Trump says he’s made America great again. With midterms on the horizon, we get to decide if we agree with him.
The president’s policies hark back to a time when our nation sought to oppress racial and political minorities at home, while engaging in imperialism abroad. Is that what we truly want?
As I reach for the hope of 2026, I am convinced that this new year is about more than the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence and more than the politics of the upcoming midterm elections. This new year is a mirror that allows us to look back on who we were in 2025.
Domestically, last year was marked by Donald Trump’s attack on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), his targeting of Black and Latino immigrants, his attempts to use lawsuits, threats, and bullying to silence journalists, and his sneering dismissal of the millions of people who took to the streets in protest.
Internationally, 2025 was defined by the Trump administration’s military attacks in and around oil-rich countries like Venezuela and Nigeria, an apparent push to annex mineral-rich Greenland, and Trump-backed peace deals in Gaza and Ukraine that never quite seemed to bring peace.
Taken together, Trump’s domestic and international policies hark back to a time when the United States sought to openly oppress racial and political minorities at home, while engaging in patterns of imperialism abroad.
Perhaps, in Trump’s mind, that’s what it means to Make America Great Again. In 2026, the country will have to decide if we agree with him, and the choice will not be easy, because the sides are completely dug in.
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For millions of Americans, there’s an inherent appeal to Trump’s brand of no-holds-barred politics.
His supporters believe political correctness has robbed them of the right to say what they feel, to take what they want, and to run through anyone who stands in their way.
When Trump insults those who don’t look or think like him, his supporters believe he’s speaking for them.
After all, the idea of blaming others for their problems is not only palatable, it’s delicious — because when someone else is always at fault, one never has to look at oneself.
For millions of other Americans, like me, the echoes of white supremacy that amplify the MAGA movement are repulsive.
We are concerned when President Trump calls Somali immigrants “garbage,” because perhaps Somalis aren’t the only Black people he views that way.
We are horrified by the sight of Vice President JD Vance standing before white conservatives — and rapper Nicki Minaj — and uttering the words, “You don’t have to apologize for being white anymore.”
We are bracing ourselves for the moment when Trump’s followers move from insults to action, because after Trump pardoned those convicted for their roles in the political violence of Jan. 6, 2021, they could very well come back for more.
That’s why in 2026, we must move swiftly to save democracy, because Trump has moved swiftly to tear it down. Don’t believe it? Let’s review.
In 2025, armed with a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that said Trump was immune from prosecution for official acts, the president signed scores of executive orders, knowing they’d be challenged in federal court. He also knew he could quickly move key cases to the Supreme Court’s emergency docket, where the 6-3 conservative majority gave him a puncher’s chance to win.
By implementing that strategy, the Trump White House won 21 victories in the Supreme Court. The wins allowed the Trump administration to take wide-ranging actions, including: deporting undocumented immigrants to third-party countries, ending federal funding for DEI, firing thousands of federal workers without congressional approval, accessing Americans’ Social Security data, and revoking the power of federal judges to implement nationwide injunctions.
We are bracing ourselves for the moment when Trump’s followers to move from insults to action.
In one of the administration’s few losses, the Supreme Court recently ruled against Trump’s deployment of the National Guard in Chicago.
Perhaps the ruling will stop the president’s strategy of sending troops into cities run by Democrats, or maybe he’ll find a workaround. If I were a betting man, I’d take the odds on the latter.
That’s why in 2026, if we truly want to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the birth of American democracy, we cannot stand by and watch as our country is twisted into knots.
When this year’s midterm elections take place, we must raise our voices and vote.