I hope you enjoyed my conversation with Ben Wikler. Learn more about Ben and his new book This is the Plan here. I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to fight the Trump Regime, starting in their own backyard. And to everyone already doing that who just needs some hope and inspiration.

I’m determined to keep every aspect of this newsletter, from interviews like this to every article I write, free for anyone who needs the information and analysis. To do that, I need to raise an additional $11,430 between now and the end of the year. You can help me keep CARD free for everyone by making a contribution today.

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

Express Donate: $25

Express Donate: $50

Express Donate: $100

Donate another amount

I’m also on Patreon if you’d like to support me and the newsletter over there.

Thanks for all that you do!

Mark your calendars! On Tuesday at 11:30 AM ET / 8:30 AM PT, I’m hosting my friend Ben Wikler for a Substack Live. Ben is a longtime political organizer, former chair of the Wisconsin Democratic Party, and author of the new book This Is the Plan: How to End America’s Meltdown and Save Democracy.

I’m really looking forward to our conversation. Be sure to tune in!

America only accepts white refugees now. That’s not an exaggeration. In 2026, every refugee admitted via the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program was white. And of the 6,668 refugees admitted from October 2025 to today, all but three were White South Africans.

You might read that stat and wonder if you’ve missed something. Was there a coup or a civil war in South Africa? Why are white South Africans (AKA Afrikaners) in need of refugee status?

They aren’t. The South African government has made clear that Afrikaners are in no danger. Alvin Botes, South Africa’s deputy foreign minister, has said publicly that claims of discrimination by some Afrikaners “do not meet the threshold of persecution required under domestic and international refugee law.” An Amnesty International report on South Africa’s human rights record only mentions Afrikaners once, referring to “the US government’s misinformation campaign.”

Misinformation is the wrong word. The so-called plight of Afrikaners is a false conspiracy theory commonly known as White Genocide. It posits that white farmers in South Africa are being persecuted and murdered in an attempt to reclaim land by Black South Africans. Like many other false conspiracy theories, it taps into an ugly history (Apartheid) and relies heavily on racist stereotypes to propagate.

How did a false conspiracy theory from another nation end up driving government policy in the U.S.? Because Donald Trump’s MAGA coalition is built on a foundation of disinformation and false conspiracy theories, and Trump feeds them a constant diet of conspiratorial red meat. And it fuels a dangerous feedback loop.

Trump’s campaigns have always relied heavily on communities such as QAnon and MAHA to win elections and drive media narratives. Now that he’s back in power, the false conspiracy theories MAGA adherents believe, no matter how insane they sound, are increasingly driving policy, legislation, and the White House’s political priorities.

From The Right-Wing Fringe To White House Policy

The White Genocide conspiracy theory and how it traveled across the Globe is the perfect illustration of what I’ve coined the 4chan to Trump Pipeline. Around 2016-2018, the conspiracy theory percolated on far-right forums such as 4chan’s /pol/ board. Leaked logs from a far-right discord server show that many of the trolls spreading white genocide conspiracies knew them to be false but didn’t care. One poster even referred to it as the “white genocide lie in SA.” They understood the power of the lie and how it played into the global right-wing fear that white people would lose status and power on a global scale.

Then-Fox News host Tucker Carlson—who has been open about the importance of 4chan as a source for “salacious” stories—began covering the false white genocide conspiracy theories on his primetime Fox News TV program, exposing a large American audience to them for the first time.

One of Carlson’s viewers, President Donald Trump, took to Twitter and directed his then-secretary of state to look into the matter, tagging Carlson and Fox News to indicate where he’d seen the information.

This episode brings to mind a similar instance from 2020, during the peak of the anti-critical race theory (CRT) fervor that had bubbled up on the right, when right-wing journalist and anti-CRT crusader Christopher Rufo went on Tucker’s show to declare that “critical race theory has become, in essence, the default ideology of the federal bureaucracy and is now being weaponized against the American people.” Avid Fox viewer Donald Trump, then in the final months of his first term, quote tweeted the segment with a short and sweet caption:

As Breitbart reported just two days after Rufo’s appearance on Tucker, “At the direction of President Trump, the White House Office of Management and Budget will move to identify and eliminate any trace of “critical race theory” in the federal government.” And who implemented that order? Then-Trump Office of Managment & Budget Director, Russ Vought—he of Project 2025 fame—proceeded to tweet himself that “The days of taxpayer funded indoctrination trainings that sow division and racism are over.”

Now, Tucker may not be on Fox anymore, but in Trump’s second term, with white supremacists and MAGA loyalists serving at the highest levels of government and with Trump serving without any constraining guardrails within the administration, the pipeline now takes a much more direct route.

“Remigrate”

Take the white supremacist Great Replacement conspiracy theory, whose proponents claim there is a global plot to replace white people in America and European Nations with non-white immigrants. It is racist, xenophobic, and anti-migrant. According to the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, believers of Great Replacement have been responsible for at least 14 mass casualty terrorist attacks across the globe, including three mass shootings here in the U.S.

Hand in hand with the Great Replacement is “remigration,” a concept popularized in far-right communities online and off, starting around 2016. Remigration is the forced removal of non-white people from mostly white countries to their so-called ethnic homelands, a form of ethnic cleansing. As Chris Mathais, a longtime journalist covering the far-right, told The Big Picture during a recent interview, “back in 2017, I could read terms like ‘great replacement’ and ‘remigration’ in the Identity Evropa chat messages stolen away by antifa spies. Now those terms are used by people in the White House.”

And like clockwork, remigration has become core to the Trump administration’s immigration policy. Last May, Axios reported the Trump State Department planned to create an Office of Remigration, backed enthusiastically by White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy and Homeland Security Advisor Stephen Miller. By October, “remigration” was part of the official policy of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS.)

Then, in December, the White House released a National Security Strategy memo that declared without evidence that “Europe will be unrecognizable in 20 years or less” and used Great Replacement-coded language throughout the document. Cut to this past May, when Trump’s State Department formally rejected a United Nations migration declaration by accusing the U.N. of being part of the so-called Great Replacement effort in its formal statement. As Newsweek reported,

“The United States did not participate in the International Migration Review Forum and will not support the May 8 ‘progress’ declaration,” said the statement, adding that the administration objects to U.N. efforts “to advocate and facilitate replacement immigration in the United States and across the broader West.”

How has this led to specific policy? On the campaign trail back in 2024, Donald Trump and his then-VP nominee JD Vance used their campaign platform to spread debunked racist claims about the community of Haitian immigrants living in Springfield, OH. Two years later, President Trump has successfully canceled for hundreds of thousands of Haitians as part of a broader movement that stripped Temporary Protected Status from 1.3 million migrants in the U.S. This meant anyone with TPS could now be deported at any moment, even if they’ve lived in the US legally for decades.

The Great Replacement Theory, along with Trump’s continued insistence that the 2020 election was stolen from him due to election fraud (another false conspiracy theory), also drives policy around elections and voting rights from the Trump White House. Trump has repeatedly claimed, without evidence, that non-citizens voted in the 2020 election, swinging it to Joe Biden in Georgia and other states. In fact, the theory on the MAGA fringe is that Joe Biden purposely let millions of migrants enter the country to create permanent Democratic majorities; to essentially “replace” white American voters. Enter Trump’s latest obsession: the so-called SAVE Act, which ostensibly targets voter fraud, but according to analyis from the Brennan Center for Justice, if passed, millions of American citizens would be blocked from voting. But Trump doesn’t care about that. As political analyst Philip Bump has called the SAVE Act The Great Replacement Theory in legislative form.

As Bump elaborated.

This idea that immigrants are illegally influencing elections, then, is simply too perfect not to embrace.

That’s particularly true because it overlaps with the increasingly normalized claim within America’s political right that there is a deliberate effort underway to flood the country with immigrants who will vote Democratic. This is, in essence, the “great replacement” theory, an idea transmitted from the racist fringe into the mainstream by Tucker Carlson and, later, prominent Republican officials.

And who needs Tucker Carlson when you have Elon Musk mainstreaming this notion, even tactily threatening anyone who would oppose the bill with death.

Of course, no discussion of Trump immigration policy being driven by MAGA fringe conspiracies would be complete without acknowledging the ICE surge in Minneapolis / St. Paul earlier this year. While Trump launched Operation Metro Surge in the Twin Cities in early December, that deployment was on steroids after Nick Shirley’s Dec. 26 video purporting to expose Somali daycare fraud in Minneapolis went viral.

As Vox reported after Nicole Good’s death,

the video, with its 3.4 million views, kicked off a wider national scandal. The federal government promptly froze child care payments to the state. On Monday, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz abruptly dropped his reelection campaign. The Trump administration also surged hundreds of ICE agents to the Minneapolis area as part of a major enforcement action that left one woman dead.

ICE would, of course, go on to murder Alex Pretti in that surge as well, which ultimately led to a so-called “draw down” of ICE agents in the city. But more than six months on, ICE continues its mandate of rounding up and deporting people Trump and his MAGA base simply don’t think belong in the U.S., immigration status (or criminal record) be damned. And as we have seen over the past few days, ICE continues to murder people in the streets.

“Do Your Own Research” is Now Public Health Policy

This tendency of Trump to turn fringe theories into White House policy is not limited to immigration. Trump has long been a believer in anti-vaccine disinformation and false conspiracy theories, claiming in an interview that he believed vaccines caused autism as early as 2007, a claim he continued to repeat on the campaign trail and in the White House.

During his 2024 run, Trump received the endorsement of Robert Kennedy Jr., previously a candidate himself, who harnessed the power of the MAHA Moms, a movement of anti-vaxx activists who switched their allegiance to Trump once the latter promised to put RFK Jr. in charge of reforming America’s public health system.

As Secretary of Health and Human Services, Kennedy has made quick work of turning America’s public health policy into an anti-vaxxer’s fever dream. Kennedy overhauled the recommendations for childhood vaccines and disbanded the board of experts that previously advised the CDC on vaccines. Trump’s FDA changed its recommendation on Tylenol, encouraging pregnant women not to take it because of the debunked claim that acetaminophen causes autism. Research and development funding for mRNA vaccines was slashed.

But it doesn’t stop at just vaccines. The Trump White House has issued multiple executive orders attempting to limit access to gender-affirming health care for the trans community. Kennedy is working to end the sale of fluoride settlements that help protect children’s teeth. Billions of HHS research grants have been delayed or canceled. The White House even launched a website promoting the Covid Lab Leak conspiracy theory.

What Can We Do?

This is no way to run a country. America desperately needs elected officials who don’t believe in false conspiracy theories and aren’t beholden to those who do. This November’s midterm elections are our earliest and best opportunity to course correct. We can vote out the Infowars lab leak crowd in favor of politicians who will support truth and science, and who listen to experts rather than online mobs.

Beyond that, it’s crucial that we rebuild our media ecosystem and disrupt the 4chan-to-Trump pipeline. As academic researchers and experts, Dean Jackson and Jon Bateman state in their 2024 report, Countering Disinformation Effectively, “there is no silver bullet or best policy option,” and democracies need to take a “portfolio approach” which includes experimenting with multiple interventions and strategies.

A healthy policy portfolio would include tactical actions that appear well-researched or effective (like fact-checking and labeling social media content). But it would also involve costlier, longer-term bets on promising structural reforms (like supporting local journalism and media literacy). Each policy should come with a concrete plan for ongoing reassessment.

From a systemic view, this might include bolstering local news as a public good and forcing tech platforms to stop incentivizing the spread of hate and disinformation through robust regulation. But no matter the tactic, each has unique challenges and unique avenues for implementation. As Jackson’s and Bateman’s report lays it out:

As individuals, we perhaps have more power than we realize, especially since Trump’s approval rating is low and continues to sink. There’s never been a better time to have some of those tough conversations with our family and friends who are susceptible to the sort of disinformation that bubbles up into government policy. You can learn to spot disinformation and conspiracies yourself using the SIFT method, and to talk to people in your life effectively using this guide from PEN America.

This piece was originally published in The Big Picture, one of my favorite political newsletters. Thanks so much to Todd and the crew over there for hosting me.

Subscribe to The Big Picture below.

The Big Picture

The Big Picture provides a deep dive into the cultural, political, and societal issues shaping our world today, from a variety of unique perspectives.

Love CARD and want to help keep it free for everyone? You can now make a donation using ActBlue. If you’ve saved your payment information with ActBlue Express, your donation will go through immediately:

Express Donate: $25

Express Donate: $50

Express Donate: $100

Donate another amount

I’m also on Patreon if you’d like to support me and the newsletter over there.

Thank you for all that you do and for supporting CARD by reading, donating, and sharing the newsletter with your networks. I’ll talk to you all again next week!

Subscribe now

Remember when summers used to be a slow time for news? Me either. People might not be paying as close attention, hopefully while getting some much-needed rest and relaxation, but the Trump Regime continues to terrorize us and enact its agenda.

This week, there’s no one dominant thread, but lots of updates on topics I cover regularly. Here’s what you need to know.

ICE Killing Spree

ICE has killed two more people since my newsletter last week. In addition to Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Texas, ICE in Maine gunned down Johan Sebastián Durán in front of his wife and 3-year-old daughter. Another man in Florida was killed by an oncoming truck while being pursued by ICE agents.

ICE didn’t even bother trying to justify Durán’s killing, claiming only that the officer who pulled the trigger (identified by family as having a history of violent behavior) feared for “public safety” as opposed to his or anyone else’s life. And really, why would they? It’s clear that no ICE agents will be investigated, much less fired or charged with crimes. The agency attempted to diffuse things somewhat by claiming they had put a “pause” on traffic stops, but Trump almost immediately countered by demanding on TruthSocial that ICE keep them going.

It’s all so senseless, and as Lisa Needham pointed out in her own piece at Public Notice, so repetitive. She writes, “The nation is suffering through another spasm of shootings by ICE agents. It feels like we’re right back where we were in January, when federal agents went on a lawless, deadly tear in Minnesota. This time, however, the violence is more diffuse, spread out across multiple states. But the aftermath of all of it remains the same: a sick, lurching knowledge that you are under assault from your own government.”

Election Denial Conspiracies

This week, Trump gave a speech in prime time, once again alleging that there was interference in the 2020 election and that he’d actually won. Considering that Trump is doing everything he can, and his regime using every lever of power to undermine the midterms and other upcoming elections, I was surprised at what a nothingburger his speech was. His promised document release didn’t offer any new information outside of what’s already been reported. Even his accusations and conspiracy-mongering felt low-effort and low-key.

If anything, Trump seemed angrier than some TV networks opted not to carry his speech live, than the election he supposedly had been stolen from him in 2020 and has been on an obsessive tear about ever since.

Still, we can’t take Trump’s poor speech performance as an indicator. The Trump Regime doesn’t want elections to be free or fair, and they have this year’s midterms right in their sights. Including his continued whining about how Congress needs to pass the SAVE Act, and his voter suppression bill. The Brennan Center for Justice has an analysis of everything the regime is to undermine elections in the US, and they’re always a good resource for the latest updates.

As a reminder, for all that MAGA concern-trolling about non-citizens supposedly voting illegally, the biggest target of the American Right has long been Black voters. The Voting Rights Act is now effectively dead, and conversations around election protection and MAGA’s intentions need to center on Black voters and what they’ve lost.

Elections in the US are run locally, and no matter where you live, you have the power to influence and protect the process. This week, States at the Core has a training devoted to election protection and what folks can do in their communities. I highly recommend it to all of my readers. You can learn more and RSVP here.

Antifa

As I wrote a couple of weeks ago, the Trump Regime is coming for Antifa, and if you oppose the Regime in any way, you too are considered Antifa.

Two news stories on the antifa as a terrorist front are worth paying attention to this week. First, the Trump Regime might not be able to define what antifa is, but that didn’t stop Secretary Marco Rubio from hosting a convening of foreign ministers from other countries about how it’s supposedly a global threat.

In announcing the Regime’s effort to fight a so-called “ unprecedented global offensive against the transnational threat of Radical Left terrorism” it’s notable that the release doesn’t include the names of any of these groups, just a promise to investigate and destroy these groups. As soon as they figure out who they are, I suppose.

The other news story is an exclusive from Talking Points Memo: Federal Prosecutor Brian W. Lynch, who marched with the protestors at the Janurary 6 insurrection while employed by the DOJ, is now in charge of a Task Force which according to TPM’s reporting is, “central to its [DOJ’s] effort to prosecute alleged left-wing political violence cases, including last month’s indictment of 15 anti-ICE protesters in Minneapolis.” It doesn’t surprise me that an election denier who marched on January 6 (though he claims he did not enter the Capitol Building) is now leading the charge to hunt down and punish so-called antifa members, but it’s certainly worth keeping an eye on.

Share

ICE killings. Election subversion. A January 6 marcher is now in charge of prosecuting antifa. Just this week.

This is what CARD is for. Keeping you informed so you don’t have to do it alone. Free, every week, because some readers fund it, so everyone has access.

If that’s useful to you, chip in.

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

Express Donate: $25

Express Donate: $50

Express Donate: $100

Donate another amount

I’m also on Patreon if you’d like to support me and the newsletter over there.

ICYMI

• Rapinoe: Anti-Trans Legislation Isn’t About “Protecting Girls”—It’s About Distracting Us From What Matters (Marie Claire)

• The Woman in the Photo Wanted to Be Alone. Instead, She Went Viral. (NOTUS)

• Right-Wing and Right-leaning Online Show Hosts, Including Nick Fuentes, Are Getting Millions of Views Pushing Extremely Racist Rhetoric (Media Matters)

Coda

If you’d like to continue the conversation, follow me on Bluesky and say hello. You can also reply directly to this email or leave a comment below. I love hearing from readers, and some of my best ideas for newsletters come from your questions and feedback.

I read everything you send and respond to most messages, so don’t be a stranger!

That’s all for now. Back next week!

Subscribe now

This week, ICE agents gunned down and killed Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a Mexican national, in broad daylight. Araujo’s family learned about his death via a video of the shooting posted on social media. They recognized his screams for help. No one from any official agency called them or reached out to them. The other men in the van with Araujo, who witnessed the killing, were detained and are currently being pressured to “self-deport” by the officials holding them.

Araujo had lived in the U.S. for 35 years, raised three children, and built a home for them. As his son Ronaldo said in a press conference, “He did not deserve to die. He did not deserve to be reduced to a headline of Mexican man shot and killed by ICE. He deserved to live a quiet life as Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a husband, a father, and a job creator for dozens of men who also wanted the American dream.”

The family is calling for an independent investigation into the shooting. But since neither Renee Good’s nor Alex Pretti’s deaths by ICE were properly investigated, nor criminal charges ever filed, I don’t hold out hope for Salgado’s family getting any kind of justice or recourse.

ICE continues to be an out-of-control agency, operating at the whims of the Trump Regime and accountable to no one outside of it. ICE agents terrorize communities across the US with abductions and raids. The New York Times recently reported on a surge of 10,000 abductions in five days across the US. Per reporting from Mother Jones, Memphis, Tennessee, is currently “under full-blown” occupation by ICE, and community members who attempt to get that story into the press face swift retaliation.

No one is safe until ICE ceases to exist. Starting with undocumented migrants and immigrant communities, but as we’ve now seen with Good, Pretti, and Salgado, and seven more people shot by federal immigration officers this year. ICE agents are able to kill innocent people without due process. And neither the agency nor individual agents will be held accountable.

But it goes beyond that. As WIRED reports this week, ICE’s internal watchdog is now investigating critics of the agency. The Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) has now opened 131 cases in 2026 and 2026 involving “incidents of doxing and threats directed towards ICE employees nationwide.” You’ll be shocked to learn that OPR has fallen behind on what it’s actually supposed to do—internal investigations.

The results of OPR’s investigations are Americans getting harassed for speaking out. From poll worker Paigelynne Gonyea, who was confronted by ICE agents at a voting location where they demanded she take down a critical social media post to David Streever, whom ICE agents tracked down on vacation because of an angry email he wrote to ICE’s Acting Director Todd Lyons, criticizing the agency’s actions in Minneapolis earlier this year.

At this point, I believe it’s fair to call ICE a secret police force enacting Trump’s whims. The agency is abducting people and terrorizing communities. The agency has a body count and has protected the agents responsible rather than prosecuting or even disciplining them. Now the agency is attempting to crush dissent by intimidating those who speak out against the atrocities it commits.

This is wholly unacceptable, and why Abolish ICE must be a baseline for the Left, especially candidates running for and those holding elected office. There is no reforming or recalibrating this agency. Justice won’t be done for Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, Renee Good, Alex Pretti, and everyone who was abducted until everyone responsible has been held to account and the agency is shut down for good.

Share

ICE is now investigating its own critics. A poll worker confronted at a voting location. A man tracked down on vacation over an email he sent. 131 cases opened this year against Americans who spoke out.

This is what it looks like when an agency stops answering to anyone but the Trump Regime. CARD exists to document it and ensure you have what you need to fight back.

That only works if it’s free. We’ve now raised $3,490 towards my goal of $15,000 by December. Progress, but still a ways to go. If you can fund the newsletter and help keep it free for everyone, please do.

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

Express Donate: $25

Express Donate: $50

Express Donate: $100

Donate another amount

And if you’re already a donor or subscriber, thank you. I appreciate the continued support.

ICYMI

• The Administration’s Propaganda Machine is Aimed at the 2026 Election (If You Can Keep It)

• Exclusive: Dr. Bernice King Calls for National Reflection Following Tragic Passing of Nolan Wells (The Root)

• Journalist-Creator Beefs are Bad for Everyone (The Wayfinder)

Subscribe now

Coda

Another great way to support CARD is to forward it to a friend or colleague who would find it useful. Direct referrals remain one of our strongest sources of growth. Can you forward this newsletter to one person in your network this week?

Share

Thanks, as always, for reading and supporting the newsletter. I keep going because you keep reading and telling me this work matters to you. We’re in this together. Solidarity, and I’ll talk to you again next Sunday.

Sending this one a bit early, before the holiday weekend kicks off. The headline is the title of a Langston Hughes poem, which you can read here.

America’s 250th birthday has me feeling some kind of way. I’m not alone. For the last month, I’ve been thinking about this year’s 4th of July holiday and trying to name my feelings. The word that comes up most often is grief.

Grief has been a constant emotion in my life this last decade. I lost my Dad, my Papaw, and there were multiple pregnancy losses, including a termination for medical reasons, before I got pregnant with my kids. Just this week, our family said goodbye to our beloved cat, Iowa. Which means I now get to share what I’ve learned about grief with my children, as I teach them how to experience and process loss for the first time.

What I’ve come to realize is that alongside my personal grief, I’ve also been grieving my country. America is currently being run as an authoritarian state, and those in power are doing so much damage that there’s no way an election or two will be enough to restore what we’ve lost. Roe is gone, the Voting Rights Act is gone, there was a violent coup attempt, and four years later, we voted those responsible for it back to power. Migrants and the Trans community are being terrorized, and the MAGA movement continues to destroy all the progress we’ve ever made towards becoming a fully realized multiracial democracy. Dismantling us piece by piece, and enriching Trump and his cronies with the profits. Corruption at a massive scale.

Then there’s Covid. Which took so much from us as Americans (not to mention the world). As a friend of mine put it to me, at one point, we were suffering the equivalent of a 9/11 every day in terms of lives lost, and yet we were just expected to keep going as if things weren’t falling apart all around us.

Share

In 2024, I wrote about how America was avoiding grieving that loss. Rereading that post, it’s hard not to see that we find ourselves where we are, caused not only by the pandemic but also by our refusal as a nation to grieve an unspeakable systemic catastrophe. We’re a crueler and more isolated society than ever before, both in the micro and macro sense. And became easy prey for Trump and his regime to exploit.

I can’t speak for anyone else, but I grieve because I’ve always liked America and being American. We have this incredible culture that, at its best, can change hearts and minds everywhere. I’m always reminded of this when I travel outside the country. People love to tell me about American music and mass media that means something to them. Such as learning English by watching American TV shows or growing up listening to American popular music genres like Hip Hop or Country. Because our popular culture comes from people all over the world who came here, anyone and everyone can see themselves in its pieces. It’s our soft power and America’s true superpower.

I won’t pretend America has ever lived up to its promise or ideals. The men who wrote our founding documents were enslavers and exploiters. Our nation was forged in cruelty and bloodshed as much as or more than the promise of freedom. But I used to believe that most of us were doing our best to live up to those ideas. Trying and failing, and trying again to build a nation where anyone was entitled to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” Do I still believe that now? I’m no longer sure, but I want to.

What I know is that America, at least in terms of our system of government, is lost. We can’t go back, and there’s no return to normal. We can only move forward. To do that, we must grieve. We need to name our feelings and move through them rather than avoid them. To understand that our sadness today doesn’t mean things will always be like they are now. I wish I could teach America to grieve the way I’m teaching my kids this week. Because as I’m moving through grief with my family at home, I realize it’s the same lesson.

Share

One thing that does give me hope is that America is more than our government. Certainly, it’s more than our current regime. An America without our diverse populace, the optimism we bring, and the popular culture we create is joyless and sad, as Donald Trump learned with the debacle that is Freedom 250 and the Great American State Fair. But seeing America through the eyes of World Cup fans who have followed their teams here, I feel more optimistic. Politics is downstream of culture, and MAGA’s continued attempts to dominate popular culture have failed spectacularly. If nothing else, our global cultural impact will outlive the current regime.

We each get to choose how we commemorate America’s 250th anniversary. I choose to grieve what we’ve lost and feel those feelings as much as I need to. I also chose to believe that there’s a better possible future for us as a nation. Which is why this weekend, alongside my grief, I choose to celebrate everything that makes America a nation worth fighting for.

Share

ICYMI

• They Want Us to Forget How We Saved Democracy the First Two Times. Don’t Let Them (The Root)

• Her Grandparents Fought to Join American Democracy. She’s Fighting to Complete it. (19th News)

• A Reckoning with the Future of Resistance (Political Research Associates)

Subscribe now

Coda

This one was hard to write. If it meant something to you to read it, consider supporting my work.

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

Express Donate: $25

Express Donate: $50

Express Donate: $100

Donate another amount

I also have a Patreon Page.

And if you’re already a donor or subscriber, thank you. I appreciate the continued support.

Since I professed my love for American pop culture, I’m going to close us out with one of my favorites, an NSFW-ish SNL sketch featuring Will Ferrell and his version of patriotism.

Talk to you again next Sunday!

Subscribe now

For years, concerns trolls loved to write me and say something along these lines: I agree with you about white supremacists and neo-nazis, but what about antifa? Aren’t they just as bad?

My response is always the same: Please explain to me what antifa is. You’ll be shocked to learn that, as of yet, no one has given me a good answer. Most of the attempts at an explanation don’t make sense.

As a reminder, antifa isn’t an organization. There’s no headquarters, not even a PO box. Antifa is short for anti-fascist. It’s a global decentralized movement and philosophy. Activists and organizers who identify with Antifa work to stop the spread of fascism and the harm fascists bring to communities. For those sincerely looking to learn about antifa, I highly recommend the book To Catch a Fascist by reporter Christopher Mathias.

Anti-fascists don’t exist without fascists. As Clint Watts, a former US intelligence officer who has trained law enforcement, likes to point out, “I always like to remind people when they hear antifa, that means anti-fascist, which is in response to another. So if you have antifa, then you have ‘fa’ — or as in fascist, which comes down to white supremacy.”

The lack of a central organization and means to defend itself as a movement has made anti-fascist activists an easy target for the Trump Regime and MAGA. The first Trump administration liked to blame everything on antifa. Starting with the hate rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, that anti-fascist researchers and activists had repeatedly tried to warn city officials about beforehand. But over the course of Trump’s term antifa would be blamed for everything from Black Lives Matter protests to forest fires. Much like “woke”, it became a catch-all term that didn’t mean much of anything other than something Trump and MAGA wanted to brand as the enemy.

This time around, the Trump Regime has declared that antifa is a domestic terror organization via executive order. (All while pardoning those responsible for January 6, many of whom were actively involved in domestic terror organizations.) The order directs “all relevant executive departments and agencies shall utilize all applicable authorities to investigate, disrupt, and dismantle any illegal operations…including necessary investigatory and prosecutorial actions against those who fund such operations.”

Since, again, there’s no antifa organization, it’s easy to dismiss Trump’s executive order as meaningless. But under his direction, federal agencies are running with it. This week, federal prosecutors in Minnesota charged 15 anti-ICE protestors with having ties to alleged antifa groups. One of those charged is an employee of the state of Minnesota. But as Ken Klipperstein pointed out in his newsletter, at the press conference announcing the indictment, prosecutors couldn’t answer basic questions about what antifa is, who they are, and if they’ve caused any harm.

Meanwhile, anti-ICE protestors in Texas were handed down sentences of more than 50 years, for a slew of criminal charges around a July 4 protest at an ICE detention center. Significantly more than the toughest convictions of the January 6 insurrectionists. Prosecutors alleged (with no real evidence) that those charged were domestic terrorists and part of an antifa cell. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche framed the convictions as a victory against antifa.

We’re only as safe as our most vulnerable, and since antifa has no meaning, it can be applied to anyone that the Trump Regime deems an enemy. The DOJ’s track record on prosecuting protestors and branding them as antifa terrorists is decidedly mixed, with multiple cases having already fallen apart, but as the convictions in Texas show, not every judge and jury sees through the Regime’s BS.

As this is happening, antifa seems to be having an “I am Spartacus” moment with people showing up to No Kings protests wearing Grantifa t-shirts, holding up anti-fascist signs, and telling media outlets they are proud to be antifa. Antifa has never been more mainstream, which gives me a chuckle but might frustrate actual antifa activists who tend to be anarchists or, at the very least, would consider themselves much further left than your average No Kings Day participant.

Whether you’re an anarchist, a democratic socialist, a normie moderate Democrat, or even a former Republican who is willing to call out fascism for what it is, the Trump Regime considers us all enemies. And when the regime comes for us, we’ll all be antifa. Solidarity with one another and against the regime is the only way forward.

Share

Antifa doesn't have a PO box. CARD does.

Well, technically, CARD has an ActBlue link, but you get the idea. If the Trump Regime is going to call all of us antifa anyway, we might as well make it worth their while. Ctrl Alt-Right Delete isn’t just commentary, it’s everything you need to help fight the MAGA Right, free every week, because readers like you fund it. Not owned by billionaires. Not behind a paywall. Just the work.

Keep it free. Donate today.

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

Express Donate: $25

Express Donate: $50

Express Donate: $100

Donate another amount

And if you’re already a donor or subscriber, thank you. I appreciate the continued support.

ICYMI

• YouTube Doesn’t Wanna Be AM Radio Anymore (Garbage Day)

• Mothering as a Judge in an Era of Death Threats (19th News)

• What Online Platforms Can and Must Do to Help Mitigate Escalating Political Violence (Tech Policy Press)

Coda

My World Cup fever continues, and I am not ashamed. By day, I’m Team Fed Up, and by night, I’m at Lee Greenwood levels of sports patriotism for Team USA. It’s a weird time to be an American, but I’m rolling with it. And experiencing it all in Seattle continues to be an absolute blast.

Normally, I’d take next weekend off for the holiday weekend, but I’m working on a special post for America’s 250th birthday. Feel free to read it when you’re back online after some well-deserved rest. Take care until then.

Subscribe now

Zohran Mamdani is a talented politician and a skilled organizer. This week, his slate of endorsed candidates swept New York’s primary. The results caused immediate panic from media elites and establishment Democrats. The socialists are ascendant! Lock up your wives and children. Prepare your bunker because surely the end days are upon us.

I’m a grizzled veteran of these freakouts. The first campaign I was heavily involved in was Ned Lamont’s primary against Joe Lieberman for his Senate seat in 2006. At the time, I naively assumed that since Ned had won the primary, the Democrats would support him. But that’s not what happened. While the DNC under Howard Dean did the right thing, as did then-Senator Hillary Clinton, many Democratic leaders continued to support Lieberman rather than the party’s nominee. Lieberman, of course, won in the general election as an Independent.

It’s funny to think about now. Ned Lamont is a guy wealthy enough to self-fund his campaigns who says things like “golly” in conversation. He’s currently the governor of Connecticut, and these days, most people wouldn’t describe him as a progressive firebrand. But at the time, the chattering class acted like his election to the Senate might mean the end of civilization as we knew it.

Share

Now we have Zohran Mamdani, and a growing NY coalition that began with Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Elected officials who proudly call themselves socialists or Democratic socialists. Crucially, it’s a coalition led by people with clear organizing chops. Taking on the establishment and racking up wins. Arguably part of a broader movement that includes insurgent candidates like Graham Platner, Katie Wilson, and Nithya Raman, among others.

What’s changed since 2006 is that Democratic voters are pissed and more willing than ever to try something new. They want fighters, people who will work hard for them and actually govern. Twenty years ago, you could scare enough people off of Ned Lamont. In 2026, I don’t think that playbook will work most of the time.

Here’s why. At Netroots Nation, I had the same conversation again and again: Millennial friends explaining that their parents had been radicalized over the past year or so, and how said parents might now be further to the left than they are. Collectively, our parents, at least those of us with parents who were at least mildly Democratic voters previously, are ready to burn it all down. They’ve spent a lifetime dealing with this shit, and they’re fed up.

The thing is, I don’t necessarily think people have moved further to the left. I think they want elected officials who actually do the job they were elected to do. Who fight hard against the Trump Administration’s authoritarian creep, but also fix the roads, expand public services, and build stronger communities.

This week’s primary results in New York have me thinking a lot about how many older Democratic voters, like their children and grandchildren, are more open to candidates like Mamdani and his chosen slate. Obviously, New York is a Democratic stronghold. Theoretically, progressive and socialist candidates should perform better there, but the headwind might just be national.

I think about Charles Booker, who just won the Senate primary in my home state of Kentucky. This week, Booker’s opponent wasted no time calling him the “Mamdani of Kentucky.” Booker responded by saying he was flattered by the comparison. To be clear, Booker is a long-shot candidate, and I’d be surprised if he won in November. But given how mad voters are at Trump and the Democratic party, I also don’t see a downside to leaning in. If a Democrat has a chance in hell of winning Kentucky’s Senate seat, it will be because they bring something new to the table for voters to respond to. Why not go for it?

America is undergoing a seismic political alignment. The left-right binary is broken, and our federal government is being dismantled piece by piece. I don’t consider myself a socialist, but personally, I’m more than happy to be in coalition with them if it helps us win back power and then actually wield it. And like many of you, I’m also more open to new ideas and ways of governing than I’ve ever been in my life. Clearly, a lot of what we’ve been doing, what I’ve been doing, no longer works.

I’m ready to ignore those freaking out and move past them. If they don’t understand that Trump’s MAGA coalition is a bigger danger to us all than Zohran Mamdani and democratic socialists could ever be, I don’t have time to worry about them. Let them keep losing their minds. Most of America seems to be tuning them out anyway.

Share

This newsletter exists to give you the knowledge and the context to fight the MAGA Right. To help you understand who’s winning, why it matters, and what comes next. If that’s useful to you, keep it going. Make a donation via ActBlue.

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

Express Donate: $25

Express Donate: $50

Express Donate: $100

Donate another amount

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.

Subscribe now

Barack Obama and Donald Trump don’t have much in common, but one thing they do share is an innate understanding of the importance of iconography and brand. Even though their personal brands are as different as night and day, both men are focused on how they’re perceived today, and crucially, how they’ll be remembered by future generations.

We’re seeing this play out in real time as the Obama Presidential Center opens in Chicago this week and the Trump Regime forces Extreme Makeover: Washington, DC Edition on America’s capital city. This is the future that liberals want vs. God Emperor Trump memes, expressed as public art and architecture. And while I hate to compare Trump’s self-aggrandization with Obama’s belief in America’s future, given the timing, it’s impossible for me to separate them in my head.

Let’s start with Trump’s desire to turn DC into a MAGA fever dream. It’s fascinating to me that instead of building his own monuments, structures, or even putting up a bunch of statues, he would rather destroy what already exists. Donald Trump doesn’t want to build; he wants to conquer. To make clear that the White House, Kennedy Center, Reflecting Pool, and all of DC belong to him and should be subject to his whims.

Subscribe now

The visuals from DC, where I lived for many years, range from unsettling to weird. The East Wing torn down, Trump’s name suddenly added to the Kennedy Center, and the most recent images of the White House South Lawn turned into an Ultimate Fighting Championship arena. But Trump’s ambition doesn’t end there. On multiple occasions, he’s suggested that his face be added to Mt. Rushmore.

It mirrors what the Trump Regime has done to our Federal government since coming back into power. Enacting Project 2025, stripping America for parts, and selling it off piece by piece to enrich Trump and his cronies. If Trump’s brand is corruption, hate, and grift, then credit to him: his reconstruction is absolutely on brand. His version of DC leaves no doubt of who this man is and what his MAGA movement stands for.

Last month, when I visited the Obama Presidential Center for a preview tour with my family, I did everything I could to keep Trump out of my head and enjoy the experience without comparison or contrast, but that proved to be impossible. (Full disclosure: this newsletter, and my story of writing it, are featured in the Imagine Your Impact Exhibit. I was also an Obama Foundation USA Leader in 2023, so feel free to take my view of the campus with a grain of salt.)

President Obama has made clear in social media content and multiple interviews that he doesn’t want the Center to be a static monument to his legacy but a living community center for people to gather, and a place to inspire future leaders to become civically engaged and active. That’s a lofty goal, and one could read it as being disingenuous.

But my reaction when I toured the campus was appreciation. I’m not the most hopeful person, especially these days. Yet I couldn’t help but admire the ambition and audacity that it took to create a public space like the Obama Presidential Center. The public art installations blew me away, and I could have spent the entire day looking at nothing else. The exhibits were designed to be accessible to everyone, with Braille labels, audio labels, and objects placed low enough for small children to interact with. Public spaces abound, including a branch of the Chicago library and the most expansive inclusive playground my kids have ever played on.

As much as I enjoyed the visit, it’s hard not to feel cynical at times. The Obama Presidential Center is a monument to hope but also a reminder of where his presidency fell short, not to mention how far America has fallen since. It’s strange to be in a space that celebrates American Democracy, even one that acknowledges the imperfections and incompleteness, when a decade after Obama’s term ended, America is currently a competitive authoritarian state at best. Something I don’t think the museum grapples with enough.

Still, the very existence of the campus, a public space built for everyone-- with the intention of fostering human connection, community, and the message that anyone can become a leader -- is decidedly anti-fascist and pro-multiracial democracy. As Michelle Obama pointed out in her remarks on opening day, “that’s the work of democracy, too, being neighborly, taking care of public spaces, having some fun, enjoying each other, shaking out of the isolation and division that have crept too deeply into our lives.”

Barack Obama isn’t going to be the leader who saves us (something he and his wife Michelle have repeatedly made clear), and I wouldn’t want him to be. We need new leaders to move us forward. But the Obama story is a powerful tale about what America can be and should aspire to.

Longtime readers know I’m fascinated by America’s mythology and the narratives we tell ourselves about who we are. As the Trump Regime attempts to erase so much of our country’s history and rewrite America’s story as a MAGA myth, the Obama Presidential Center is a defiant, rebellious, and joyful rebuke. A testament to the radical notion that America could one day live up to our own ideals.

Share

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. 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:

Express Donate: $25

Express Donate: $50

Express Donate: $100

Donate another amount

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.

Coda

Seattle, where I live, is one of the World Cup host cities, and this entire week has been delightful. I’ve enjoyed heading downtown to watch games in the fan zones and taking my kids to a watch party in one of our local parks (where they watched Team USA beat Australia). It’s been a lot of fun, and something I think my kids will remember for the rest of their lives.

To experience some of the joy yourself, watch this local news piece of soccer fans from around the world enjoying everything about Seattle.

Subscribe now

“Very poor white people” …[are being convinced that]... “very poor, hard-working brown or Black people” [are responsible for the] “problems caused by billionaire white men”... “I believe that Elon Musk did not just blindly buy Twitter. He did it for a reason. To control a lot of those narratives and what’s put into the domain.”...

-Allison Morris, Crime Correspondent at the Belfast Telegraph

This week, far-right actors in Northern Ireland exploited the brutal stabbing of a disabled man to fan the flames of hate, and riots have broken out across the city. The videos and images coming out of Belfast are horrific, but what I’m really struck by is how familiar it all is. Violent protests planned online, conspiracy theories and disinformation spreading rapidly over social media, inciting more violence. Far-Right figures in the UK and MAGA influencers and Trump Administration officials in the U.S. are piling on even further.

We’ve seen this all before. The Dublin riots in 2023, multiple incidents in the United Kingdom and other European nations, and of course, what I’ve chronicled in the U.S. over the last decade or so. We all know the role that Big Tech, and the bad actors who exploit the platforms they own, play in making the world less safe for everyone.

Then again, perhaps “exploit” isn’t the right word. You could argue that bad actors are using the platforms as intended. And if the world is burning, that’s because men like Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg intentionally set it on fire. Zuckerberg is content to let users on the platforms he owns do the dirty work for him, but per usual, Musk is an active participant. Posting a stream of hateful content about Belfast on a platform juiced to ensure he’s the most influential user. The violence is a feature, not a bug. AI is, of course, making it worse, as content created to feed the algorithms can propagate faster than ever before.

Alison Morris, a reporter for the Belfast Telegraph, put it succinctly on Channel 4 News,placing the blame squarely on Elon Musk for inciting the violence, and stating that his purchase and control of Twitter (now X) were intentional. It’s worth watching.

Since my audience is mostly American, and I’m decidedly not an expert on politics in Ireland or the UK, I don’t want to unpack what’s happening on the ground too much. But I do think it’s worth noting that Belfast is in Northern Ireland, which is governed by the United Kingdom. For all of the “Ireland for the Irish” bullshit I’m seeing online, the UK Parliament sets immigration policies in London, and not locally in Belfast. Historic tensions obviously play a role, and as Al Jazeera points out in its reporting. At the same time, there’s no official connection between riot organizers and existing unionist paramilitary groups in Northern Ireland; “young men who participate in these riots would have been prime recruitment targets of such groups.”

If you want to know more from the ground, I’d suggest Alison Morris’s writing in the Belfast Telegraph, David Gilbert at Wired, and HOPE not Hate, an organization that researches the far-right in the UK.

Share

What is vital for my readers to understand is that the far-right is a global fascist movement. For all the crowing about America First! (or Britain First, or Ireland for the Irish, etc.) What the far-right wants is a world where they hold all the power and control, and the rest of us are forced to live by their whims. They organize and coordinate online, in plain sight, sharing best practices with one another. As reporter Phil Williams points out in his excellent newsletter, white nationalist groups in the U.S. “are openly celebrating the violent attacks on immigrants in Belfast and suggesting their followers can learn from the rioters’ tactics.”

I don’t know what the answer is. Checking in with colleagues this week, everyone who’s been following Belfast feels pretty defeated by the situation and the similarities to happenings in other parts of the world. Online hate is decidedly getting worse everywhere, and humanity lives with increasing violence as a result. But I think it’s important to be clear-eyed about what’s happening, why it’s happening, and who the villains are.

On a more optimistic note, yesterday in Belfast, thousands of people turned up for the “largest anti-racism rally” in the city’s history. There was a similarly well-attended event in Derry. A reminder that while the fascists want us to believe they are the majority, the reality is that they are not.

ICYMI

• Cops Keep Getting Arrested for Using Flock to Stalk People (404 Media)

• The Anti-Blake Lively to Election Fraud Conspiracy Pipeline (Spitfire News)

• America’s Doctors Just Voted for War With RFK Jr. (Politico)

3 Easy Ways to Support CARD

1. Forward the newsletter to a friend or colleague who would find it valuable. Personal recommendations are one of my strongest growth drivers.

2. Share this week’s article with your people in your group chats and on social media.

3. Contribute: I still need to raise over $12,000 by the end of the year. If your payment information is already saved on ActBlue, you can donate with one click! (And if you’re already a donor or subscriber, THANK YOU!)

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

Express Donate: $25

Express Donate: $50

Express Donate: $100

Donate another amount

That’s all for this week. We’ll do this again next Sunday. Take Care!

Subscribe now

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.

Share

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?

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

Express Donate: $25

Express Donate: $50

Express Donate: $100

Donate another amount

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.

Subscribe now

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.

Share

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:

Express Donate: $25

Express Donate: $50

Express Donate: $100

Donate another amount

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!

Subscribe now

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…

Read more

2 months 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.

We’re now set up for one-time and recurring donations on ActBlue.

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

Express Donate: $10

Express Donate: $25

Express Donate: $50

Donate another amount

Subscribe now

“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.

Share

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.

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

Express Donate: $10

Express Donate: $25

Express Donate: $50

Donate another amount

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

Subscribe now

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 …

Read more

“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.

Share

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.

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

Express Donate: $10

Express Donate: $25

Espress Donate: $50

Or donate another amount.

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!

Subscribe now

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.

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

Express Donate: $10

Express Donate: $25

Espress Donate: $50

Or donate another amount.

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

Share

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.

Share

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.

Subscribe now

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.

Subscribe now

Subscribe now

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.

Share

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.

Subscribe now

Share

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)

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

Subscribe now

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!

Subscribe now