The newly minted Trump administration true to their word has indeed launched an all-out assault on the American government. Using methods lawful and unlawful, precedented and unprecedented they are destroying everything they can and dismantling everything they cannot destroy.

Federal workers, including tens of thousands of US veterans are out of jobs. Computer hackers acting at the instruction of Elon Musk are coming through the most sensitive records in the United States. People are disappearing off the streets and being spirited away to foreign prisons. The country’s most coveted alliances with our oldest allies are being systematically destroyed. Our oldest and most dangerous adversaries are going unchallenged. Autocracy is being encouraged while democracy is repressed. It is every bit as bad as it appears to be and getting worse by the day.

Nevertheless the Democratic Republic stands. It stands for a very important reason, we still have one thing the founders believed we must have, the right to dissent. We keep pushing, they keep backing off. This is both the most powerful weapon and most valuable lesson of these troubled times. Do not let go of the rope, stay in the fight no matter how difficult it may seem. To quote Martin Luther King Jr., “If you can't fly then run, if you can't run then walk, if you can't walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.”

Another powerful weapon we have against them, is them. They keep doing enormously stupid things. Signal-gate is a glaring example but it isn’t the only one. By attacking wildly they leave themselves open to counter attack. Their strategy seems to be one of smash and grab criminality. Yes the criminals get away with free merchandise, but they define themselves by their action, forfeiting any respect.

The judicial branch, the Third Estate remains functional. While that may not sound like a glowing tribute, historians will likely look back on the performance of the courts in these most challenging of times as crucial and potentially even heroic. Their’s is a perilous job in this moment, deserving of all available public support.

Democratic party opposition while not nonexistent is woefully lacking. There are signs of life within the democratic party but you really have to squint to see them. For the moment it is certainly important to push hard for Democratic Party opposition, but it would not be wise to depend upon it.

It is essential in this moment to stay strong and active. Which of course is always the case, but now particularly so.

Shoulder to shoulder now.