We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.
—Martin Luther King Jr.
ACTION
Take a moment to imagine just how bad things will get under Trump’s rule. Also, make sure your passport is up to date.
RESULT
A better understanding of what we are fighting for and what we are fighting against.
To fully understand why it is important that we resist, we must imagine what will happen if we do not.
2017
In hindsight, maybe historians will say everything that came after the firing of James Comey was inevitable. The signs were all there. It started with unchecked lies and attacking the freedom of the press. However, we were told to look on the bright side—after all, tax cuts for the wealthy would surely trickle down to create jobs for the rest of us.
Yuri Kochiyama by Alex Chiu
2018
Everything is fine. The president tweets some new outrageous lie or Breitbart conspiracy on a weekly basis, and some news organizations still fact-check him, but there have been no real consequences, and people are too tired to care anymore.
Maybe you can take up bird-watching or growing tomatoes. It’s good to have some distraction, because even little glimpses of the truth are scary.
2019
The wall with Mexico has cost taxpayers close to $25 billion; it is unfinished. Trump still promises that Mexico will pay for it. The Trump administration has stepped up its raids on sanctuary cities, with militarily armed ICE agents arresting millions of men, women, and children and taking them to concentration camps from where they are deported. Trump is proud of the jobs these “detention centers” create. Environmental regulations have been rolled back to levels no one has imagined since the 1950s. The national parks are sold to the highest bidder, privatized, and opened for drilling. Pollution in cities and on shorelines is rampant. Entire forests and bodies of water are sold off for profit.
White nationalist militia groups have escalated their violence. They have flags and names that include the words “freedom” and “eagles.” They “assist” the local police.
The congressional investigation into Trump’s Russian ties, now led by Trump’s own handpicked men, announces that Trump did “nothing wrong,” and people should move on. Trump and DeVos legislate billions of dollars away from public schools. Education is a product, like cell phones and Coca-Cola.
Encouraged by the new normal, outright racism has made a comeback to 1950s levels. Alt-right leaders openly begin to talk about “peaceful ethnic cleansing.” Trump seems to support the idea in a tweet.
2020
The ice caps are melting faster every day. Temperatures rise faster than predicted, massive wildfires and huge hurricanes are commonplace. Jokes about the apocalypse no longer get laughs. And yet people continue to disbelieve everything that is actually happening because it is too awful to fully believe.
When a terrorist attack happens just before the election it could not have been scripted at a better time by Steve Bannon himself. Future historians will argue for decades about what started the war. A year into the war, most Americans will struggle to correctly remember how it started. Patriotism will be at an all-time high. Trump wins reelection, easily beating the moderate Democratic candidate.
2021
It turns out that, yes, Trump does keep a very long enemies list. Rabble-rousers, protestors, and many journalists are jailed for treason. Some are “reeducated.” Some disappear mysteriously. Some flee. There are rumors of waterboarding, but who is to say? In a world that is post-fact and post-truth, the idea of right and wrong sounds quaint. Like many people, you decide it is smart and safe to keep quiet. People who do criticize the government put their phones in sealed plastic baggies in the freezer first.
2022
The consequences of electing a president who sexually harassed dozens of women and bragged about it on videotape are confirmed. There has been a cultural shift in society’s attitudes toward women. The idea of feminism is seen as a strange historic aberration that lives on only in textbooks.
Muslims begin to worship in secret for safety reasons. It is not a good year to be Latinx. It is no longer illegal to discriminate. It starts with Mexicans and Muslims. Trump supporters praise the new culture, the freedom finally from political correctness. Now everyone can act and talk like Trump. This works out quite well for white men especially. This is also the year that they make it illegal to vote unless you own property. There are more parades.
2023
Some days the sky is an ominous color. Is that something burning in the distance? Don’t bother reading the news. Facts aren’t distinguished from fiction at this point anyhow. The government can now experiment with brutality in the name of safety. People are more afraid than ever, but Trump will protect them, with walls, with prisons, with camps called “centers,” with a robust domestic surveillance program called “Vigilant something-orother” and with enhanced interrogations performed by “truth agents,” and black sites where treasonous enemies of the state disappear. Language has become murky and poisonous.
2024
To own a book like the one in your hands is to risk being jailed for treason. Looking back, you may secretly wonder when did we reach the turning point when this all became inevitable, the point of no return?
The 2024 presidential election was canceled due to special emergency circumstances. Congress voted unanimously. It always does now. Trump declares a huge day of celebration. There are rallies and pageantry that would make Kim Jong-il jealous. Incredibly large statues are in the works. It is a magnificent spectacle, this reality show on steroids, with tweets, rallies, and banners. Yes, bringing up Hitler is always in poor taste. Finally, America is great again.