A Line in the Sand (June 8, 2025)

Like many Angelinos watching events downtown June 8th, I feel helpless and dismayed. As a progressive liberal I have a sense of fear and nausea, the same sickening panic when I’m watching my football team being manhandled by a superior opponent, just before the final hammer comes down. As Chick Hearn profoundly and famously understood, at some point a game goes into the fridge.

Are we in the fridge? Do the forces that have tired of democracy have us in a headlock? Is our collective liberal defeat unavoidable? The momentum that started to swing against us in November has picked up considerable speed.

For better or worse, we can’t see the future. We can speculate based on evidence in front of our eyes and maybe see a portion of what’s ahead, but only in the most general sense do we ever know where we’re going. Ask someone when they’re twenty where they’ll be when they’re fifty and 85% of what they imagine will be wrong. We are all, in a very real way, blind. And when change comes, when the future is altered in a completely unexpected direction, we also become lost.

What do you do when you’re lost? You stop. You look around, get your bearings. You eventually start moving. But what if where you were going is no longer there? Or a nightmare you’d rather avoid? Time does not afford us the luxury of moving backwards or staying put.

This is where I think we may be. A day late, a dollar short, miles behind a juggernaut revolution. Standing in front of Donald Trump is a vast army, tens of millions of citizens who agree with nearly everything he’s doing, and when he dies the battle hymns of that republic will not die with him. It’s almost as if we’re in a world where Americans wish Jefferson Davis had run against Lincoln in 1860 and won, avoiding the Civil War. Countless Americans would love to see confederate flags flying in Beverly Hills. They’d be glad if we had an endless free labor pool so tariff negotiations with the Chinese would be unnecessary. They’d like it if Woke had never awakened. Whether the tragedy of tens of millions of black people still enslaved would sit uneasily in the stomach of most Maga’s is, and almost unbelievably, a question; but there is little doubt we are under another foul fog of McCarthy-style paranoia. This time, the fear and loathing is directed at immigrants, although it’s also become crystal clear we liberals are the new communists. What we’re now witnessing in the streets and press briefing rooms resembles a police state. Masked ICE agents raiding churches and schools, abducting ordinary people makes for shock and awe, but come on, even the Nazi brown shirts had the cajónes to show their faces. All it takes is a little cruelty or indifference to your fellow man to clean house, I suppose.

For me, the idea that Jefferson Davis might have made America great back then is just as absurd as Trump making it great now. By the way, when did we stop being great? Trump’s mannerisms, especially the raised chin with the stern look and slow nod, remind me of Mussolini, but Mussolini was not a felon twice impeached, or a man held liable for sexual assault in a civil case. And while I’m at it, Hitler was at least a decorated war hero, not a draft dodger.

Eerily, a radical purge of liberals and destruction of the intelligentsia may not be as incongruous to the new right’s vision of America as we might imagine. Antebellum may not be where the Republican army is taking us, but I think it’s time we ask these people what they want. What does this Shangri-La they seem hell bent on taking us to look like? Are they inviting us to come or daring us to refuse?

Maybe some of you are glass-half full kind of people and so I’ll try to be optimistic in describing where I believe they’re taking us. Imagine for a moment the axis of your world has shifted to a pro-Trump universe:

In 2030 Trump is still President.

The Supreme Court has been expanded to 12 with a 10 to 2 conservative majority.

Congress has not been dissolved (yet) but is locked up like a frozen outboard diesel engine (well, at least some things won’t change).

The Federal Courts are filled with loyalists and cronies sworn by oath to protect Trump, and they have successfully fought back all Liberal/Progressive legal actions.

Most Democratic leaders (folks like the Clintons) are in prison.

When we refer to the free press, we mean Fox (the only surviving media outlet).

The federal government has shrunk to a tenth of its current size. Entitlements are few and far between.

States no longer have autonomy. California’s clean air mandate which sought to phase out ICE vehicles by 2035 was rescinded through reconciliation, in a federal budget act passed in the summer of 2025. This legislation set the stage for the federal government to outlaw abortion, contraceptives, state aid to the poor and all state-run health care programs.

Immigration is confined to intelligent Caucasians from northern Europe and attractive women.

Canada, now annexed by the U.S. through force, gave us the opportunity to scoop up Greenland and Iceland for a song.

A big, beautiful wall at the Mexican border, guarded by armed forces, oversees dozens of mass deportation camps where incarcerated families seeking political asylum are expelled back to their home countries or flown to various prisons around the world in other autocratic states who do business with us.

Like bell bottoms or parachute pants, Habeas Corpus is a trendy fling of our past.

And life goes on. Hollywood continues to flourish. Those Angelinos who were well off in 2025 are almost certainly better off. The stock market continues to ebb and flow, making billions for those who know how to navigate its stormy waters, especially members of Congress and the Cabinet. Those fortunate enough to have a 401K are set. Those without—well, the end of social security was a bit of a downer, but the homeless are now organized into military style facilities reminiscent of the CCC where they dig trails in the national parks, and receive food and medical donations from large corporations that need a tax write-off. Euthanasia kits are available 24/7. No doubt some enterprising young buck or doe will create “final goodbye vacation packages” where friends and family can reconnoiter in some happy place and see their parents off in style. Or get rid of their deadbeat kids. So, it’s not all sadness and pitiful.

As I said, we are blind to the future and these speculations are probably 85% wrong, but I’ll bet some of these projections have crossed your mind.

Whatever future is being created, we are headed in a direction none of us have encountered or imagined. This is not your father’s America. There is little chance we will ever return to who we were, pre-Obama.

And so, it’s time to ask yourself: What am I willing to do to avoid this future? How can I stop the momentum? I think the answer starts with our beliefs and our destination as a country should be faithful to those beliefs. I believe tyrants always act in the best interest of tyrants and will violate at every turn our rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. I believe the constitution protects us from tyranny. I believe science is a positive thing. I believe human beings are a wide, diverse collection of different colors, shapes, sizes, languages and ways of thinking, and that our diversity is useful to our survival and prosperity. I believe politics matter and I can’t bury my head in the sand because the news depresses me. The future is always shaped by the “better mousetrap.” I believe the future will be determined by our inventions and discoveries, and that holding on to what’s obsolete is counterproductive to our collective need to adapt. The future is hard and confusing, difficult to understand and sometimes drifts off course. The unknown can be frustrating and frightening, but if it champions humanity above all else, I believe we’re on the right course. I believe that without rule of law we are vulnerable to chaos and theft. I believe the recovering alcoholics may have figured it out; rotating leadership is best.

To those of us standing outside the crosshairs, not knowing what to do, I offer this: Doing nothing is not an option. We each, in our own way, according to our talents and gifts, need to take action. If you’re a lawyer, litigate. A singer?  Sing. A writer? Write. If you’re a cop, reach out to your community organizers and help them safely march. And if you are on social media, communicate and agitate. Now’s not the time to end relationships with loved ones who are Trumpers. Challenge them. Ask them to explain why sending in the Marines and throwing elected senators to the ground and handcuffing them is not a prelude to autocracy. And if that’s where they want to go, why?

Most of all, we need charismatic leadership, strategy and direction. We need to connect to one another, set aside (for now) our differences. We need to bring influencers into the fold and organize cells of supporters willing and ready to take single actions on a moment’s notice. We need to stop the asinine blitzkrieg of alarmist, useless texts and emails from corpses at the helm of the DNC, claiming to be from famous politicians. And if you think unorganized groups of people showing up at federal buildings with no specific purpose or plan will change things, you have an odd sense of clairvoyance.

If, for example, everyone were to take a lunch break some Tuesday, at the same hour of the day, in every city in the country, with signs that demand the National Guard and Marines leave the state of California, or that call for the removal of Trump for betraying his oath of office, we might have a chance against the 38% of Americans who have set us on this course to end our democracy. Of course, we need to vote. The numbers are simple. If 30% of us in our 62% majority ignore what’s happening, they win.

Without organized resistance, what happened on June 8^th will likely repeat. Because well meaning, peaceful people eventually disperse, leaving in their wake in the twilight drunks and vandals and saboteurs who know that nothing grabs your attention more than setting a couple cars on fire. The point last weekend was not only lost but the aftermath also put out the welcome mat to send in the troops.

Trump has chosen California for the front line. And we must answer. We must be intelligent in our resistance, nonviolent, and change hearts and minds through a clear message and, if necessary, strikes and boycotts. We may not be able to see exactly where we’re headed, but it damn well can’t be where the radical right is trying to push us.