Perfectly stated Jack. Many people don’t always recognize when they fought back. They gave it a different name like speaking up for their kid at school. Any time you chose to taker a different view or path you have fought back. That does not require physical altercation just politely defending something or yourself.
Well said. That is step one. Step two, we need to act. People need to express their idea on what can be done. Ideas are invigorating and motivating. Comment on what you read, write your own Substack, post your opinions on social media. Every raindrop helps, and enough drops can cause a flood - flood for positive change.
Reading this while listening to the opening of the Obama Presidential Center. YES WE CAN. We can rise above the ashes of this administration's greed and hatred and senselessness. Thanks, Jack, for always telling us we can make it. #HoldingFast
Thanks, Jack, for your insight. While I’m sure most (if not all) of your readers are anti-maga, I still want to point out that 1/3 of this country didn’t vote in 2024, which gave the just over 1/3 of voters trump. Just less than 1/3 voted for Kamala. Democrats have momentum going for these primaries, but all of us have got to convince some of those non-voters to actually feel that their votes do count, and to get to the polls. We all have to help turn the tides!
I just heard Barrack Obama's speech at the opening of his center in Chicago. Everything Jack talks about and encourages was in his speech. His basic message, we, the citizens are the difference. Every small action on out part is what makes America what it is now and has always been. Good Job Jack! Obama is a pretty good endorsement.
Thank you, Jack! This American isn't giving up and I've been pissed for a very long time! I plan to be a part of beating these SoB's at their own game and then relishing in their eventual criminal prosecution and punishment carried out.
I also want to be a part of the unwinding of this Oligarchy that wants to have the ball exclusively in their court. FUCK THEM! I have a can of gasoline to add to the hell fire that they will burn in!
TimE...I love the fire... and you're not alone in feeling it!
Channel every BIT of that anger into the things that actually take them down; the votes...the lawsuits...the organizing...the accountability through the courts.
Thank you, Jack. I needed this today.. most days lately. Giving up is not an option… It just isn’t. So I won’t.. not today.. not until I take my last breath
We haven’t lost… I just need to keep reminding myself of that.
Watching the opening of the Obama Center today reminded me of what collective hope feels like. He wasn’t perfect, of course, but he speaks coherently about values that nearly everyone at least claims to share. There are many more leaders in this country who can do the same. We do need inspiration in this fight.
I danced along Stevie Wonder and all the others to “Higher Ground.” The analysis you do, Jack, is vital to our preparation for whatever comes next, but fun and inspiration are essential as well. 👹
File the date. June 18, 2026. The day a column argued that the most dangerous sentence in American political life right now is “nothing can be done.”
Jack is correct that exhaustion is not a side effect of authoritarian consolidation. It is the mechanism. Historians who study how democracies actually fail — not in a single dramatic collapse, but case by case, year by year — keep arriving at the same finding. Regimes do not require belief. They require fatigue. A population convinced that resistance is futile behaves identically to a population that agrees with the regime, at a fraction of the cost to the regime. Hannah Arendt saw this in the 1940s. It does not require new theory to recognize it now. It only requires attention.
Note which administrations understand this and which don’t. The ones that understand it do not try to win every argument. They try to win the argument that arguing is pointless. Once that argument is won, the rest follows on its own.
Here is where I’d press the piece further, not against it. The line about America surviving the Civil War, the Depression, Watergate, and concluding “every single time they were wrong” — that comfort is true, and it is also a structure historians have a name for: the politics of inevitability, the belief that history moves in a direction on its own, carrying us along whether we act or not. That belief is seductive precisely because it resembles hope. But it is hope’s counterfeit. It tells people they can relax. Inevitability and despair are not opposites. They are siblings. Both end in the same place: nobody at the wheel.
Jack is correct about the actual antidote, which the piece names but underweights relative to the history line: the future is negotiated daily, by particular people, making particular choices, with no guarantee attached. Not because the arc bends on its own. Because someone bends it. That is a harder thing to believe than “we always pull through,” and it is the only version of the claim that is actually true.
The piece ends in the right place — showing up, staying informed, refusing the exhaustion — it just gets there by the comforting road instead of the demanding one. Worth knowing which road you took, the next time you tell people not to give up.
When you have a couple of dozen people with more money than most states, and they work to preserve that wealth, there *are* people working against the interests of most Americans. Taxing the rich isn’t good enough. Unless they behave like Warren Buffet or Bill Gates or Mackenzie Scott or Laurene Powell Jobs in how they use their money, they’re less than useless, they are actually harmful.
Perfectly stated Jack. Many people don’t always recognize when they fought back. They gave it a different name like speaking up for their kid at school. Any time you chose to taker a different view or path you have fought back. That does not require physical altercation just politely defending something or yourself.
#HOLDFAST
Teri
Thank you, Teri.
That's exactly it... resistance wears a lot of quiet faces...and most of them never make the news.
Speaking up for your kid...holding a line at work...refusing to go along with something that isn't right...IT ALL COUNTS.
Grateful to have you here.
#HOLDFAST
-Jack
Amen to that!!! I am most concerned for our children so giving up is not and option!
BG...amen indeed!
That's the WHOLE reason any of this matters; the kids are watching...and they learn how to stand up by seeing us do it.
Giving up was NEVER on the table.
Thank you for being in this fight!
-Jack
Thank you for excellent advice and reminders!! I learn a lot from you and am encouraged to keep on keeping on!
Well said. That is step one. Step two, we need to act. People need to express their idea on what can be done. Ideas are invigorating and motivating. Comment on what you read, write your own Substack, post your opinions on social media. Every raindrop helps, and enough drops can cause a flood - flood for positive change.
Love this, Steven.
You're right...awareness is just the starting line...action IS the race.
And...I really like the raindrop image: no single voice has to carry it all...but together they're impossible to ignore.
Keep commenting...keep writing...keep posting...EVERY. DROP. COUNTS.
-Jack
Reading this while listening to the opening of the Obama Presidential Center. YES WE CAN. We can rise above the ashes of this administration's greed and hatred and senselessness. Thanks, Jack, for always telling us we can make it. #HoldingFast
Roberta...what a fitting soundtrack to read by.
Yes we can...and...yes we WILL.
The ashes don't get the last word; what we build OUT OF THEM does.
Thank you for holding fast right alongside the rest of us.
#KeepHoldingFast
-Jack
Excellent article! I just shared it to my social media!💪
Thanks, Janet! Fantastic.
-Jack
Thanks, Jack, for your insight. While I’m sure most (if not all) of your readers are anti-maga, I still want to point out that 1/3 of this country didn’t vote in 2024, which gave the just over 1/3 of voters trump. Just less than 1/3 voted for Kamala. Democrats have momentum going for these primaries, but all of us have got to convince some of those non-voters to actually feel that their votes do count, and to get to the polls. We all have to help turn the tides!
PJ...this is such an important point.
The race that matters most isn't always left vs. right; it's voters vs. the couch.
That missing third...is where elections are won...and reaching them comes down to making people BELIEVE their vote ACTUALLY moves something.
Momentum only matters...if it shows up at the polls.
Thanks for keeping us focused on it!
-Jack
I just heard Barrack Obama's speech at the opening of his center in Chicago. Everything Jack talks about and encourages was in his speech. His basic message, we, the citizens are the difference. Every small action on out part is what makes America what it is now and has always been. Good Job Jack! Obama is a pretty good endorsement.
Steven..Ha! I'll take that endorsement any day.
And... it's the truth: we, the citizens...are the difference.
No one rides in to save us; it's the steady pile-up of SMALL ACTIONS that makes this country what it is.
Honored to be saying the same thing.
Thanks for listening...and for being part of it.
-Jack
Thank you, Jack! This American isn't giving up and I've been pissed for a very long time! I plan to be a part of beating these SoB's at their own game and then relishing in their eventual criminal prosecution and punishment carried out.
I also want to be a part of the unwinding of this Oligarchy that wants to have the ball exclusively in their court. FUCK THEM! I have a can of gasoline to add to the hell fire that they will burn in!
TimE...I love the fire... and you're not alone in feeling it!
Channel every BIT of that anger into the things that actually take them down; the votes...the lawsuits...the organizing...the accountability through the courts.
That's the kind of heat they CANNOT put out.
Keep it lit!
-Jack
Thank you, Jack. I needed this today.. most days lately. Giving up is not an option… It just isn’t. So I won’t.. not today.. not until I take my last breath
We haven’t lost… I just need to keep reminding myself of that.
#Holdfast
~Susan
Susan...this means a lot to me.
The hard days are exactly when these reminders matter MOST... and...you're right; we have NOT lost.
Some days...holding fast just means making it to tomorrow...still STANDING...and YOU...are doing that.
Take it one day at a time. We're in this with you!
#Holdfast
-Jack
I’m glad someone is in it with me because in every other way, I’m in it alone and that’s incredibly hard.
Thank you, Jack
~Susan
Tru Dat
Right on, Wende!
-Jack
The impossible is just a slight delay...great article Jack, with my morning coffee...(and yes, mine is better than ole Texas Paul's)
James...Ha!
"The impossible is just a slight delay"...I'm stealing that.
Glad it paired well with the morning brew.
And...I'll keep your coffee superiority between us...so Texas Paul doesn't catch wind of it. Hahah.
Thanks for reading!
-Jack
Watching the opening of the Obama Center today reminded me of what collective hope feels like. He wasn’t perfect, of course, but he speaks coherently about values that nearly everyone at least claims to share. There are many more leaders in this country who can do the same. We do need inspiration in this fight.
I danced along Stevie Wonder and all the others to “Higher Ground.” The analysis you do, Jack, is vital to our preparation for whatever comes next, but fun and inspiration are essential as well. 👹
Rachel...I love that you danced...that's exactly it.
The analysis matters...but you can't run on warnings ALONE; joy and inspiration are fuel too.
Collective hope...is a REAL force...and you're right that there are more leaders capable of calling it up....than we sometimes let ourselves believe.
"Higher Ground" is the PERFECT anthem for it.
Thank you for this, Rachel!
-Jack
Onward and Upward❗We need to be uplifted today, Jack, Thanks and will reStack ASAP 💯👍
Karen...onward and upward indeed!
Some days the lift is EXACTLY what we need...glad this one delivered.
Thank you for the reStack...and for spreading it; every share helps!
-Jack
File the date. June 18, 2026. The day a column argued that the most dangerous sentence in American political life right now is “nothing can be done.”
Jack is correct that exhaustion is not a side effect of authoritarian consolidation. It is the mechanism. Historians who study how democracies actually fail — not in a single dramatic collapse, but case by case, year by year — keep arriving at the same finding. Regimes do not require belief. They require fatigue. A population convinced that resistance is futile behaves identically to a population that agrees with the regime, at a fraction of the cost to the regime. Hannah Arendt saw this in the 1940s. It does not require new theory to recognize it now. It only requires attention.
Note which administrations understand this and which don’t. The ones that understand it do not try to win every argument. They try to win the argument that arguing is pointless. Once that argument is won, the rest follows on its own.
Here is where I’d press the piece further, not against it. The line about America surviving the Civil War, the Depression, Watergate, and concluding “every single time they were wrong” — that comfort is true, and it is also a structure historians have a name for: the politics of inevitability, the belief that history moves in a direction on its own, carrying us along whether we act or not. That belief is seductive precisely because it resembles hope. But it is hope’s counterfeit. It tells people they can relax. Inevitability and despair are not opposites. They are siblings. Both end in the same place: nobody at the wheel.
Jack is correct about the actual antidote, which the piece names but underweights relative to the history line: the future is negotiated daily, by particular people, making particular choices, with no guarantee attached. Not because the arc bends on its own. Because someone bends it. That is a harder thing to believe than “we always pull through,” and it is the only version of the claim that is actually true.
The piece ends in the right place — showing up, staying informed, refusing the exhaustion — it just gets there by the comforting road instead of the demanding one. Worth knowing which road you took, the next time you tell people not to give up.
#HOLDFAST
When you have a couple of dozen people with more money than most states, and they work to preserve that wealth, there *are* people working against the interests of most Americans. Taxing the rich isn’t good enough. Unless they behave like Warren Buffet or Bill Gates or Mackenzie Scott or Laurene Powell Jobs in how they use their money, they’re less than useless, they are actually harmful.
We are a resilient people for sure. A song to lift it all the way up💜
https://youtu.be/b7k0a5hYnSI?is=_60__stlghSjGs8l