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As the story goes, a wealthy Philadelphia matron approached Benjamin Franklin as he emerged from the Pennsylvania State House after signing the Declaration of Independence.
She asked, "And what kind of government will we have, Mr. Franklin?"
"A republic...if you can keep it" was his reply.
Two hundred fifty years later, we are on the verge of losing the Republic. Sorry, Ben, we hung on for 250 years but here we are.
From attacking First Amendment Rights to rigging elections, an out-of-control president has put the nation on notice that Democracy as we have known it may soon be a thing of the past. He's had a lot of help - aided and abetted by his morally bankrupt political party, a docile opposition, and perhaps most of all, a democracy-challenged Supreme Court,
We had a forewarning of Trump's authoritarian, racist, and nativist leanings during his run for the presidency in 2016. We saw these tendencies play out in those four years, witnessed a violent assault on a fair election by his followers in 2020, and still re-elected him in 2024. That's right. The citizens of the USA re-elected the undisputedly worst president this country has ever seen.
Reflections on Kamala Harris's Defeat (WITW)
Now, as we approach the end of the first year of Trump's second term, thanks to the John Roberts Supreme Court, he now has two more weapons to use in his march towards destroying our democracy in his second term.
In Rucho v Common Cause (2019), the Supreme Court held that partisan-gerrymandering claims present political questions beyond the jurisdiction of the federal courts. In effect, it gave the green light to partisan gerrymandering no matter how egregious. If there was any doubt how the right-wing Supreme Court justices would interpret this in the future, they recently rejected a lower court decision written by a Trump-appointed justice that had found “substantial evidence...that Texas racially gerrymandered the 2025 Map.” Which until the next SCOTUS voting rights ruling is still illegal.
The Supreme Court decision Trump v. United States (2024) granted the President broad leeway for "official acts" by establishing significant criminal immunity and holding that presidents are immune from criminal prosecution for actions taken within their exclusive constitutional duties.
It will be a difficult battle but one we must face in 2026. Gaining control of at least one of the houses of Congress is a must if we are to put a stop to the injustices and cruelties of this Administration and, just as importantly, take some steps to "keep the Republic." There are things we can do on the political side and things we can do on the personal side.
The number one political priority is to win the House in the midterms. Majority control of the Senate seems unlikely* at this time.
The recent Supreme Court decision allowing the Texas gerrymander to stand was massive win for Trump. In spite of Trump's unpopularity, the Republicans' narrow majority in the House, and the normal mid-term vote against the sitting President's political party, Republicans now stand an excellent chance of holding on to all three branches of the government. Other Republican-held states are engaged in the same partisan gerrymandering, and by one recent count, a projected 19 seats will switch from Democratic control to Republican control after the November elections. The only possible way for Democrats to take the House will be for Blue States to do likewise. California's Proposition 50 was a step in the right direction and may gain Democrats back 5 of those 19 seats. Other Blue States will need to turn up the heat on redistricting IMMEDIATELY if they are to avoid a Supreme Court ruling that the changes were made too late to be allowed in the 2026 elections.
On the personal side, the number one priority to save our democracy is not to be intimidated by Trump's assault against the First Amendment. In particular, write Congress at every opportunity to demand a halt to the implementation of NPSM-7, which makes the Patriot Act look fairly benign. Trump and his Administration are using this dangerous national security memo to attack people who speak out against the White House. Masked government agents are already arresting people at anti-ICE protests and for social media posts about “Antifa.” It directs the full powers of the Trump administration to investigate people who hold so-called “extreme” beliefs on gender, race, or immigration, or have political views that the White House labels as "anti-capitalism," "anti-Christianity," or "anti-Americanism." For more on NPSM-7, see the articles linked below from journalist Ken Klippenstein (left) and the ACLU (right).
*In the Senate mid-terms, 33 regular seats are up for election plus 2 special elections. Of these 35 races, just seven are deemed competitive or toss-up. (https://factually.co/fact-checks/politics/2026-senate-races-toss-ups-competitive-seats-23d75b) Of those seven competitive seats, five are currently held by Democrats and just two by Republicans. With the current 53-47 Republican majority in the Senate, the best the Democrats can do is flip two seats, which is not enough to change control of the Senate. Democrats must run the table on the seats that they now have. Particularly vulnerable are Jon Ossoff in Georgia and the open seat in Michigan.
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