How Can We Remain Steady?

Fury. 
Confusion. 
Despair. 

A year may be ending, but those who cherish American democracy look over the horizon at 2024 with a strong sense of foreboding. A former president strides, seemingly unstoppable and with authoritarian glee, toward the Republican nomination for president. 

Each of his fevered speeches in front of euphoric acolytes, enablers, and true believers seems to outpace the previous one in its brazen disdain for the rule of law and the guardrails of our national order. 

Gorged on ego and hellbent on avoiding prison, he careens across our country with no regard for the stability of our republic. 

He traffics in lies and hatred.
He thrives on threats of violence. 
He basks in the adulation of those eager to do his bidding.

Almost to a person, elected officials in his party have excused his excesses and endorsed his extremism. Those who had the temerity to question the potential coronation of a would-be king have been largely cast out from the Republican Party with a fervor of retribution bordering on the biblical. 

And yes, it’s early. And yes, polls should be taken with massive grains of salt. And yes to all sorts of other caveats to dampen alarm. But the idea that next year’s election could be close, let alone won by Trump, sends shivers down the spine and sparks fires of incredulity. 

It’s not as if Trump is hiding what he’d do. America made a big mistake the last time it didn’t believe his rhetoric. He may say he’s joking, but we have seen he’s deadly serious. And with the violent coup attempt of January 6 in mind, we know that that adjective — “deadly” — could be quite literal. 

The stakes are so grave that even the smallest of chances Trump would be able to enact his punitive agenda are deeply worrying — a feeling only heightened by the fact that the odds, as they currently stand, might be a coinflip or worse. These are times that can understandably induce high anxiety, if not, indeed, panic.

But it is exactly the type of moment that requires steadiness. 

Think of some of America’s most stalwart leaders in times of crisis — Washington, Lincoln, Roosevelt, Dr. King. One quality they had in common was an ability not to panic, and thus to lead. Reflect on people in your own lives who have helped guide you through difficult times, a family member, a teacher, a member of the clergy, a doctor, a coach. How often was their support given in the form of steadfastness when everything else was in tumult?

To be sure, steadiness is not passivity. To defeat Trumpism again will take sustained and prolonged engagement. Which is another reason we should try to support each other in the months ahead. Neither gloom nor hysteria tends to be an effective strategy for marshaling movements for change. We also need to be honest with ourselves. Even with steadiness, success is not a given. Assurances don’t always lead to happy outcomes. 

We would do well to remember that election campaigns in this country are long. A lot can happen in the next 11 months. A war in the Middle East will hopefully be over, but what might peace look like? The economy is roaring, recession fears are lifting, and gas prices are tumbling. Will those patterns continue? Will Biden start to get credit for these successes? Will the abortion issue remain a mammoth motivator for Democratic voters, as it did in the 2022 midterms and numerous special elections? 

The first edition of this Steady newsletter was published nearly three years ago. The Capitol was still ensconced in concertina wire, and the prospects for Trump’s political resurrection seemed deeply dubious. The goals for this community were to not become overwhelmed by either histrionics or gaslighting. To not succumb to the most heated outrages of the moment, but rather to chart a path of consistency and focus, together. Measured language. Historical context. The big picture, as much as possible. 

Those approaches are as needed now as they were then — even more so. 

We end today with words from another December of crisis. The year was 1776 and the author Thomas Paine. Unlike his more famous pamphlet Common Sense, published earlier that year, The American Crisis came at a dark moment in the fight for independence. The colonists had retreated from New York, and General Washington was preparing to cross the icy Delaware River. The prospects of victory seemed dim, but Paine wrote to inspire. Many commanders, including Washington, read his work aloud to their troops. 

The rest, as they say, is history. Meanwhile, the words from that distant time still ring true across the ages:

These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives everything its value. 

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