Do you get it, yet?
At the end of Trump 1 and at the height of the Covid sheltering in place, I was asked to write an article for a foundation-published collection on democracy. I wrote a piece called Gathering. It's about our need as humans to connect and how the rights of assembly and association provide infrastructure - legally and metaphorically - for the entire nonprofit/foundation apparatus in the USA.
One line in a draft of the article caught the attention of an editor. I wrote, "[Foundation] philanthropy needs democracy. Democracy doesn't need philanthropy." She wrote to me to ask if I didn't have this backwards - doesn't democracy need philanthropy, she asked? No, I answered, it does not. She pushed and pushed. I did not budge.
Today, the relationship between democracy and philanthropy should be painfully clear. As Vu Le has written - endowments will be worthless in a fascist state. Foundations need democratic governance and the rule of law (as do human rights, civil rights and liberties, thriving investment sectors, functioning federations of states, trustworthy international alliances, etc. etc.)
The U.S. is now "partnering" with Russia to colonize Ukraine and give big tech a sovereign nation's rare minerals while Russia does as Putin pleases. The president is flaunting laws in every direction - knowing that SCOTUS will support what they playfully call a "unitary executive" but which we all should know by now means that the Judiciary and Congress are "advisory" bodies. This week he signed an executive order that says:
"The President and the Attorney General, subject to the President’s supervision and control, shall provide authoritative interpretations of law for the executive branch."
The U.S. Constitution names the judiciary as the adjudicators of legality. Not Donald Trump and Pam Bondi. The claim above violates the Constitution - if and when the Courts agree with this, know that the rightwingers of SCOTUS, from Ginny Thomas's husband through to whoever paid Kavanaugh's debts, are as owned by Mafioso Don and as scared of Elon as are the GOP Senators. And today the White House posted this photo:
Anyone holding on to visions of free, fair and functional elections in 2026 is delusional - under what logic do you see the oligarch and the felon taking a chance on losing power? Do you get it, now? See where they're going?
Experts in tyranny know how this unfolds if we don't act big and collectively and repeatedly and with determination, right now. The Republic will die aged 248, killed by a felon, oligarchs, spineless GOP elected officials, racist Christian Nationalist militias, and anyone who doesn't do whatever they can to slow its murder. And while the administration and the oligarch lied themselves into power, they've also never hidden their plans. Even Project 2025, which they've followed to a tee is not the end. It's neoreactionary regime change (NRx, Dark Enlightenment, accelerationism). Watch any of those videos - they're saying it all out loud, proudly calling for - and making happen - the end of democracy.
Which no one voted for. Together we can stop it. But we must act big, act now. and keep at it till we get rid of the grifting billionaires, felonious elected officials, and their fascist foot soldiers.
Tesla strikes. Stopping any US government funding to Elon's companies. General strikes. Taxpayer strikes. Civil society-led protests. Wooing, protecting, and somehow luring GOP representatives who believe in democracy to stand up, switch parties, do their jobs. More resistance, sand in the gears, publicity stunts, outrage, and talking directly to those who voted for this from democrats. Mutual aid and collective action at the neighborhood level. Whites taking a back seat to learn from and support Black and Indigenous leaders, whose people have been terrorized by the US government since before the country began and who know how to thrive, sustain, and fight for the long haul.
If you work at a nonprofit or a foundation and you think democracy needs you, you're about to learn a painful lesson, one I've been writing about for years. You won't exist if this administration continues unstopped. Fascism needs you even less than democracy does. But you - in your endowed conference rooms having another lunch meeting about what's happening and whether to take a stand - you sure need democracy.