Opportunities Opening Up for Better or Worse
David Swanson / DavidSwanson.org

(March 23, 2025) — I can’t exactly call it good news. But some opportunities are opening up to work for a better world in a better way.

Millions of people in the United States, from brilliant authors and pundits to your average “I’m not political” Joe or “I don’t do activism” Jane have spent their lives making an exception. Documenting and denouncing the crimes and abuses of governments has been the rule, often strictly accurately, often with exaggeration or fabrication. The U.S. government has been the exception. Wonderful books chronicle the evils of the “autocratic” world as if Washington can do no wrong and never has.

But here we are with the conditions ripe for questioning that exception. Not only is there a fascist buffoon in office who says the quiet parts very loudly, but the U.S. government is also prominently supporting a live-streamed genocide, on top of which there’s the recent release of more JFK documents that add to a long list of U.S.-backed coups, assassinations, and election manipulations. Is there an opening to make such public “secrets” acceptable to discuss?

In addition, millions of people in the United States have denounced the corruption and dishonesty of politicians with an exception for either the Democrats or the Republicans. Now prominent Republicans have openly admitted to being murderous, racist thugs working for billionaire kleptocrats, and prominent Democrats have openly admitted to bowing down before whatever the Republicans want, while imitating them to large degree.

So, whichever flavor of slime you have favored up to this point, you’ve got an opportunity to start questioning it in a more serious way. And it’s the Democrats who are sinking fastest in public support, opening up the biggest opportunity in at least the last 10th of their average lifetimes to challenge them on behalf of all that is good and decent in the world. Unfortunately, the Republicans may actually be doing what some of their supporters want.

Things worsening is not simply good news, and typical responses to things worsening — when they finally come — are often not what they ideally should be and long since should have been. But, on top of the U.S. empire marching butt-naked down Wall Street, and on top of the Democrats tossing rose petals out in front, we do have the ever-worsening crises of climate, ecosystems, poverty, homelessness, inequality, and lack of healthcare.

The impacts of the war economy are hitting directly and undeniably millions of U.S. residents whom we’ve been trying to explain the financial — never mind moral — cost of the Pentagon to for decades.

I saw a cartoon this week from a cartoonist who I believe had never before strayed from the Democratic Party line, a cartoon arguing that Democrats had become worse than useless. I’ve had numerous people in recent days tell me that they wanted to know “how to start doing activism,” or that they thought it might soon be time for activism, or that they dared not imagine how busy an “activist” like myself must be these days (as if there were some other days that were free of mass murder and destruction). If change can’t happen now, when can it?

So, to those of you who’ve had your shoulders to the wheel for years, good work and don’t let up now. Carpe diem, because these are the moments that all the other moments are preparation for.