I find it funny (funny in that tragic, predictable way) that so many so-called prophetical and practical philosophers, theologians, and public intellectuals are suddenly demanding to know where the Democrats are. These are the same people who spent the entire election cycle tearing down everything Democrats stood for, moralizing their cynicism, and calling compromise a betrayal. The same people who, with all the rhetorical flourish of a tent revival, denounced the Democratic ticket as insufficiently radical, then conveniently washed their hands of the political process when it actually mattered.
And now—now(!), as Trump fires off Executive Orders like a tyrant drafting his own coronation, as the GOP openly paves the road to autocracy, as Project 2025 spells out, in meticulous detail, their plans to dismantle democracy…now these same individuals have found their voices. Now, after months of shouting down Democratic strategy, scoffing at GOTV efforts, and condemning the very people who warned that this was coming, they want to hold court about how the Democrats aren’t fighting hard enough.
Let’s put it plainly: the same people lamenting that Trump is running rampant are the same ones who went on moral and ethical tirades against Kamala Harris, as if she alone bore the weight of political imperfection. The same ones who declared, with all the certainty of self-righteous inaction, that they would vote third party because a ceasefire wasn’t secured fast enough. The same ones who, behind closed doors, entertained the perverse fantasy that maybe, just maybe, a second Trump presidency would be “better” for ending the Hamas-Israel war—because, apparently, American interventionist history meant nothing to them when the argument was convenient.
These are the same people who could craft an entire thesis dissecting the failures of Biden and Harris but could not be bothered to send a single text to a friend reminding them to vote. The same ones who sat out of strategy meetings, dismissed grassroots organizing, and scoffed at the idea that local elections mattered…until, suddenly, the walls started closing in, and now they want to know who is going to stop Trump.
Hindsight is a dangerous thing. Everyone suddenly sounds prophetic when the fire is already at the door, but they ignored the smoke. And let’s be clear: that smoke wasn’t some abstract warning; it was Project 2025, an explicit roadmap to dismantling civil rights, gutting government institutions, and concentrating power in the hands of an unchecked executive. That smoke was Trump telling us exactly what he planned to do, long before he started signing Executive Orders. That smoke was every voter suppression law, every right-wing court decision, every fascist whisper turned into a rallying cry.
And yet, these academics, thinkers, and social critics—where were they when the moment called for action? Where was that sharp moral critique when people were knocking doors, organizing voter registration, and trying to prevent exactly what they now so eloquently lament? It is easy (far too easy) to play the role of the intellectual dissenter when there is no personal cost, to wield righteous anger now that the danger is undeniable. But the real work (the hard, unglamorous, disciplined work of democracy) demands more than social media sermons and belated outrage.
So miss me with the performative shock. We saw this coming. Some of us tried to stop it. And some of you, despite all your eloquence and theory, stood in the way.
Now that you see the fire, what will you do differently?
Photo: Adobe Stock Image
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