Tonight, I want to speak directly to every American who still believes in the promise of what this country can be. To everyone who loves this country and is scared of what we are watching happen to it, and to those watching from all corners of the world, seeing what is happening, bearing witness to the darkness unfolding, and still holding on to hope for better days. 28 days from now, we will be fighting to preserve the America generations before us fought to build, and to ensure there is still an America worth leaving to the generations who come after us.
250 years ago, a small group of imperfect men came together over the shared belief that people should have a say in how they were governed and tried to do something that had never been done before. With wisdom beyond their years and a vision that stretched far beyond their own lifetimes, they took their courage and determination and set off to build a government that answered to its people, not a king.
They did not agree on everything. There were arguments and compromises. Some things they got exactly right, and other things they got profoundly wrong. But they kept the promise of the country they were trying to build at the center of it all, and never stopped working toward something better for themselves and for everyone who would come after them. They entrusted it to every generation that would inherit what they built and, in turn, be asked to protect it.
“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”
And for 250 years, it has endured. What they built faced trials and failures. There were dark days and extraordinary highs for the United States of America. There were moments that almost broke us and times when the very heart of who we were was challenged. We were built on the backs of kidnapped and enslaved people, on land we conquered and colonized from those who were already here. We lived through internment camps and world wars. We have never been a perfect country, and we never will be one. But the promise was in the striving, in always trying to be better than we were the day before. In the words our forefathers wrote, they aspired to a “more perfect Union.” Because even all of those years ago, they knew that what they had started was not finished and never would be, and that each generation would be tasked with the responsibility of carrying that work forward.
Tonight, our republic is under attack, our Constitution is being tested, and the promises written into its preamble are under threat. In 28 days, Americans will decide what comes next. Do we rise to meet this moment, or is this the end?
After what Donald Trump said yesterday, practically inviting the adversary we are in an active war with to “take out” American cities while saying their loss would be a “small price to pay,” everything has changed.
I live in San Diego and it was another beautiful day here. The sun was out, and people were walking their dogs, trying to stay cool during yet another heatwave. Kids were at school and afternoon sporting events. From the outside, everything looked like a normal day in Southern California. But that couldn’t have been farther from the truth.
Because underneath the normalcy we felt was a nagging anxiety. It was a strange and nervous tension that seemed to follow us as we went about our day. There were parents hugging their kids a little tighter and some even questioning whether it was safe to be apart from them. Conversations that would have sounded unthinkable not long ago were now happening between friends, families, and neighbors. People also tried to find humor in the moment while quietly questioning whether any of us were actually safe. It wasn’t lost on any of us that we were being forced to have these thoughts. That somehow, in just 21 months, we had gone from living our ordinary lives to standing in one of America’s largest cities wondering whether an attack on U.S. soil was actually possible, after our own president publicly suggested that an adversary could “take out” our city.
I remember back in his first presidency, when he would say deplorable and dangerous things, many of us would find comfort knowing that there were, or at least we thought there were, adults still in the room. That somewhere inside the Pentagon and throughout the chain of command, there were men and women with decades of experience and an unshakable commitment to the Constitution who would stop the worst impulses from becoming the worst outcomes. That no matter how reckless the rhetoric became, someone would redirect him or distract him. Someone would tell him no. Someone would do whatever it took to stop him from getting us into dangerous positions.
We no longer have that. We no longer have anyone we can count on to tell him when to stop. There is no longer that same reassurance that someone is willing or able to make sure he doesn’t create a situation where the West Coast, or any coast, is attacked. And now we are left having to wonder whether even the possibility of an attack on American soil would be enough to make him stop, or whether he could see a widening war as something that makes him a real wartime president and helps him and his party hold onto power ahead of the midterms.
What we are living through is exhausting. We are waking up every day and not knowing what will happen next. Our streets have often been taken over by his army of unidentified masked men, ripping our community members away to unknown destinations. Near-constant “military actions.” An affordability crisis that will only get worse. That is what we have been living through, but this time, right now, is even more frightening. In its own way, it bears an eerie resemblance to November 2020 to January 2021, when there was this same gnawing uncertainty. Would Donald Trump do something catastrophic before leaving office? Would he even leave? Every morning started with the same feelings of dread, and then we all watched what he did on Jan. 6th.
But back then, there was a finish line in sight if we could get through all of his election lies and denialism. Back then, we still had a semblance of true patriots in Congress who did the right thing, the constitutionally lawful thing. They certified the votes. Eventually, Biden was sworn in, and the transfer of power happened. We told ourselves that Trump had been temporary, a dark chapter in American history, but that he would be held accountable and that this would never happen again.
We were wrong, and now we are here again. Except this time, the finish line is still years away. There is no new president waiting for us on the other side of the next 28 days. There is only us. The race starts now, and what we do over the next 28 days will determine what kind of country we still have when we finally reach that finish line.
This has been one of the most disturbing and shameful weeks for our country, as we are being forced to watch our country turn into something we do not recognize, day after day, and being constantly lied to that this is what greatness looks like.
This is not who we are, and it is not what we want this country to represent. We do not want Donald Trump, the people who enable him, or the cruelty he celebrates to be seen as what America is. We are not a country whose president calls a female reporter “Piggy” because she asked a question he did not want to answer. We are not a country that bans journalists from the White House for doing their jobs. We are not a country whose president stands at a podium, like he did once again today, and after invading a sovereign nation, and taking its oil, tells the world, “To the victor belong the spoils. An old-fashioned expression that we’ve brought back.”
We are not a country that starts a war without asking Congress and then claims it is not actually a war, that it has ended, and that it will end at any moment for no reason at all. We are not a country that casually kills civilians. We are not a country that bombs and sinks boats at sea and calls it drug policy enforcement. We are not a country that rounds up members of our own communities, our neighbors, and holds them in conditions unfit for any living thing. We are not a country that separates families and calls it border security.
We should not be a country where the cost of living is higher than it was two years ago while the president tells us we have never been richer. Where families are choosing between groceries and gas.
These are the things we are being asked to accept as true and as normal. And accepting them means choosing the wrong version of this country. It means deciding that “a more perfect Union” was never real.
I think about what this country used to mean to the rest of the world. Not what we told ourselves it meant. What it actually meant to someone in another country who looked at America and saw something worth believing in.
We were supposed to be the country that stabilized, not destabilized the world. We were the country that showed up after earthquakes and hurricanes with planes full of supplies and rescue personnel. We were never supposed to be the country that invaded other countries and extracted their resources and then bragged about our conquest and stealing fuel to sell and line our own pockets. We were supposed to be the ones who respected our alliances. We were never supposed to be the country that threatened our closest friends with imperial ambitions and tariffs until they completely stopped trusting us. We were supposed to respect other nations’ sovereignty, not watch a madman president rename our shared geography on impulse. We were the country people came to. Not because we were perfect, but because the idea of America, the promise of it, meant something real.
We were supposed to be the good guys even when we fell short. That is the America we grew up believing in. The one we want our children to inherit. One that future generations are proud to call their own and continue working to make better. That is the America the rest of the world is waiting to see again, and the one we are fighting so hard to save.
We are facing an emergency. This is not a political disagreement or a difference in philosophy. We have not hit a little rough patch that will smooth itself out after the next election. This is a crisis coming from inside the White House, and we can’t stay silent. We need the voices of every single person in this country speaking out against it.
In 28 days, Americans will vote in the midterm elections. Right now, Republicans control both chambers of Congress. That means there is no one in Washington with the power or the willingness to say no. That is why we have had no meaningful oversight, subpoenas, investigations, or accountability for the corruption Donald Trump has unleashed on our country. That all changes if enough of us vote. Every guardrail that the founders built into the system to prevent exactly what is happening right now has been trampled on by the Trump administration because the people who are supposed to operate those guardrails are the same people who are enabling and benefiting from Donald Trump. That all changes if enough of us vote.
If Democrats win the House and even the Senate, it won’t fix everything. It won’t make Donald Trump magically disappear or somehow start following the law or court orders. But what it does do is change the balance of power. It enables us to start compelling testimony, issue subpoenas, and launch investigations. It brings back consequences and checks and balances.
We do not have to keep living like this. We do not have to accept waking up every morning wondering what one man decided to do while we slept. We do not have to accept a government that rounds up our neighbors and holds them in cages. We do not have to accept a war that was never authorized and a president who lies about ending it to avoid legal consequences. We do not have to live in constant fear, chaos, and uncertainty. We do not have to accept any of this. We never did.
We are on the cusp of the most consequential 28 days of our entire lives. This election may be the most consequential election in modern history for our country. We have 28 days to make sure the people around us know what is at stake. Our children and grandchildren are watching us. The world is watching us. We are never going to back down, and we are going to vote to end this authoritarian takeover. That is why I still have hope for America. And you should, too.
I’ll see you tomorrow,
Heather
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This commentary represents my personal opinions and analysis of matters of public concern, informed by publicly available information. Any references to individuals constitute opinion and commentary protected under the First Amendment.
Picture of the day: Trump did a lot of talking today, and these two were hanging out with me while I was watching his shipyard event and the times he spoke to the White House Press Corps. He said just about the same things he has been saying for days, so I decided to write a post about our country instead of just about him. Unfortunately, the pups could only take so much of his voice, and I found them on an entirely different floor of the house, securely asleep in their beds. Some days I wish I was a dog!
Links to sources used in writing this article:
https://theweek.com/world-news/to-the-victor-the-spoils-trumps-venezuelan-oil-grab
I’m a Brit with family in the US. Thank you for your insights into the terrible situation in your country. Please do all you can to stay safe in these perilous times
Thank you Pete and Heather,Australia here. We miss America.