Is this what it feels like right before our country disappears completely?

Are you also feeling this?

The sun felt especially strong as the wind whipped up the dust in the vacant field where the child was playing. As they ran between dried-out corn stalks, their little belly growled like the kitten they had met earlier that week. Their parents watched them zigzag back and forth.

The mother became choked up with uncertainty. The father's eyes welled up with fear. Would they still be able to afford enough food to feed this rambunctious child? The store shelves looked full, but the prices had tripled.

Everywhere this child went, he was followed by instability.
Nothing was the same as it was before “he” took office. His teacher skipped science again. The new curriculum no longer included it. Instead, she handed out pamphlets about loyalty and national pride.

At the dinner table, his older sister whispered that her friend was taken away. No charges. No questions. Just gone. "They all knew they would never see her again," the mother thought to herself. Too ashamed and too sad to say it out loud, she offered instead, "I'm so thankful that we are being protected so well from people like her."

That night, the father turned on his favorite station with shaking fingers. It was gone. In its place was a man shouting about enemies, purity, and strength. The child didn’t understand the fear. The silence. The way people looked over their shoulders before speaking. But he would remember this day forever. Because this was the day his world changed. This was the day the knock came at his own door. This was the day his mother stopped praying out loud. This was the day his life changed forever.

This story is about 1930s Germany. But here’s what’s unsettling: swap out a few details, the technology, the uniforms, the specific targets, and this story could be happening anywhere, anytime. The patterns of authoritarianism don’t change much across decades or borders. They just wear different clothes.

The year is 2026. But it feels familiar.

A 12-year-old girl in America is pulled from class after asking why her history book no longer includes the Holocaust. Her teacher gives her detention for "disruptive behavior." The principal calls her parents to warn them that continued questioning might raise red flags.

In Tennessee, a family drives five hours across state lines for medication that used to be legal where they lived. Their daughter has type 1 diabetes. But RFK Jr. didn’t understand the difference between type 1 and type 2. He banned insulin, insisting diet and exercise alone could cure her. The pharmacy is empty. The clerk quietly says, "Try again next week. If the state troopers haven’t shut us down."

In Florida, a school librarian is escorted out by armed officers. Her crime? Refusing to destroy a collection of books that included To Kill a Mockingbird.

On the new state-run media, a host jokes that America’s great cleanse of liberal moms is almost complete. The crowd cheers.

That same day, a family watches as their energetic little boy bounces from room to room. His stomach aches from hunger. Eggs now cost more than they can afford, two years after they voted for the man who promised cheaper eggs.

At first, they thought his actions would only hurt other people. “Illegal” people. Lazy people. Not people like them. But as 2026 drags on, something shifts. They wake up at night. They whisper. They didn’t vote for this. They just wanted better lives.

These are stories I made up. But they could be real. Things like what I described did happen in the 1930s. And what I described from 2026 could happen here. We already know how the first story ended. The second one, we still have a chance.

Today is July 31, 2025.

We are living in the middle of a controlled burn. The match was lit over 10 years ago. We almost put it out. But last year, we fanned the flames instead.

How did we get here?

The same way it always happens. Slowly.
Then suddenly.
With one man shouting propaganda.
Spreading lies to make us hate each other.
Promising simple solutions to complex problems.
Kidnapping people off the street in unmarked vans.
Replacing resistance with silence.
Ordinary people convincing themselves it can’t be that bad.

But it is.

This is not a pendulum swing. This is not just politics. This is not just another election. This is authoritarianism in plain clothes, wearing a red hat and carrying a Bible it doesn’t read.

The Supreme Court is packed with loyalists.
Trump controls the Senate and House.
The EPA is gutted.
The FDA defanged.
The Department of Labor silenced.
The HHS run by an anti-vax conspiracy theorist.
Big Tech pushing to access your medical records.
Trump has installed over 230 judges.
Regulations now only interpreted by them.

This is step one. Remove accountability. Centralize power.

Project 2025 is not a theory. It is a 900-plus page blueprint, published by The Heritage Foundation. It calls for firing 50,000 civil servants, replacing them with Trump loyalists, using the DOJ to prosecute political enemies, reclassifying employees so they can be purged, and dismantling the FBI, CDC, and Department of Energy. Hitler did the same thing in 1933. Trump denied knowing about it. But on day one of his second term, he began enacting it. Why so fast? Because he knows his time may be limited.

Right now, ICE is conducting raids without warrants. Citizens and legal residents are being taken. Trump promises a new deportation force using the National Guard. Ten thousand new ICE agents are being hired with massive bonuses. No training. No oversight. Just loyalty.

And with Trump v. United States, the Supreme Court gave the president immunity for “official acts.” That means arresting journalists, deporting citizens, and seizing ballots are all now legal, as long as he calls them official. There is no line he will not cross. How far will he go? As far as he wants to.

This isn't the 1930s yet. But the smoke is thick enough to sting your eyes. The question is not "Could it happen here?" The question is "Are we going to let it?" Because it’s already happening.

I used to wonder what I would’ve done in the 1930s. Would I have spoken up? Marched? Hid people? I don’t wonder anymore. None of us have to. Because this is our moment. The names are different. The tools are newer. But the playbook is the same.

They didn’t count on us.

All of us who still teach our kids science. Still read banned books out loud. Still stand up when it’s safer to sit down. Still believe in freedom without a bloodline test.

They're counting on fear. We’re choosing courage. They’re building walls. We’re building bridges. They’re writing blueprints for authoritarian rule. We’re writing the resistance.

We are not waiting for history to absolve us. We’re here to stop it from repeating.

Teachers are refusing to ban books. Journalists are publishing truth under pressure. Judges are upholding law, not loyalty. Parents are showing up to school board meetings. Citizens are talking to neighbors and organizing votes.

Democracy is not abstract. It is daily, difficult, courageous work. It is a choice. And we are the ones who make it.

Because I still believe in what this country can be. Because I believe in you.
I'll see you tomorrow,
Heather

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