Trumpism easily falls outside of the “bourgeois democratic” boundaries that governed U.S. politics for the past century. It is a reaction not only to the decline and crisis of the neoliberal order, but also to the expansion of democracy since the 60s and the pressures to further expand U.S. democracy going forward. Led by an unstable, demagogic strongman sitting in the White House, Trump demonstrates every day by his words and actions his contempt (and MAGA’s) for existing democratic institutions and rights paired with an unconcealed ambition to construct an authoritarian, anti-democratic, revanchist, billionaire friendly order to replace (by any means necessary) it.

Will he be successful? It’s too early to tell. To no small degree, it will depend on what we do to resist this authoritarian takeover, which is already underway. To say that it isn’t is to allow formal markers, say the administration’s decision to ignore a Supreme Court ruling, to decide on the nature of this political moment and, in equal measure, what is required to reverse course. We can’t do that! With no time to spare, each of us has to become an author of our collective future.