Who could have seen this coming?
I’ve been spending more time on Bluesky lately, and one thing keeps rubbing me the wrong way. I’ve noticed a steady uptick in Democrats taking umbrage with leftists for not falling in line and supporting the Democratic Party unreservedly.
And I’ve got questions.
Because here's the thing: June 14th, across the country, people will gather for the “No Kings” protests — a response to the disaster currently occupying 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue (or, more likely, teeing off again on the taxpayer’s dime). And what I keep hearing from mainstream Democrats is a lot of frantic energy about “doing all we can to stop the destruction of our democratic government and the things we hold dear.”
That’s great. But why now?
Where was this urgency when it actually mattered?
Let’s look at history. We held both houses of Congress and the White House:
During Clinton’s first two years
During Obama’s first two years
During Biden’s first two years
And what did we do with all that power?
Because the right wasn’t hiding its intentions. Back then, they were the Gingrich Republicans, pushing the “Contract With America” — a thinly veiled club aimed straight at the knees of our democratic institutions. And woven into that movement was a clear, growing undercurrent of what we now recognize as anarcho-fascism or accelerationist fascism.
We saw the evolution in real-time:
Late ‘90s to mid-2000s: Fox News-fueled neoconservatism
2009–2016: The rise of the Tea Party
2015 onward: The Alt-Right explodes, feeding directly into today’s MAGA movement
This wasn’t subtle. It was a thirty-year-long drumbeat, loud as hell and marching straight toward authoritarianism. From Reagan’s Mandate for Leadership, to Gingrich’s Contract With America, to the Tea Party’s anti-bureaucratic rage — the right has always said the quiet part out loud.
So again I ask: what were the Democrats doing?
Why, when we had power, weren’t we shoring up institutions? Why weren’t we closing the loopholes we knew the other side would exploit? Why did we act surprised every time the GOP said they were going to do something awful — and then did it?
The right has been crystal clear about their goals. The Democrats? They’ve largely shrugged.
We keep getting told to vote blue no matter who. To sit down, shut up, and protect “our democracy.” But what is this democracy if the only time it’s treated like it matters is when it’s already on fire?
So no, I’m not here to offer uncritical support to the party that repeatedly fumbled the bag. We warned you. We marched. We organized. We begged for accountability, for court reform, for action. And we were told to wait.
Well, time’s up. I mentioned earlier the No Kings Day of Action on June 14th. And while it sparked this reflection on long-standing frustrations of mine, I want to be crystal clear: the protests on the 14th are absolutely necessary and a powerful way to push back — or at the very least, move the needle in the right direction.
I urge you to visit NoKings.org and find a protest near you. And if you don’t see one listed in your area, please take a look at the resources section on the site — they make it easy to organize your own. As of this writing, there are actions planned across many states, but still none officially listed in Idaho, Wyoming, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, Alabama, South Carolina, North Carolina, West Virginia, New Hampshire, or Maine.
So if you’re reading this from one of those states — or from a region where no protest is planned nearby — please consider stepping up and organizing one. This moment matters, and your voice could be the one that gets things moving in your community.