Progressive change in the wake of chaos.

Although Donald Trump poses a unique threat against the American people and the world, the road that led to his rise to power and the corrupt network of operatives that protect him was decades in the making. Step one, of course, is to get him out of office, by constitutional removal or by ballot vote, but what’s step two? We can’t be so naive as to think that by just removing one man, the country will automatically transform into some kind of patriotic utopia.

It is true that things were certainly better before, but they were by no means good for everyone. In a lot of ways, the Trump Administration has been a wake up call for those who benefitted from, and enabled, the structures that built it. Women, people of color, LGBTQIA+, the working class, or any combination of those, have been sounding the alarm bells for as long as we can remember. Decades of ignoring those calls in favor of short term gain has made this largely a disaster of our own making, and no amount of pandering or feeling bad about it will fix the problem.

At this point, we need to be prepared for one of two future possibilities – fighting back against a second-term Trump administration or rebuilding the country in the wake of the first-term. We have a unique opportunity to create a more equitable society now that the country has been engaged in a three-year civics lesson on lunatic diplomacy. Though the runaway injustice, oppression, and needless deaths should never be considered worth it for the greater good, to not turn it into something positive at this point would be a missed opportunity, at best, and an exoneration for it to continue in the future, at worst.

It begins with asking who the San Fernando Valley wants as their representative during these next times. Maybe the answer is the same people who allowed this white supremacist American oligarchy to take root are the same people to fix it. Maybe it’s not.

In Brian’s case, he believes in moving forward on a society where people are in charge, oppressors are rejected, justice is upheld, and the artificial barriers that hold us back are removed. A United States that we were taught was supposed to exist. A promise unfulfilled, but one we should get back to pursuing.