A Fork in the Road – For Journalism, For Democracy, For Us
What if something is so painfully obvious that everyone is afraid to say it?
In 2007, my mother was dying. Every doctor in the room knew my mother was gone, but they kept filling out charts, updating me on vitals, as if recovery were still possible. Their job was to help her recover, and as I sat there in my Red Sox rally cap, waiting for her to get better, one of the doctors finally crossed that line, the line that NEEDED to be crossed in order for me to see through my denial. I raged, I ranted, I made phone calls... and two hours later we turned off the machines.
Now I have to be that brave doctor, for you, my fellow American. I'm sorry to tell you that our democracy is already dead. And once you accept that you will realize that your job, OUR job, is no longer to read the monitors or run the labs. We've got a funeral to plan, and we've got to figure out how dad can keep living in his house when mom is gone.
I'll Say The Quiet Part Out Loud
As I write this, the front pages are full of stories dissecting Trump’s economic failures, fact-checking his State of the Union, and reporting that the Supreme Court has ordered his administration to reinstate USAID funding.
None of these headlines matter. None of them tell the real story. Worse yet, the reporters who wrote them probably know that, as do the editors who ran the stories.
Let's start with why they don't matter. Let's work backwards:
The Trump administration is not going to turn on funding for USAID. There is no evidence that this administration is following any court orders. The justices KNOW THIS but have not held him in contempt of court because doing so would force a Constitutional crisis -- one they don’t want to start.
The facts do not matter. Donald Trump's supporters do not care about what the media says are the facts. Those who oppose Donald Trump already know that nearly everything he says is a lie. Yes, it's the media's job to fact check these things, for the history books if nothing else, but interns could do that.
Analysis of the economy tends to focus on a theme: Donald Trump's policies do not work, they will not be good for Americans, and therefore they may be reversed because Trump will need popular support. I'm here to tell you that this last assumption is incorrect.
Donald Trump does not care about the courts. He does not care about popular opinion. The reason is simple, and obvious, and the media can't bring themselves to say it because it breaks with their entire 250 year tradition:
Donald Trump is a dictator. There will be no more elections. Trump policies are not aimed at making America stronger, they are aimed to making Donald Trump and his allies more powerful. The American experiment is over.
Either In Denial or Complicit
The media cannot bring themselves to acknowledge this for several reasons. First, to do so would be to admit that they were taking sides, that they were analyzing the mountains of evidence and feeding a conclusion to the reader. They would also have to admit that they are nearly useless since the primary purpose of journalism is to inform the public, and the experts, and the policy makers, so that the democratic process can be informed by facts, not propaganda.
The complicity of the right-wing media is so obvious no details are needed. On the left, media and pundits can't read the writing on the wall. They continue to crank out analysis as if rational minds will triumph. So you can read legal analysis on NPR that calls Trump's legal strategy "self defeating" and "a mystery" rather than talk about Project 2025 and the court orders that have been ignored. You can listen to James Carville talk about how Democrats should stop talking so Trump's policies can come to fruition and Republicans will lose the next election. You can read impotent articles about how Trump's economics or foreign policy will backfire, or even about how he won't touch Social Security because it would be too unpopular.
They ignore the administration's hate, its lawlessness, its budding commitment to eugenics. These things make people uncomfortable, and calling Trump out would mean taking sides. They'll ignore the fact that Trump pledged to end elections, his followers want him to end elections, his actions indicate he'll end elections, and none of his decision making makes ANY sense unless he does.
Similarly, many Republican lawmakers are secretly appalled by the actions of Donald Trump but have decided, to quote Tennessee Republican Representative Tim Burchett, "you're either at the table or on the menu." This is why many are voting in Trump nominees and advancing his legislative agenda, despite the fact that they are worried about executive overreach. In fact, elements of the administration are at war with themselves, especially on issues like Social Security. This past weekend, elements in DOGE were trying to rush through a plan to lay off 50% of SSA staffers on Monday. By Saturday, too many Republicans were pushing back and the brakes were at least pumped on the plan, and yet there isn't a single Republican who has gone public to oppose the President or the DOGE agenda. They have decided to be at the table as the Trump administration feasts on the carcass of our democracy.
Democratic lawmakers, on the other hand, have failed to deliver us from this horror. Democratic lawmakers, and the last two Presidents, have failed above all to lead the American public on even basic levels. The Obama and Biden administrations made no attempt to explain things like foreign policy, trade policy, the purpose of programs like USAID, or even basic economic policy. As a result, public mistrust of government is at an all time high in recent years, directly leading to the kind of nihilism and apathy that allowed Donald Trump to flourish.
This is not new. The Democrats have failed to strategically communicate or even defend their ideology for the last four decades. As a result, the Democrats keep moving to the right in the hopes that they can recapture the zeitgeist of the American voters, and they continue to be outflanked by increasingly radical Republicans.
Last night was perhaps the perfect illustration. During Donald Trump's state of the union, the president touted his large public mandate. Representative Al Green stood up and defiantly shouted, "You have no mandate to cut Medicaid!” He was removed as his (predominantly white) colleagues looked on. After this, the Democrats were nearly silent, holding tiny signs that said "false," or "you lie" -- which I'm sure kept Donald Trump up all night.
Imagine sitting in a room with Adolf Hitler, holding a little sign that says "Save Medicaid." Imagine putting a polite protest slogan on your shirt and calmly walking out. Imagine doing nothing but refusing to clap.
Now imagine how history would judge you.
A Fork in the Road – For Journalism, For Democracy, For Us
For two decades, I reported on pro-democracy movements in the Middle East and Eastern Europe: Iran, Egypt, Ukraine, Russia and beyond. I believed the information age would make us the most informed generation in history—that truth would rise, and tyranny would fall. And for a while, it worked.
And yet, as they say in the military, the enemy also gets a vote. Powerful special interests and state actors were paying attention, and soon the promise of the information age was overshadowed by the realities of the disinformation age. Furthermore, it wasn't just the dictators and corporate overlords who were doing this. Good faith actors often ignored inconvenient data and clung to political talking points that flew in the face of the facts.
Now the media, our Constitution, our way of life is all broken or in great danger. It is time for something else, a revolution in thinking, a reinvention of methods.
Reluctantly, I am now forced to take what I have learned covering pro-democracy movements in the Middle East and eastern Europe and apply it to my own country. I have begun to organize, in my community and online, a diverse and nationwide coalition of patriots who are working toward a free, peaceful, most prosperous society, with equity under the law and justice for all, where our unalienable rights -- life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness among them, shall not be infringed.
That is why this blog will no longer simply document the collapse of democracy—it will be a guide to rebuilding it. I’ll expose the mechanisms of Trump’s coup, dissect the rise of American fascism, and map out strategies for resistance. This is about more than defeating Trump; it’s about uniting the majority of Americans behind a new, just, and democratic future. It is time to weaponize empathy and truth the way our enemies have weaponized disinformation and apathy, not with violence or deceit, but with relentless organizing, storytelling, and refusal to cede reality to the liars and tyrants.
Some may say this is not the goal of journalism. Journalism is not my goal. My goal has always been to achieve a more perfect union, through the understanding of the truth.
Now my goal is survival.
The survival of truth. The survival of democracy. The survival of a nation that values freedom over fear, justice over power, and people over profit. The survival of the free peoples of the world over the united and global efforts of dictators, fascists, and kleptocrats.
If you are with me, you are not alone, but you are in danger. Authoritarians thrive on fear. But fear can only paralyze us if we let it, and courage is contagious. In the words of Benjamin Franklin, "we must, indeed, all hang together or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately." History is full of the stories of those who capitulate to overwhelming power, or cower while evil is on the march. But the America I know was built on a different principle: that together, we can create a freer, fairer, more just world -- and a better future for our children.
We will not stand by as fascism takes hold. We will resist. We will fight. We will build something better. And we'll do it together.
