The military is in the streets of Los Angeles.

That image alone—armed National Guard troops deployed by a sitting president against the will of local officials—should shake this country to its core. But it is not happening in isolation. It is part of a coordinated and escalating assault on democracy itself.

All while, in the backdrop, Congress is advancing a budget deal that expands military and ICE funding while slashing Medicaid and nutritional assistance for millions of working-class families.

And on Saturday, Trump will stage a military parade in Washington, D.C.—a grotesque celebration of state power at the very moment it is being used to crush dissent and consolidate control.

This is not a metaphor. This is a turning point.

We are witnessing, in real time, the merger of authoritarianism and oligarchy. Trump is consolidating power not just through policy but through spectacle, surveillance, and the criminalization of dissent. His targets include journalists, immigrants, students, union organizers, law firms, and civil society groups.

We know we cannot count on the same institutions that have ignored or dismissed the very communities now under threat. We are turning to the people—to the organizers, the movement-builders, the working class—to rise up and defend what remains of our democracy.

His allies are billionaires and corporate elites—Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, Goldman Sachs, Palantir. With them, he is expanding the surveillance state, deregulating crypto markets, and auctioning off public power to private interests. The machinery of government is being weaponized to serve wealth and silence opposition.

Meanwhile, Democrats are fumbling.

Instead of confronting this authoritarian moment with clarity and resolve, too many are still busy in performative tactics. Just last week, while organizers were bracing for raids, the most shared political image was not a show of solidarity or urgency. It was Democrats handing tacos to Republicans.

That is not leadership. It........

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