I woke up in 1933 Germany. Now what?

!nonchuds !khive

First, a huge thank you to VP Harris and Gov. Walz and all the team who worked so hard, only to be devastated by the results across the whole country. You gave your hearts to this, and it wasn't enough for half of the voters — or for those who stayed home. The rest of us will carry on and do our best, individually and as a community. But make no mistake — it is going to be much harder.

Perhaps I'm being unduly alarmist. But this country has just elected a fascist leadership, with a Senate and very likely House to implement all their worst ideas, and a Supreme Court that has already shown it will approve anything they put forth. Their plans include hollowing out the civil service and replacing all the institutional guardrails at the federal level. This time, he will enter office with a cadre of loyalists prepared to implement his every wish, and more – they have their own agenda. Should he falter, he brings a vice president who is young, energetic, and apparently even more committed to their autocratic and white Christian nationalist vision.

Half the voters support all of this, and half or so of the states already have autocratic governments that are already implementing their policies, to the extent they have not been blocked at the national level – protection that will disappear January 20. Voter suppression will target the rest of the voters – us – and the states that have held out against their agenda.

This time, we have no "America" across the ocean to serve as a beacon of democracy and a refuge from the worst. This time, the autocrats will have control over a massive system to monitor dissent – no electronic communications will be safe, and the post office already tracks every piece of mail. In a larger country, organizing resistance or civil dissent is going to be a lot harder.

California, Colorado, New York, and a few other states will have some ability to protect their people, but you can expect that to be targeted as well. Sure, some of us as elderly white people are not going to be the ones they come after first. But we will see a lot of people hurt, and very soon.

Please tell me I'm not catastrophizing. Please tell me I will wake up tomorrow and this nightmare will be over instead of just starting.