Fear of the Future

The most cynical assumptions about the outcome of 2024 are not inevitable. They represent a lack of imagination.

(Photo by DNY59 via Getty Images)

From across the political spectrum, the fear of the future is palpable. As real as the reasons may be, I suspect these fears also emanate from a lack of imagination. That’s something I hope we can address over the coming year, in time to influence the outcome of the 2024 election.

Let’s start with an obvious take on voters attracted to Donald Trump, knowing full well about his personal degradations, hostile desecrations of our democratic institutions and dictatorial desires. Rather than supporting him despite these characteristics, many are drawn to him because of them. That may seem hard for many Democrats to grasp: Have they no decency, no respect for democracy, no interest in anyone outside the cult?

But I believe it’s their fear of the future. A world that appears fraught with complexity and uncertainty. A world where they feel excluded, unappreciated and powerless. A moment in which the white majority is replaced by minorities, people they likely despise not simply because of the color of their skin but their deeply aggrieved feeling that these others’ ascendancy is undeserved and wrong.

With such a view, a demagogic leader with authoritarian impulses looks like the kind of man needed to set things right. And if chaos and violence are part of the package? Well, so be it—just the price of admission to a future where their needs and desires rule over the will of those self-serving, arrogant, coastal elites and their hostile, weaponized, persecuting federal government.

Is it any wonder that Trump’s attacks on the FBI, the courts and the Justice Department resonate so strongly? Or claims that the Jan. 6 Capitol attackers are patriots, heroic Americans taking back power by whatever means necessary to secure a world where they can maintain control? Or that strongmen types like Vladimir Putin or Viktor Orban look like bulwarks against the victory of the liberal horde taking away their freedom?

They are not alone in their fear of the future. On the other side of the political spectrum, the descent into authoritarianism looks like the inevitable success of an out-of-control Supreme Court gleefully stripping away hard-earned rights. A hostile minority opposed to science, education and government itself, bent on installing a theocracy and opposing efforts to tackle the climate crisis. Cruel, gleeful leaders turning the country backward, to a time before women and minorities could expect equal opportunity, the right to vote and freedom under the law.

They look at the words and threats of Trump and see a dictatorial future where justice, the rule of law and democracy are mocked, despised and turned on their heads to serve only the wealthy, the white and the powerful. They see the principles of “one man one vote” and “no one is above the law” as hollow ideals that have failed to live up to their beautiful promise. Some only see Joe Biden as the avatar of a bygone era that pledged justice and delivered injustice and a society that promised stability yet has been corroded by guns, violence and the continuing threat of chaos by a disturbed minority.

Is it any wonder that they look at the coming years with fear? That no matter what they do they are powerless to stop the dark forces committed to ending democracy, further enriching the wealthiest, undermining public education and women’s rights, installing a wannabe dictator no matter the actual outcome of the coming election? Or that they gaze upon their leaders and wonder whether they have the intensity and strength needed to stop this downward spiral?

A week like this only reinforced the doubts of many: A pregnant Texas woman facing life-threatening danger had to flee her state to get an abortion. House Republicans opened an impeachment inquiry against President Biden without real evidence of a crime. In multiple cases, Trump’s lawyers continued to pursue every avenue to claim immunity, slow the clock, stop the trials and avoid accountability. Is it any wonder that some among us wonder why they should even try to fight for democracy?

But here’s the thing: Wherever Americans reside along the political spectrum, too many struggle with feelings of powerlessness to effect their fate, causing them to either prefer strongman leadership pledging to fix all their problems in a day or abandon a president who calls for unity and promises justice that they don’t see.

In both cases, this represents a lack of imagination about other possible futures and their potential to influence the results. In both cases, they may look at the idea of democracy and see a system that has failed to deliver the life they expected or thought they deserved if they worked hard and did the right thing. In such a mindset, it’s not hard to envision a future of increasing violence driven by frustration and fear—and the cynical assumption that the resulting chaos is OK if it harms the other side.

Make no mistake: I’m not asserting false equivalencies. We have seen that the growing belief in political violence has been significantly and successfully driven by Trump Republicans. Talk of a weaponized Justice Department and over-reaching federal government is a MAGA response to an ex-president telling them over and over—in the most vile and dangerous ways—that he’s facing political persecution in a system rigged against him.

But I think the work of this year ahead is to advocate for democracy and against the pessimistic conclusion that there’s nothing we can do to make things better. That means reminding our friends and family members, our neighbors and co-workers that their participation can make a difference, whether that’s to write postcards to registered voters, donate money to good candidates, serve at a polling station or on a local council, speak out whenever and wherever they can, drive friends and neighbors to the ballot box, or just vote themselves.

That also requires those of us who have a platform to give shape to the narrative of democracy so that it doesn’t look like a faded, tattered vision but a real, tangible picture of the future. It has to be inclusive of our diversity. It has to give confidence that the concepts of equality and justice are not just for some. It has to inspire the belief that self-governance is worth fighting for. It has to prove that the hostile opponents to the American experiment are not just attacking Democrats but every American. Maybe, just maybe, we can stir the indifferent and even awaken a few that we thought were lost forever

I don’t know about you, but I look forward to the year ahead. Every generation has its duty. In 2024, ours is to secure the survival of democracy and the promise of America as a place for hope.

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