is perfect. In 2019, the organization fired founder Morris Dees for decades-long abuses of power, including sexual harassment. And former staffer Michael Edison Hayden recently wrote an article detailing a toxic work culture, including union busting, and a loss of organizational courage that led to his departure.

SPLC also largely scaled back the Intelligence Project, probably to avoid the exact scenario they now find themselves in. As they’ve pointed out in their own press around the charges, SPLC no longer works with paid informants, and that part of the organization has been shut down.

Again, I support SPLC against this abuse of power from the Trump Regime. But there’s a lesson here that institutions have to absorb. Obeying in advance and capitulating under threat won’t save you. So many institutions of all stripes have done a version of what SPLC did when it ended its work with paid informants. It didn’t stop the Trump Regime from coming for SPLC, and it won’t stop the Regime from coming for all of us in the future. But this stance weakened individual institutions and has made it more difficult to collectively resist the Trump Regime.

Cowardice is contagious, but so is courage. I understand how steep the cost of standing up to the Trump Regime can be, and the reality that many organizations won’t have the resources to survive that fight. I also think it can be a fine line between protecting the institution and waving the white flag, so I have empathy for staff and boards tasked with making these calls. But as Curtis Yarvine made plain, Trump and MAGA will keep abusing their power to target organizations doing good and vital work. Because they can.

Meanwhile, it’s worth remembering that those who have taken Trump on in court and other arenas come out the victor most of the time. We also got a huge win in Virginia this week, with voters passing a redistricting bill and winning a national gerrymandering fight that Trump started.

What’s happening to SPLC will happen to other organizations and individuals. Pam Bondi was fired and replaced with Todd Blanche because Trump believed she wasn’t targeting his political enemies quickly or aggressively enough. Blanche is auditioning to make his acting appointment permanent, and I expect him to follow up with more investigations and ridiculous charges.

Our call to action is clear. Choose courage and solidarity over fear and capitulation. It’s the only way to win.

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Donald Trump is the attention economy president. He doesn’t care if you love him or hate him. He just wants you fixated solely on him. Politically, this has worked well for him. I don’t believe Trump is always playing 3D chess or manufacturing distraction after distraction, but he does seem to understand better than any other politician how to exploit the attention economy to his advantage.

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The problem with the attention economy is that people get bored easily. Remaining the main character online requires constant effort, and, over time, your content generally has to become more shocking and/or extreme. Otherwise, you risk being tuned out entirely. Arguably, this happened in 2020 when Americans voted Trump out for Joe Biden, a candidate whose entire premise was boringness and a promise to return to normal. It didn’t stick, and Trump managed to find his way back, but I do try to remind myself that the man has lost our attention before, and likely will again.

Perhaps it’s already happening. Trump’s approval ratings and polling have tanked. And the MAGA coalition seems more interested in picking fights with him or trying to position themselves as his successor, than supporting his agenda. Replies to his posts on TruthSocial, literally a social network built specifically for Trump superfans, are increasingly negative, with MAGA fans upset about the war in Iran. Staunch Trump supporters are openly debating whether or not he might be the Antichrist.

Like Trump, the rest of MAGA lives and dies by the attention economy. They crave views, clicks, and money. These days, Trump’s best utility is that he’s easily exploited for that purpose. The so-called MAGA civil war is probably good business for MAGA influencers and creators, especially since legacy media loves to cover the infighting, further amplifying their content to a bigger audience.

Much as I’d like to declare Trump an irrelevant Lame Duck and move on, we can’t count him out, even as his influence is starting to wane. The Trump operation has the most sophisticated online outreach operation I’ve ever seen. The White House frequently works with MAGA creators, Trump has been a guest on multiple MAGA and MAGA-adjacent podcasts, and the right-wing online media machine is well-funded and resourced. Trump and his aides have invested in building up this media ecosystem for over a decade now, and even as I watch some of MAGA’s top influencers fight to come out on top, I’m not sure anyone else can keep this coalition together as the powerful force it’s been once Trump is gone… which makes it more difficult to abandon Trump entirely, even for those who want to.

There’s also no counterweight on the Left, for reasons that are both financial and cultural. I think we’re in a better place than we were in 2024, and I appreciate some of the efforts I’ve seen to resource and support lefty content creators. But what I hear consistently from people working in that space is that we don’t have the scale we need to really create and elevate an ecosystem. And as David Plouffe recently wrote for the New York Times, “[a] successful campaign in 2026 must operate like a full-time production studio,” something he doesn’t seem confident that Democratic campaigns are built to do right now.

We were reminded of the influence and potential power of lefty content creators this week when California Congressman Eric Swalwell was forced to suspend his gubernatorial campaign and resign from Congress due to credible sexual assault and harassment allegations against him. After receiving multiple tips, creators Mrs. Frazzled, AKA Arielle Fodor, and Cheyenne Jackson worked online and off with Swalwell’s victims to bring the story to light, using the attention economy as a tool to help elevate the women’s stories.

Fodor and Jackson initially experienced some backlash from the Left and were accused of doing the Republicans’ work for them. I’m interested to see how Swalwell will impact how campaigns and advocacy groups interact with them in the future. One of the cultural issues I worry about is that allies will now be more cautious about building relationships with creators, especially since this all began after Fodor spoke positively about an initial Zoom meeting with Swalwell organized by his campaign.

We don’t do imperfect allies all that well as a movement, something that holds us back and makes our funders overly cautious. Hopefully I’m wrong, and candidates who aren’t predators and advocacy groups will be even more enthusiastic about content creators like Mrs. Frazzled in a post-Swalwell world, rather than backing off.

The Left isn’t just competing with the MAGA Right, but also with commercial platforms and creators. One thing I love about What’s Resonating, a daily newsletter that monitors trending topics online, is that it presents left and right wing content alongside what politically neutral accounts are talking about online, and the places where political and non-political content do and don’t intersect. Meanwhile politics and entertainment continue to exist almost as one vertical, with TMZ launching a DC outpost just this week to cover politics with its brand of viral video gossip content.

You might find the attention economy exhausting (I certainly do!), but it’s not going away. If anything, I think it will get worse before it gets better, especially as the platforms continue to push short-form video content on users.

I don’t think we can ever replicate the ecosystem that Trump and MAGA created, but I also don’t believe we want to. The MAGA media is built around one personality, and even as it’s fracturing, Donald Trump remains at the center of that universe. That might be sustainable for a time, but it’s not how the left builds power and we don’t want to become our own cult of personality. However, we can adopt some of the practices that we know worked well for Trump, and candidates who want to win should absolutely find ways to compete in the attention economy, especially content creators, and build an ecosystem that works for us rather than against us.

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ICYMI

Meta Cafeteria Workers Did What Execs Won’t: Took on ICE and Won (Wired) The best story you’ll read all week. I promise.

Inside Trump’s Effort to “Take Over” the Midterm Elections (ProPublica) A comprehensive report. One for the bookmarks.

The Neo-Nazi Enforcer Who Helped Build Peter Thiel’s Online Influence Empire (Byline Times) I continue to be amazed at how much we’re learning about the so-called alt-right, AKA MAGA 1.0, via the Epstein files. This one’s a long but worthwhile read, and longtime readers will recognize many of the names mentioned here.

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I’m gonna give Mrs. Frazzled the final word this week. Her videos on gentle parenting various politicians are how I first discovered her content, and they crack me up every time. Enjoy this supercut of her doing her thing. I’ll talk to you again next Sunday!

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Vice President JD Vance has a new book coming out this year: a memoir about his conversion to Catholicism. To promote the book, he and his boss, Donald Trump, have decided to pick a fight with the Pope.

The beats of this one are both extremely online and extremely predictable. Vance threatening the Vatican, Trump piling on, Trump portraying himself as an AI-generated meme Jesus, Vance Pope-splaning theology to Pope Leo, Pete Hegseth mistaking Pulp Fiction quotes for scripture, and Pope Leo’s brother receiving at least one bomb threat that’s now under criminal investigation.

This post is available to paid subscribers now and will be available to everyone on Tuesday.

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This week I have a special treat for y’all: a guest post from Ashley Hildebrand. When JD Vance’s latest interaction with the Vatican made the news this week, the first person I thought of to give us the necessary context and analysis was Ashley. Thankfully, she was game.

-Melissa

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Almost exactly one year ago, Pope Francis passed away… only a few hours after meeting with Vice President JD Vance, a vocal convert to Catholicism. And a few weeks later, Catholic Cardinals from around the world picked a Chicago-born pope whose most recent tweets included sharing articles criticizing Vance’s policy priorities.

The jokes nearly wrote themselves – “If JD Vance were a real Catholic, he’d die of guilt,” was my personal favorite, but there was no shortage of people calling out the fact that Vance had not one but two popes who knew who he was and thought he was wrong.

I’ve built my career tracking the influence of Catholicism on U.S. politics, so with the Catholic Church and Vance and the White House back in the news this week, I was thrilled that Melissa reached out to me. I believe that Vance’s conversion to Catholicism story is a common pattern in the United States: man wants power, sees the highly structured and patriarchal order of the Catholic Church, and leverages their pre-established base for his own political gain.

If you’re not familiar with the pattern, start with Paul Weyrich and his role in the Religious Right’s journey from segregation to anti-abortion advocacy. Weyrich helped shape this concept of Christian nationalism to replace democracy with a theocracy. It’s not often recognized that Weyrich – founder of the Heritage Foundation – was Catholic, not Evangelical, and viewed his work as a political fight rather than a religious one.

For its part, the institutional Catholic Church in the U.S. welcomed the support – and so began a trajectory that led us to where we are today. In 2010, the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) pulled their support for the Affordable Care Act because of abortion, and when Catholic Sisters paved the way for its passage, the USCCB and the Vatican responded with a censure that accused Catholic Sisters of “radical feminism” and “being silent on the right to life from conception… a question that is part of the lively public debate about abortion.”

Pope Francis, elected in 2013, didn’t solve the US church’s “middle management problem.” While he was famously outspoken on issues like caring for the environment and lamented the Church’s singular focus on abortion at the expense of migrants and people in poverty, he didn’t change the environment that allowed people like JD Vance to rise to power. Less than two months before the 2024 election, Francis criticized both Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, meddling by calling on Catholic voters to choose the “lesser evil” and saying, “both are against life, be it the one who kicks out migrants or be it the one who kills babies.” He failed to see the real threat posed by a Trump/Vance win and now we’re dealing with the consequences. And while I wouldn’t have expected him to endorse a candidate, he could have just said nothing!

And so, the USCCB continued to prioritize abortion. In 2021, The Catholic Bishops tried to deny communion to Catholic President Joe Biden over his support for abortion. In 2022, the Archbishop of San Francisco officially denied communion to then-Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. And after Roe v. Wade was overturned and states took up ballot measures to address abortion, the Catholic Church spent millions of dollars in Kansas, Ohio, Florida, and elsewhere (despite the fact that only 1 in 10 US Catholics agree with the official church teaching that abortion should be banned outright).

Knowing all this is plenty to leave me – a lifelong Catholic – feeling jaded about the U.S. church, no matter what a pope says. For as refreshing and beloved Pope Francis was (and I will always cherish one of his final jabs at Vance’s ordo amoris tweet), the final years of his papacy were a far cry from the early days where outlets were running “Who said it: Bernie Sanders or the Pope?” comparisons.

When Leo was selected it was major news – a U.S. pope! – but the general consensus was that he’d be someone who would stabilize the ship from the liberalness of Francis and would generally be a milquetoast bureaucratic pope pulling a little from the more traditional parts of Catholicism and a little from the playbook of Francis’ more liberal moments.

After nearly a year of Pope Leo, I think I feel somewhat hopeful that he will inspire people against the Trump/Vance philosophy. Here are just a few examples: Catholic Cardinals are speaking out about defunding ICE, Catholic news outlets are running opinion pieces saying Vance’s immigration comments are an insult to our faith, and even conservative Archbishops are leading prayers outside of immigrant detention centers. Pope Leo accepted the resignation of Trump’s pal on the Religious Liberty Commission, Cardinal Timothy Dolan. And the statements Pope Leo has made recently about the war in Iran are pointed and direct – you can’t get much clearer than “Jesus does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war.”

This week, The Free Press was first to report that back in January, the Trump/Vance White House threatened the Vatican and claimed that the U.S. can do “whatever it wants – and that the Church had better take its side.” It was so bad that it was the reason Pope Leo canceled any plans to visit the U.S., his home. The hubris of the White House shouldn’t be surprising, but we’d be remiss if we didn’t also acknowledge that it’s a continuation of the pattern of a man in U.S. politics telling the Catholic Church to get in line behind him. Historically, the church usually does, because it prioritizes alignment on abortion and traditional gender roles above everything else.

Pope Leo’s election gave the world another globally influential U.S. figure who could be a foil to Trump and by extension, Vance. From now to 2028, we’re unfortunately all stuck on this runaway train as one man (Trump) attempts to usurp democracy to remain in power, another (Vance) attempts a rise to power in his own right as heir-apparent, and a third (Pope Leo) balances the influence that he plays on the global stage as both American and leader of the Catholic Church.

It really boils down to this: JD Vance, like so many before him, uses the trappings of the church to prop up his own agenda rather than live out the fully rounded teachings 53 million Catholic Americans learned in Sunday School. A Trump/Vance presidency and the threats they pose to the future bring us closer to a Christian nationalism that Paul Weyrich dreamed of and our founding fathers warned against. It’s certainly surprising, though not unwelcome, that the leader of the Catholic Church might be the best chance we have to push back against their political crusade for power. I don’t know if the Pope can help us protect world peace or preserve American democracy – I know not to put all my trust in the institution of the church – but I hope he does.

Ashley (Wilson) Hildebrand is Vice President of Communications at Issue One. She has previously worked at NETWORK Lobby/Nuns on the Bus, the Friends Committee on National Legislation, and Catholics for Choice. Follow her on Twitter at @APdubs.

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ICYMI

The Cover-Up (COURIER) I love this new project from my colleagues at Courier Newsroom. A searchable database of everything publicly released about Jeffrey Epstein, along with news and analysis to help us all parse through it. The database even allows you to bookmark items and make your own lists.

Inside the Daily Mail’s Creator-led Content Playbook (DigiDay) This is both a fascinating and terrifying read. “DMG Media joins a string of media companies — including CNN, Yahoo, The Washington Post, Future and Bustle Digital Group — building their own creator networks to reach younger audiences and attract new advertisers. The push reflects a broader shift among publishers to build closer ties with creators as platforms like YouTube and TikTok continue to dominate attention, particularly among younger audiences.”

Could Trump Be Removed Under the 25th Amendment? 5 Things You Should Know (The Root) A handy primer on all things 25th Amendment. Just in case we might need to know more about it in the not-too-distant future.

Once ‘Ultra MAGA’, Trump Supporters Fume About Iran on Truth Social (New York Times) Even on Trump’s official fan forum, folks are angry about the war in Iran.

EFF is Leaving X (Electronic Frontier Foundation) Analytics don’t lie. “We posted to Twitter (now known as X) five to ten times a day in 2018. Those tweets garnered somewhere between 50 and 100 million impressions per month. By 2024, our 2,500 X posts generated around 2 million impressions each month. Last year, our 1,500 posts earned roughly 13 million impressions for the entire year. To put it bluntly, an X post today receives less than 3% of the views a single tweet delivered seven years ago.”

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Blatant Self-Promotion

Jeremy Bauer-Wolf interviewed me for New America’s Mythbusting Accreditation series. We talked about the Right’s attacks on higher education in the U.S. and the strategy behind it. (Yes, I managed to reference both Christopher Rufo and Curtis Yarvin.) You can read or watch here.

I believe in celebrating the wins, and today fascism took a resounding hit. In Hungary’s election, Orbán and his party lost spectacularly — and he’s already conceded to his opponent. The victorious party, Tisza, is projected to win 135 out of 199 seats in the legislature. As Woody Guthrie would say, “all you fascists bound to lose!”

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I believe in celebrating the wins. Wisconsinites got a big win this week when former Assemblywoman and Wisconsin Court of Appeals Judge Chris Taylor easily won her race for the Wisconsin Supreme Court, expanding the court’s liberal majority to 5-2.

Liberal judges have won the last 4 statewide elections for these seats, and as The DownBallot points out, things “could get even worse for conservatives if they lose next year’s race to replace Justice Annette Ziegler, another conservative who has announced that she will not run again. If liberals score another pickup in April of 2027, the soonest that conservatives, who were in the majority from 2008 until 2023, could win back control would be 2033.” That’s huge.

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Politically active people often follow Wisconsin Supreme Court races closely, even if they have no history or association with the state. Court races were nationalized because millions of dollars in special-interest spending from the right poured into them, and everyone from local billionaire Diane Hendricks to Elon Musk has contributed. In 2011, when Scott Walker turned Wisconsin into a “laboratory for oligarchs,” all politics in Wisconsin instantly became international news, including the 2011 state supreme court race, where the majority flipped from liberal to conservative, further empowering Walker.

Scott Walker and his cronies used now having the majority to their advantage, decimating public programs and services and reengineering the political and academic culture of the state. Including an aggressive redistricting bill that enshrined Republican majorities in the State House and Senate. Laboratory for oligarchs is an apt phrase because I absolutely believe that Walker’s actions in Wisconsin were a direct inspiration for Project 2025, and a signal to billionaires everywhere that the American Right was more than happy to put America up for sale whenever and wherever they came to power.

Wisconsin is one of a handful of cautionary tales in the states that Americans didn’t pay close enough attention to. The good news is that we can learn from Wisconsin’s victories. In addition to winning and expanding the majority on the state supreme court, there was the election of Governor Tony Evers in 2019, which reduced the Republican majority in the Wisconsin State Assembly and broke the Republican hold on the supermajority in the State Senate. The Wisconsin Democratic Party has become an organizing and fundraising juggernaut, largely due to Ben Wikler’s tenure as State Party Chair.

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I lived and worked in Wisconsin from 2008-11, experiencing Walker and the Tea Party Republicans’ win firsthand. Over the years, I’ve seen my former colleagues run for and hold elected office, volunteers deepen their involvement rather than disengage, former interns now running organizations, and local bloggers doing all of the above, with some still writing about politics regularly. Many of these folks are still close friends, and I know fighting the good fight against what seemed like an insurmountable foe could be heartbreaking. But they kept at it.

It’s much easier to destroy things than to build them. Something that MAGA Republicans exploit as they dismantle America piece by piece. But that doesn’t mean their victory is inevitable. Even when it might feel that way.

Nationally, Tuesday’s election results in Wisconsin and the special election in Georgia bode well for this year’s midterm elections. Winning big in November would give us more power to curb the Trump Regime’s continual power grab. We have to ensure the election is free and fair, and then we have to vote MAGA out of every office we can. We have the momentum. We can win this.

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Donald Trump has always believed that he is the law. He exists in a world where he can do whatever he likes without consequence, and the rest of us are forced to live by his whims. And, crucially, he’s managed to build a coalition of folks willing to fight for his right to rule by force or too scared to stand up to Trump and his MAGA army.

Three examples of this from this week. The Regime issued an executive order that attempts to ban mail-in voting and Federalize elections. Trump also attended the Supreme Court arguments on Birthright Citizenship in person, which is both unprecedented and highly inappropriate for a sitting president to do in a system of government built on a separation of powers. His presence was obviously intended as a threat to the Justices, though court watchers seem to think Trump will lose the case anyway. Finally, Trump fired his staunchly loyal ally Pam Bondi as Attorney General, replacing her with Todd Blanche, his personal lawyer.

Meanwhile, there’s a disconnect between those who say but he can’t do that and those who point out that he’s absolutely doing that. Well-meaning people take both views (I refuse to say both sides), and, understandably, get frustrated at folks who don’t see it the same way.

I find this discourse frustrating, especially on Bluesky, where the conversation tends to be incredibly earnest. People often call me a doomer for pointing out the obvious: Trump has no intention of this next election being free and fair, and his plan all along has been to destroy our system of government from within.

I think it’s vital to name what Trump is attempting and his real agenda. Especially since he and his Regime aren’t even bothering to hide it anymore. However, acknowledging the reality doesn’t mean that the Regime will ultimately succeed. They’ve had some big wins, but we’ve also managed to stop them multiple times in the courts and out in the streets.

To put it another way: Trump can and will get away with as much as the American people and the institutions that hold us together as a nation allow. Acknowledging that doesn’t mean we’re helpless to stop him. It means we all have a role to play, and that we’re in a fight on all fronts.

Trump doesn’t plan on the midterm election being free and fair, so it’s on us to ensure that he fails. We should also fight to win every seat that can be contested. So that MAGA’s power is weakened in the Federal, state, and municipal governments. Then we’ll need to pressure those we helped win to live up to what they promised us as candidates.

Beyond that, we have to organize on every front. I was pleased that two of the calls to action coming out of NoKings were a general national strike on May 1 and a call to organize in hyperlocal groups -- both modeled on how Minnesotans mobilized to resist ICE's occupation of their state. Elections and politics alone won’t be enough to save us, and if we want to build a better nation, we’ll need to get creative and try new things constantly, learning from one another along the way about what works.

I’m not a hopeful person by nature, but with every day I find myself feeling more optimistic about what’s possible. Most Americans don’t want to live in a fascist hellscape, and every day more of us realize that’s exactly what Trump and his MAGA base want America to be. We should be clear-eyed about who Trump is, but we can be just as clear-eyed about how to beat him.

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Blatant Self-Promotion: I spoke with The American Prospect’s Naomi Bethune about the MAGA crowdfunding rage machine and how it negatively affects grassroots fundraising for everyone.

Thanks for reading. There’s no newsletter this Sunday, but I’ll be back to it next week. Paid subscribers, please enjoy some bonus ICYMI links below!

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One quarter in and 2026 is moving just as fast as 2025. Before you can wrap your head around one batshit news cycle, another rears its ugly head. The Trump Regime continues to demand our constant attention and it does a number on our brains and our nervous systems. At least it does on mine.

And yet 2026 feels more hopeful. All around us, people are fed up and willing to do something about it. There are mass mobilizations like yesterday’s No King’s Day and hyper-local efforts happening in libraries, churches, and local haunts. A growing number of Americans recognize that ICE is an occupying force and are working to protect their neighbors from its terror. I’m even seeing some small signs of life from institutions. (You’re late to the party, but welcome.)

This week I wanted to revisit some of the more important posts I’ve written in 2026 – the ones that get to the crux of what’s happening, how Americans are reacting, and what we can do to rise up against the Regime.

We’re all domestic terrorists now

The events in Minnesota put into sharp focus what being a parent in America is like right now. If the parents in your life are radicalizing in real time, this one explains why that’s happening.

With a little help from my friends

As the events in Minnesota unfolded, I noticed hyper-local organizing efforts forming in real time. I have some thoughts on why that is, and several inspiring examples you sent me about what’s happening in your backyards. This post, more than any other, has informed my thinking recently.

QAnon helped hide the cabal in plain sight

The Epstein files have caused a lot of us to rethink the last decade or so, and there are so many threads to unpack: his influence, his network, and how it impacted all of our lives in ways we’re still processing. The thing that sticks with me is how QAnon and the Epstein files both show that they were onto something, but ultimately allowed themselves to become dupes for the very class they thought they were exposing.

The Great Unraveling

The MAGA coalition isn’t holding up well under the weight of Epstein and Iran, and cracks have emerged. Some of the key players are seeking to become the next God Emperor, taking control of the base, while others are looking for an exit ramp.

Thoughts on the Cesar Chavez revelations

The horrific revelations about Chavez continue to reverberate across the left. My heart breaks for Dolores Huerta and her fellow survivors. I also think this is a key moment for us to consider the stories we tell, and how much Americans in particular lean into story and myth over history.

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Coda

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That’s all for this week. I hope yesterday filled your cup and gave you hope. Large-scale mobilization events are a good reminder that we’re not alone. Even when we might feel like it. I’m taking next week off for the Easter holiday, but I’ll talk to you again in two weeks!

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Happy Friday, Super supporters! Thank you so much for supporting Ctrl Alt-Right Delete with your hard-earned money. I know that times are tough and the economy has us all on age so I greatly appreciate the continued support for my work. I will keep doing all that I can to bring you the information and analysis you need to fight the Trump Regime in ways …

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Joe Kent’s resignation as Counter-Intelligence Chief was front-page news but I believe it was underreported. At the very least, its significance was downplayed in the media coverage.

Kent is as MAGA as MAGA gets. He’s an election denier with ties to right-wing extremist groups. A failed congressional candidate, his political activism in Washington State included organizing anti-public health rallies, spreading false conspiracy theories during Covid, calling for Anthony Fauci to be charged with murder, and appearing at at least one event for the Three Percenters, a right-wing militia group. This is a man who worked hard to get into Trump’s orbit as a MAGA faithful.

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But as I’ve written about previously, thanks to Epstein and Iran, the MAGA coalition has found itself bogged down by constant infighting. Trump isn’t in as strong a position as he once was, and as his health continues to decline, his followers are either looking for exit ramps or vying for their faction to take the movement over. Kent, who describes himself as a non-interventionist, made it clear in the resignation letter that he strongly disagreed with Trump over Iran. He accused Trump of being duped by an Israeli disinformation campaign, helped along by the American media, into doing Israel’s bidding over America First as a foreign policy doctrine.

Kent’s antisemitism is obvious. His resignation letter never outright says Trump has fallen prey to a global Jewish conspiracy, but when he’s talking about Israel being assisted by the American media, there’s no ambiguity about who and what he’s referring to. Or as Jason Sattler so eloquently put it on Bluesky: “The divide between those who want Jews to go to hell after Jesus returns and those who want Jews to go to hell now.” Kent is also sending a warning signal to the MAGA faithful: it looks like Trump chose the wrong side and might in fact be controlled by foreign interests and putting them over America’s interests.

Kent is making his loyalties clear. In the MAGA civil war, he’s aligning himself with the antisemitic Tucker Carlson/Nick Fuentes wing of the coalition. And he’s doing it in the most public way possible, using whatever leverage he had left. Kent and the Regime have continued to snipe at one another all week, with Kent airing his grievances during an interview with Tucker Carlson and Trump’s FBI announcing they’d opened an investigation into Kent for leaking.

It puts pressure on JD Vance, who sees himself as Trump’s successor and is working overtime to keep both factions happy while remaining loyal to his boss. Vance has gone out of his way to refuse to denounce anyone and throw as much red meat as he’s able to the Carlson/Fuentes folks to keep them in line. As more folks go the way of Joe Kent and Marjorie Taylor Greene, choosing an early exit, that will become a more difficult task for Vance. I suspect Vance is waiting for the right moment to knife Trump, but who knows what the next few months will bring.

One final thing to note: Kent’s faction of MAGA was sidelined during Trump’s first term in favor of more “mainstream” (read: aligned with evangelicals) Republican figures. They forgave Trump and came home both on January 6 and when Trump ran again in 2024, but my sense is they went into Trump 2.0 with their eyes open. These folks aren’t about to be sidelined again, and they plan on becoming the dominant MAGA faction once Trump is no longer in power. Whether they can keep the coalition together, and whether they’d accept Trump’s current Vice President to lead them, remains an open question.

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ICYMI

Democracy Report 2026: Unraveling the Democratic Era? (V-Dem Institute) If you only read one thing this week, it should be this report. Liberal democracy is taking a hit around the world, and as of this year, the US is no longer considered one. The report is a global snapshot with heavy emphasis on the United States’ rapid loss of rights and freedoms over the past year. If you want the tl;dr version, The Cause has a good rundown of the key takeaways and what they mean for us.

Manosphere Influencer Brags About Dining With Barron Trump (The Daily Beast) Interesting tidbit of news from Netflix’s new Inside the Manosphere documentary (which I haven’t yet watched). It’s always interesting to me how openly MAGA creators talk about the importance of being in proximity to Trump’s family. We’ve seen a lot of that with Don Jr. but this is the first report of MAGA creators talking about being close to Barron. Strategically it makes sense for them to do.

Inside Jeffrey Epstein’s Push to Cleanse His Past Online (New York Times) I’m guessing (and hoping) that a lot of the people and firms Epstein hired to do online reputation repair probably scammed him. Quote: “He never fully sanitized his web presence before he was arrested again, in 2019, and charged with sex trafficking. But the effort at times allowed Mr. Epstein to maintain an air of respectability and preserve social contacts he might have lost had his crimes been more prominent online.”

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Coda

Happy March Madness to all who celebrate. Shout out to all my fellow UK fans rooting for the Kentucky Men’s and Women’s teams, But no matter who you root for, I hope you enjoy my personal favorite sports event of the year. May your brackets go the distance!

I’ll see you again next week!

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