Everywhere I turn, I’m urged to “resist.” Social media, candidate forums, pundit pronouncements. Resist Donald Trump. Resist MAGA. Resist the war. Resist daily threats to civil liberties, a free press, social safety nets, human and planetary health. The list goes on.
And I do. Along with tens of millions of Americans, I’ve resisted for more than a decade, and will continue to do so until my last breath, if necessary. But I want to make one thing clear: I am not the resistance.
President Donald Trump is.
He and the sycophantic zealots he surrounds himself with are the true resistance, the ones who are desperate to preserve the uneven playing field and the unbalanced scales of justice that helped them achieve their power, wealth and privilege. Only by loudly claiming that minorities have been given unfair advantages, that LGBTQ+ lifestyles threaten their own, that non-Christians are subhuman, can they justify their efforts to block the advance of genuine American values.
Unable to get sufficient traction with these claims, they’re now trotting out tired and incoherent accusations of “communist!” in an effort to scare the electorate. Lenin and Mao must be chortling in their crystal coffins.
This administration’s efforts to undermine free elections, subvert the Constitution and rewrite history are pathetic attempts to cling to positions that were doomed the moment the Founding Fathers signed the Declaration of Independence. Granted, our Founders’ vision — limited by experience and the times they were living in — didn’t make realization of equality and justice for all quick or easy, but they aroused in America and Americans the aspiration of a country where those values would — will — eventually prevail.
Major achievements of the last 250 years have rarely been the result of resistance. They came about through activism, action, advocacy. Women and minorities won the right to vote by pushing forward, not pushing back, by overcoming the resistance of people who counted as worthy only those who checked off the acceptable boxes: white, male, Christian. Now, those hard-won voting rights face far-right resistance.
Similarly, the rights of the LGBTQ+ community were not won through resistance, but through education, agitation, social and political action, and by surmounting the resistance of small, frightened minds. These, too, are now targeted by right-wing extremists. The list goes on.
Our acquiescence to the label and role of “the resistance” gives them power and assumes a position of weakness, as if we’re countering something bigger and tougher, when, in truth, we are not. We put ourselves at a disadvantage, when, in truth, we hold the stronger hand. Each time Trump and his collaborators claim to speak for America, we must unmask their lies and corruption and point out that they are resisting the true and intended America. We who believe in the promise of liberty, equality and justice for all must assert our strength, not through mere resistance, but through the forward-facing power of our voices, our votes and our unwavering values.
When Christian Nationalists call for the repeal of women’s suffrage, when Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth removes qualified women and minority military officers from positions they have rightfully earned, when Trump calls for the elimination of birthright citizenship, we are seeing resistance fueled by obstructionist fear and bigotry. We must call it what it is and refuse to give their resistance purchase.
This administration is weak and afraid. It believes it can prevail by convincing us we are weak and afraid. It won’t. Failing that, they will resort to strong-arm tactics and cheating — whatever it takes to impede the march of history toward a broader, more inclusive view of America. We push forward, prepared and proactive in the face of their resistance. Their puny view of America is doomed to ultimate failure.
Unless we abdicate our power. Unless we look away. Unless we do nothing.
Onward.
