March 9, 2026
a reflection on living in the aftermath
Dear friends,
When I spend time with political organizers who are a generation younger, I always learn a lot. It often takes a while to solidify what I’ve learned so that I can hold onto it.
The most profound difference between young organizers and most people of any age is that they recognize that the norms and systems we once knew are not worth restoring because they were detrimental for large swaths of the population. The visionaries see the current situation as a necessary acceleration to get us past the old norms and systems.
Photograph by Nico Oldfield
It’s clear enough that there is an accelerant in the White House, vandalizing just about everything at a dizzying clip.
In an essay published yesterday, Eric Reinhart explains our tendency to deny that the collapse has already happened by citing the psychoanalyst DW Winnicott, who wrote about the “fear of breakdown.” The bold is mine.
Winnicott described patients who become consumed by the dread of an impending disaster, only for analysis to reveal that what they fear lies not in the future at all. It is instead the displaced anxiety of a breakdown already suffered but never experienced – an early failure of the environment to hold the person together in the face of abandonment so overwhelming it was defensively short-circuited, repressed rather than lived. What returns later is the echo of that unlived event in the guise of a future threat.
Reinhart posits that societies can also “generate defenses against reality” which permit us to deny our circumstances and idealize the past in order to collectively forget enduring inequalities that are the legacy of
settler colonialism, slavery, and the genocidal dispossession of Indigenous nations that continued – as explicit policy — well into the 20th century.
Further evidence of the extent to which our systems have already failed can be found in the ongoing repression of trans people and the hollowing out of rights gained by Black, Brown, and Indigenous people, women, and workers.
The mechanisms for repression and reversals of hard-won gains include systemic assaults on human rights by
mass incarceration, voter suppression, racialized wealth extraction, and – enabled by the supreme court – corporate capture of public institutions and elections.
None of this makes Trump’s vandalism less upsetting to live through. Reinhart urges us to extricate ourselves from the pattern of shoring up a failed system. Furthermore, we have to confront our own complicity. This is not an easy road for most of us.
Read Eric Reinhart’s “Americans aren’t facing a democratic collapse. We’re living in its aftermath.”
Lena, pictured above on the far left, is fond of saying that two (or more) things can be true at once. We can work to reduce harm by the vandals AND we can get to work building better systems.
A lot of the action I implore you to take is in the category of harm reduction. We try to stop new and dangerous policies and legislation and to block the appointment of incompetent and/or nefarious actors to positions of power.
Electoral politics are not going to be enough to save us, but preventing violence and intimidation at polling places is a worthy cause.
Secretaries of state are the chief election officials in their states. They have the authority and the responsibility to ensure polling locations are safe, neutral, and free from intimidation. They must make it clear now that ICE has no role at the polls and that any attempt to interfere with voters will be met with firm opposition.
Tell your Secretary of State: No ICE at polling places.
Our work is a little like sweeping back the ocean with a broom. The hope is that in the process, we are finding our people, forging meaningful connections with neighbors, and laying the foundation of a better world.
Among the many challenges we face is the lawlessness of the current administration. They routinely disregard court orders and violate laws without compunction.
Of course, the purpose of these plans to undermine due process is to clear the way for more deportations. The ruling requires that the government comply with a legal mandate to give the public an opportunity to comment before making major changes to federal rules.
We will be making public comments when the opportunity arises.
I’ve been thinking about how else we can use our power to get Congress to demand at least a modicum of accountability.
The grilling that Kristi Noem got in the Senate last week was a rare instance when Congress forced Trump’s hand by exposing the extremes of someone’s corruption and incompetence.
Some Democrats, however, are already indicating that they will support Markwayne Mullin, Trump’s choice to replace Noem. This is yet another reminder that Democrats won’t save us.
Trump is nominating Markwayne Mullin to replace Kristi Noem as head of DHS. When he appears before the Senate for a confirmation hearing, he must be questioned about the administration’s pattern of ignoring federal court rulings.
Drop Site News reported a few days ago that
Leqaa Kordia, a 33-year-old Palestinian woman from Paterson, New Jersey, has spent nearly a year in ICE detention in Texas after speaking out against Israel’s war in Gaza, despite an immigration judge twice ruling that she is eligible for release.
Personalize this quick action from IMEU Policy Project, Jewish Voice for Peace, and other organizations to let your senators know that Mullin should be pressed about the failure to release Kordia and others in compliance with immigration court rulings.
Tell members of Congress to call for the release of Leqaa Kordia.
Ten days into the war, the US has spent about a billion dollars a day and 1500 people have lost their lives. If you’re still not sure why we’re at war, Popular Information has compiled at least 17 different responses from Trump and his officials about why we started a war.
Tell Congress not to provide the Pentagon with additional funding for the war on Iran. This quick action is from Public Citizen.
Airstrikes on Tehran’s oil depots are blackening the skies and toxic acid rain is falling. Not only is the air dangerous, the contaminants will jeopardize drinking water.
War is a climate disaster, even as it pushes climate events out of the news.
Wars unleash gargantuan amounts of planet-warming emissions: Russia’s war in Ukraine, for example, has generated emissions equal to the annual emissions of France. Those extra emissions drive deadlier heat, drought, storms, and other impacts that wreck livelihoods, destabilize economies, and spur migration, making armed conflict more likely.
Action at the state and local level is critically important for addressing problems that the federal government will not take up.
Call on NYS legislators and Governor Hochul to commit to the state’s climate law.
There is always more to say, but I have to go outside. So should you!
Don’t forget to make your plans for No Kings on March 28.
with love,
L