To those sitting on the sidelines, I say this: Your principles are worthless if they prevent you from acting in defense of democracy, decency, and the rule of law. Your moral purity is an illusion if it allows you to watch injustice unfold without raising your voice.
This system, this democracy, this society that has nurtured you, educated you, protected you—it's now under threat. And your silence, your inaction, your self-serving rationalizations are not just a personal failing. They are a betrayal of everything that has given you the privilege to even have the choice to remain silent.
Wake up. Because this is not a spectator sport. This is our shared reality, our shared responsibility, our shared future at stake. And history—that relentless, unforgiving judge—will remember not just what was done, but what was not done when it mattered most.
The truth is, the question "what should we do?" often masks a deeper hesitation—a search for the perfect, risk-free action that will somehow satisfy both our conscience and our comfort. But that's precisely the trap. There is no algorithm for moral action in immoral times. There is no checklist that, once completed, absolves you of the responsibility to keep acting, keep choosing, keep standing for something.
This isn't about grand heroic gestures.
So what should you do? Stop asking that question as if there's a single answer that applies to everyone. Start asking instead: What does my most authentic self demand in this moment? What action would make me feel whole rather than diminished? What truth needs speaking that only I can articulate in my unique way?
Then do that thing. Not once, not as a performance, but consistently. Not with an eye toward results, but with a commitment to process. Not because it will necessarily "work," but because it's the only thing that will allow you to recognize yourself when this is all over.
The revolution isn't coming someday. It's happening right now, in millions of individual decisions to align actions with deepest values. The resistance isn't elsewhere. It's in you, waiting to be lived rather than merely contemplated.
Third, we must resist isolation and intimidation. Extremists and anti-democratic actors want us to feel alone and isolated, and so building community is not just essential for our work together, but for the very existence of a pro-democracy community. Community also creates the conditions for courage—courage to stand up for ourselves and for each other, courage to not give into attempts to divide us.
And finally, we must never underestimate the power we all have—we, the people. The late Congresswoman Barbara Jordan, who spoke truth to power in the halls of Congress during the Watergate hearings, used to say, "The stakes are too high for government to be a spectator sport." Those words ring so true today.