Karma Season Has Arrived

Keep fighting back.

This past week was an astonishing week from the standpoint of the history books. Fox News fired its most profitable host and thereby decimated its influence, the former president went on trial for defamation related to claims that he raped E. Jean Carroll in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room— while also facing new felony fraud charges in New York State— and word of looming indictments out of Fulton County, Georgia, to drop this summer, became public through a letter local District Attorney Fani Willis sent to law enforcement, advising them to get ready.

Many of us may feel as though these long awaited developments are a moment of relief. And to a certain extent, they are. America seems to finally be fed up, at least in certain legal ways, with the reprehensible behavior of The Former Guy and his lackeys.

And yet, big questions loom as to why the Department of Justice hasn’t yet levied federal charges against the man who incited the near-overthrow of American democracy, who stole highly classified information and shared and/or sold it for profit to god knows who.

Many of us who are tired of waiting may find at least some respite in the state level indictments that have already dropped, but we should be clear that there needs to be much more accountability on every level, and a lot more closing of loopholes, to prevent another demagogue (or this one) from trying again.

The danger in all of this is that fascism marches on. 

In state after state, trans folks are being persecuted relentlessly, simply for being who they are and for seeking medical care. Drag shows, long a staple of LGBTQ+ expression with drag performers as foundational revolutionaries in the fight for LGBTQ+ rights in America, are being banned by reactionary far-right state legislatures. The policing of gender in this nation is a part of the trajectory of fascism that is working so hard to ban abortion care, to ban birth control, and to ban civil rights for anyone not cis, heterosexual, white, wealthy and male. Books continue to be banned. Education continues to be manipulated to erase Black, brown and indigenous history. Mass shootings are routine while those in power claim they are powerless to do anything to stop them.

There are, to be sure, some promising signs at the moment. But we must not relent in the battle to secure democracy and freedom, because we continue to be in danger.

And in a more qualitative sense, while the pendulum may be swinging back, that trajectory is only at its start.

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When we talk about progress in this country, and particularly when we note how fed up the nation finally seems to be becoming as a whole with the rollback of rights favored by the overwhelming majority of Americans, we must remember, in particular, that none of our historic collective battles have been easy.

The damage currently being done to human and civil liberties at the state level will take years to rectify.

And with the thankfully changing demographics of the voting age population in this country and the wildly engaged new voters in Gen Z, the far right knows its days are numbered. It is indeed for that reason that they are illegally manipulating voting districts, voting rights, and voting access to try to claw onto what little remaining power they have left with their fingernails.

It is for that reason that the Tennessee legislature unsuccessfully sought to ban Reps. Justin Jones and Justin Pearson, to incredible backlash. It is for that reason that the Montana Legislature banned Rep. Zooey Zephyr for one year, just for standing up for her constituents, for trans folks, and for herself. There is no question that the far right isn’t finished yet.

But with every day that passes now, the end of the reign of right-wing terror becomes more likely.

One need only look at the insane, self-sabotaging attacks of Ron DeSantis against Disney to know how ridiculous these far-right efforts have become.

Because while the threats remain, and while the violently harmful legislative actions undertaken continue, the humiliation of far-right figures has begun.

And those in our nation who want a strongman won’t back someone who looks ridiculous, who is undertaking efforts that will literally decimate the economy of his own state, just as local legislatures reinstated the Tennessee two as they claimed a national platform for refusing to back down.

Yes, the threats are very real. But also: they are becoming ever more transparent and ever more ridiculous.

The louder we all become, and the more accountability enters the nation’s lexicon, the weaker and more feckless they will appear.

And that is very good news for democracy, indeed.

Now is not the time to quit.