Reichstag or Rome, It’s Already Burning

You do not meet fascism in the middle. You meet it with courage or you surrender to collapse.

The Democratic Party talks a lot about the importance of “bringing people together” like 2025 is a disagreement to be managed instead of a full-blown Constitutional emergency. Like a coupla good ads, viral videos and influencers are going to swing the political pendulum back to an era of fundraising and level-headed legislating in time for the 2026 midterms. We are staring down the collapse of civil rights, the gutting of the social safety net, and the steady dismantling of democracy itself. This is not about messaging. It is about survival.

There’s a deep bench of Democratic leaders right now. Progressives. Organizers. Policy experts. Working-class representatives. Even a few centrists who know how to speak to the middle of the base without selling out the movement. There are many who understand these times in American history will be studied for decades to come. We need someone who knows that this is not about winning the next news cycle. It is about stopping the absolute slide into authoritarian rule.

We need to HEAR from the party what we all know to be true: We The People are more closely aligned than we think. We need to hear the truth: progressive values aren’t the fringe and the center isn’t the enemy. Progressive values are not extreme. They are human values. They are moral values. They are Christian values. Progressive principles are Christian principles. Somewhere along this shitty timeline we stopped trusting each other and started side-eyeing one another. We started mistaking each other for the problem. The real enemy is not thy neighbor. Foreign adversaries have succeeded in dividing us from within and billionaires are hellbent on destroying the American dream while snorting her ashes all the way to space.

This is not politics as usual. This is a moment of American crisis. The social fabric is tearing. Families are suffocating under inflation. People are afraid to go to work because they might get snatched off the street and deported. There is about to be a mass die off in American small business because of tariffs and this failing economy. American farmers are going to be decimated. Our country is going to get hit hard. Americans are terrified that there won’t even be another election. Democrats have to stop obsessing over optics and start standing for what is right.

We need leaders who understand the weight of what is happening in America right now. Not only that most of us live paycheck to paycheck, but how that feels. What it feels like to do it while up against the biggest transfer of wealth in modern history. Leaders who know what fear of losing your livelihood does to your soul, because they have lived it. Leaders who have experienced the stress of crushing debt or chronic illness. What that does to your body. Your mental health. Your family. We need leaders who speak the language of faith, not for content or followers but because they’re authentic. They’ve cried in the bathroom at work just like the rest of us and then wiped their tears and gone about their horrible day. We need authenticity. We need an American’s American. It doesn’t matter what their name is. It matters what their record is. We need someone who still believes this country can be saved, who still puts the little guy before the PAC donations, and who is willing to do more than just smile for the cameras while our Republic collapses.

We are sick and fucking tired of canned answers and cook offs. Especially Millennials and GenZies. They want fresh, young energy that the party establishment has wagged its finger at since before they were even born. As we march to what feels like the end of our freedoms, our leaders better stand shoulder to shoulder with all of us. Or we’ll find ones who will.

We don’t need perfect candidates. We need principled ones. The time for divisive politics is over. We can ALL agree that the Democrats are the only party anchored in compassion, fairness and unity. From progressives on the left to the straight white Christians in the center and all the colors and pronouns in between, there is room at this giant table we all helped build. It CAN hold the weight of what this moment demands. If we can unite as a party, from the Top to blue dots, it can. And if anyone seated here stands for exclusion of any one of us, it’s time to flip the damn thing over.

There is no second chance after this. We are not at the edge of a battle. We are already in the trenches. We are living in a country where the press is targeted, peaceful protests are criminalized, immigrants are rounded up, and lawmakers openly talk about stripping people of rights they do not approve of. This is what authoritarianism looks like in real time. If The People don’t rise up, organize and build coalitions to stop this administration, the only sounds left will be boots and silence. This is not a thought experiment. We cannot just roll over in the face of tyranny. This is your child's education. Your rent payment. Your right to vote. Your medical care. Your safety at work. Your right to live in America. This is your future. We need real leaders whose only agenda is the survival of democracy.

The Democratic Party cannot afford to meet this moment with cowardice or complacency. It does not matter whether it is Reichstag or Rome that is burning in 2025. There is no focus group coming to save us, and no consultant with a poll-tested plan to hold the line. There is only the truth, and the choice between living history or repeating it.