Do not give them the satisfaction of legitimacy
Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
Many of us might feel helpless in the face of change we see no way of influencing or stopping. Remember that one of the best ways to affect change is to speak up when you see injustice or corruption! Join the many voices condemning current abuses of power.
Democracies die and authoritarian regimes thrive when the desecration of thought-to-be inalienable rights is normalized.
The country first saw the detainment of student activists in the spring of 2025, with several of said arrests deemed illegal by the courts. In March 2025, a 29-year-old father from El Salvador, Kilmar Ábrego García, was wrongfully deported to the Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo (CECOT) prison, based on false claims that he was a gang member. With a rare unanimous ruling by the Supreme Court, he was ordered to be returned to the United States. After months of delay from the Trump administration, he was returned to the United States only to be brought up on human smuggling charges. In August, he was threatened with deportation to Eswatini, a country he had neither visited nor lived in.
In June 2025, the world witnessed Angelenos in Los Angeles, California, erupt in protest over sweeping Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids. In response, the president federalized the California National Guard and sent the Marines to the city despite opposition from California Governor Gavin Newsom. The measures and scale taken by this presidential administration have been nothing short of extreme, violent, anti-democratic, and anti-American. At any given time, the president and his cabinet often display a distinct and blatant disregard for the country, its laws, and the Constitution; “Can he even do that?” is discussed almost daily around my dinner table.
With a rubber stamp from Congress until at least the end of 2026, the courts are the last check against outright tyranny. It’s sad to see that a conservative Supreme Court is the last chance for American democracy to survive against a spineless conservative Congress and a reckless conservative felon-in-chief. Yet, with Democrats supposedly being the opposition, many are choosing to further oppress in the name of bipartisanship, rather than standing in defense of human rights.
The Republican Party continues to shift dangerously further rightward, embracing fascist rhetoric. Progressive factions within the Democratic Party argue that they are maintaining their flawed “we must remain in the center” stance, which arguably contributed to widespread losses in 2016 and 2024. Following this logic, as Republicans shift right and Democrats remain centrist, the center line shifts to the right. Fascism and authoritarianism are everything democracy stands against. We cannot allow such to terrorize us. Our country—“the land of the free”—should mean equal freedom against tyrannical actions, leaders, and governments.
Sending the military to quell protests is not a standard response by a nation wishing to maintain its status as a democracy. Rounding up international students simply for practicing their constitutional right to free speech is not an action taken by a democratic nation. Furthermore, attempting to control world-renowned cultural institutions is not a typical function of a president who supports a small government. The president sending military forces into several states and cities—even after deemed illegal—to quell near nonexistent threats is not normal nor democratic. Everything that President Trump and his cabinet are doing is not a normal function of a so-called constitutional republic.
Totalitarianism, authoritarianism, fascism, and other extremist ideologies and regimes require the normalization of their abnormal and anti-democratic views and actions. As mentioned in a NYT article, do not normalize these acts or their actions. Extremist ideologies require their illogicalities to be logical, and opinion to be interchangeable with facts, pitting people against each other.
Do not give them the satisfaction of legitimacy. Otherwise, in the words of Bob Woodward, “Democracy dies in the darkness.” As the government relies on working in the shadows, we must remain steadfast and be lanterns of truth and transparency.