You Either Stand With Trump or America

I’ve started writing this post more times than I can count. I’ve drafted thoughts about a dozen different things today. But as I sifted through them, trying to decide what mattered most, one thing kept rising to the top. And I can’t let it go.

We are standing on the edge of a cliff.

In just days, maybe a couple of weeks, millions of Americans will lose their health insurance subsidies. If no agreement is reached, the fallout will be immediate and devastating.

These subsidies don’t just make healthcare affordable. They make healthcare possible. Without them, families will be forced to make impossible decisions. Higher premiums mean cutting costs elsewhere. That could mean losing a home. Skipping meals. Going without basic necessities. And it will ripple across the economy, fast. People won’t be spending. They won’t be able to, even if they’re the “lucky” ones who can keep their insurance by swallowing the massive spike in premiums. This could be the start of another Great Recession.

I remember those days like they were yesterday. 2008 wasn’t just hard. It was brutal for my family, for my community, and for nearly everyone I knew. I don’t want to watch that pain unfold again.

And beyond the financial strain is the human cost. When people can’t afford to see a regular doctor, they delay care. They skip urgent care because it’s out of pocket. They wait until their condition becomes critical and then head to the ER.

But emergency rooms are already strained. And when that’s the only option left, people suffer.

I know. I’ve lived it. Like many of us, I’ve sat in an ER waiting until it became life-threatening.

This isn’t theoretical. It’s personal. For all of us.

Even if you think this won’t touch your life, it will. Whether through overcrowded ERs, delayed care, or a collapsing system that leaves everyone waiting just a little longer than they can afford to.

And now they want to cut food assistance too. Strip people of the ability to feed themselves. I can’t believe I have to write that. I’m exhausted just putting these words down.

Honestly? I’m tired tonight. Really tired.

I’ve been writing these posts every night for months. I do it because I have to get it out of my head. This isn’t just a passing worry. It lives with me all day. Every article I read, every headline that flashes across my screen, I see where it’s going. I see the connections. I can’t look away. Behind the words I read and write, I see real people. I see my fellow humans suffering.

I also write because I still believe truth can break through the noise. I know that many people on this platform have fallen for Trump’s lies and false promises. That’s why I won’t stop. No matter how tired I am. No matter how hard this gets.

Maybe it’s the exhaustion talking. Or maybe it’s the part of me that refuses to give up. Because I still believe America is worth fighting for.

Yes, our history is complicated. The more we learn about it, the more we see how far we’ve fallen short. But that doesn’t mean we can’t become what we were always meant to be. It just means we have to try harder.

And right now, that’s going to take more than outrage. More than good intentions. It’s going to take stubborn, steady work. It’s going to take us showing up in the small, boring, unglamorous ways that actually move power. That means building local coalitions that meet every week. Agreeing on shared messages. Calling our representatives until our fingers ache. Staffing phone banks. Knocking on doors. Organizing peaceful demonstrations outside local offices so our officials never get too comfortable.

It’s going to take humility, laying down purity tests and personal grudges so we can form a united front. It’s going to take courage, because demanding accountability won’t be popular in every room. And it’s going to take patience, because this won’t be solved in a single protest or post. This is long work. Slow work. The work of rebuilding a civic muscle we let atrophy while someone else rewrote the rules.

Most of all, it’s going to take solidarity. Not performative solidarity, but real solidarity. Neighbors checking on neighbors. Unions coordinating with faith communities. Youth groups meeting with elders. Small organizations pooling resources so one big lie cannot drown out a thousand small truths.

We must make the default assumption that our fellow citizens are worth saving, even when it’s inconvenient.

If you’re tired tonight, I understand. I’m tired too. But tired is not the same as done. So take a breath. Rest if you need to. And then come back and bring someone with you. The cliff we face isn’t a place for lone heroes. It’s a place that demands we hold the line together, until the day when no one has to choose between paying rent and going to the doctor.

And if we do this, if we steady ourselves and organize the way I know we can, we’ll not only survive the next few weeks and months, we’ll have a chance to rebuild something better than what is trying to replace us.

And that brings me back to this.

The truth is what lights the path forward. But Trump has hijacked the truth and replaced it with propaganda. He’s vilifying facts, glorifying power, and turning cruelty into patriotism. Every day, his party follows him further into darkness. And every day, fewer of them come back.

He and his enablers keep talking about a third term. “Trump 2028.” But he can’t. The Constitution is clear: two terms. That’s the limit.

Even Speaker Mike Johnson, when asked directly, said he “doesn’t see a path” for a third term. But notice, he didn’t say no. And that’s the game. They float the idea until it stops shocking us.

Steve Bannon is already saying there’s a plan. That Trump will have a third term. But he won’t. And there isn’t. They can play in Trump’s fantasy world all they want, but the rest of us need to call it exactly what it is: propaganda.

It’s not about legality anymore. It’s about desensitization. It’s about enablers bowing to a felon and rewriting reality in real time.

And that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t worry. Trump has broken every rule meant to restrain him. He’s crossed every line and paid no price. So what makes anyone think the 22nd Amendment will stop him?

He doesn’t follow the law now. Why would he later?

We are what stops him. We are the ones who have to shatter the illusion that there’s still a path for him. If we don’t, his followers will believe there is.

And while he plays the long game, he’s already laying the groundwork. He’s sending federal “election monitors” into blue states like California. Flooding MAGA money into vulnerable regions. Building a machine that can bend just enough laws to break democracy entirely.

If I had to take an unfiltered guess at how he might try to hold power, I’d say this. He’ll push his base to write him in. A nationwide write-in campaign. In normal times, this wouldn’t fly. But these are not normal times. And if he claims he got the most votes, who’s going to stop him? Will Republican-controlled states leave him off the ballot? Will they certify the true results? Will the courts step in?

We’ve seen this Supreme Court already tilt in his favor. Hope isn’t the same as trust. Not anymore.

And while all of this unfolds, his health is clearly in decline. He stumbles. He slurs. He repeats conspiracy theories and boasts about perfect MRIs that no doctor believes. And behind him are loyalists already rehearsing their takeover. Johnson. Vance. Don Jr. They may not have his charisma, but they’ve absorbed his cruelty. That’s enough for a base that no longer cares about truth.

This isn’t politics anymore. This is a cult built on denial. And denial doesn’t die when its leader does. It morphs. It multiplies. It metastasizes.

But we can still outnumber it. We can out-organize it. We can outlast it. We can out-truth it.

Because the truth still matters. And you either stand with Trump. Or you stand with America. I know where I’m standing. And for tonight, that’s enough.

I’ll see you tomorrow,
Heather