A few weeks ago, a German friend of mine who was preparing to travel for a month during her much anticipated sabbatical said: “I just hope we won’t find a changed country upon returning from our trip.” This was a week or so before the German parliamentary elections. She and her husband had already sent in their ballots by mail. But having been born in east Germany, my friend knew what it was like to have her life turned upside down from one day to the other after the fall of the wall. While we shared some of the concerns regarding the far right gaining seats in the German parliament, I never doubted that the center would hold. This time.
Is the center holding in the U.S.?
William Butler Yeats wrote these famous lines in his poem “The Second Coming” in 1919, when the world was still suffering from death and destruction of World War I while the flu pandemic ripped through Europe and the world. It was a time when optimism seemed like a luxury and disaster ever present. It took another disastrous war to change how European nations dealt with each other and a major player, the U.S.A., to initiate a post-war alliance guaranteeing peace and prosperity for 80 years. Since January 20, 2025, the day that Trump took control, all this is in jeopardy. Many Americans do not recognize the country they live in anymore. In only two months, domestically the social contract has been upended and, internationally, the post-war balance of power is threatened. For anybody who cherishes stability, freedom and peace, this is almost too much to take in.
Information overload!
Former Trump advisor Steve Bannon’s strategy of “flooding the zone” aims to destroy any reasonable discourse by drawing attention away from issues that need scrutiny. Because of information overload one feels one step behind constantly. Discussions on deportations of illegal Venezuelan immigrants to concentration camps in San Salvador without due process are drowned out by the next scandal such as “Signalgate”, the severe security breach on the messaging platform Signal relating to the recent U.S. bombings in Yemen.
Meanwhile Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), though challenged by numerous court cases, continues its infamous work of dismantling government agencies and firing ten thousands of federal employees. As if this was not bad enough, DOGE is rewriting history by taking down records of perceived “DEI” (diversity, equity and inclusion) content such as information on the Navajo code talkers in World War II or the famous Tuskegee Airmen on the Department of Defense website. The literal “white washing” of American history and society would deserve a blog of its own, but I am referencing it here because erasing the memory of a diverse history is part of the authoritarian playbook.
Reading about the daily craziness of American politics, I wondered how my American friends and colleagues are looking at the turmoil in their country. And I am looking for signs of resistance. Civil disobedience has a long tradition in American history. And even if you do not take up arms to fight the injustice, you may withdraw or hinder any support of the forces that destroy the body politic.
American viewpoints: a snapshot
A Political Scientist whose judgement I have trusted for decades is worried, not just about funding for institutions of higher education that the Trump administration is withholding from universities they deem not compliant with MAGA ideology:
“This time is different. In the past, presidents of the two parties differed on policies, and sometimes significantly, but there were certain consensus values about constitutionalism, the legitimate role of the courts, separation of powers, the rule of law, peaceful succession of powers, respect for an independent media, and commitments to our alliances.”
In his lectures for international audiences, he often cited the presidential elections of 2000 as an example of trust in government institutions when the race for the presidency between Republican candidate George W. Bush and Democrat Al Gore was too close to call and eventually decided by the Supreme Court:
“The institutions of U.S. democracy are fragile and always have been to some degree. They rely upon actors following certain norms and accepting the legitimacy of its foundational principles. Think of Al Gore conceding the election in 2000. There was substantial evidence of voter irregularities, most Americans thought the 5-4 Supreme Court case decision was political, and yet once the Court announced its decision in Bush v. Gore, the vice president conceded, and he congratulated George Bush and urged Americans to unite to support their incoming president. I used to tell international groups that this was an example of how our system works based on acceptance of the ultimate authority of the Supreme Court in this case – an institution that possesses no army, no police force, no enforcement mechanism other than when the Court decides, we follow.”
With the current administration defying court orders (e.g. ignoring the order of a federal judge to turn the planes around deporting supposedly illegal immigrants to El Salvador without any prior legal process) and a Supreme Court deemed partisan (see Presidential immunity ruling), trust in the guardrails of democracy and previously agreed upon norms are blatantly challenged these days.
An activist who worked for civil rights institutions for decades is deeply disappointed in the Democrats’ response to the chaos. She laments a lack of leadership in organizing opposition and inviting citizen participation across all states: “How could they be caught off guard? Where’s the fight??? I continue to worry about the most vulnerable among us—trans people, immigrants, the poor and elderly, Palestinians, and their supporters. Not to mention Trump’s obsession with attempting to erase Black people and our accomplishments.”
A former diplomat whose mission was to promote democratic values around the world is especially dismayed by the fact that trusted alliances are being eroded by the current administration: “I cannot help but feel that we have let down our allies and many in the world who have looked to the United States as some sort of beacon, however imperfect. Serving overseas, I always felt that I represented the American people, regardless of the government of the day. And I still believe in the root generosity of the American people.”
As many others he believes that the core of the current crisis in the U.S. is inequality, the gap between the haves and have-nots that has been widening since the 1980s: “We are paying now, I think, for the erosion of the middle class, which is necessary to sustain democracy. For too long we have tolerated the extremes of wealth and poverty. There are many political and economic forces which have been party to the erosion of our middle class. The sad result is a government that places the “good” of billionaires over the common good of the American people.”
A Professor of history at a prominent southern university offers his long-term assessment of the current political chaos to help put developments into context. Just as the diplomat quoted above, he is finding fault with both sides of the aisle:
“Ronald Reagan was fond of saying, ‘The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: ‘I’m from the government, and I’m here to help.’ Bill Clinton, a Democrat, announced in 1996 that ‘The era of big government is over,’ and promised to ‘end welfare as we know it,’ giving states more power in determining the distribution of federal welfare funds. The philosophy that guided the Truman, Eisenhower, and Johnson administrations was a robust, optimistic, and inclusive vision that invoked Abraham Lincoln’s dictum that ‘government must do for the people what the people cannot do, individually, for themselves.’ That philosophy has diminished considerably since the 1970s. And, in 2016, Donald Trump took advantage of the growing discrepancies in education, occupation, home-ownership, and income. Unfortunately, in the ensuing decade the economic divide has grown worse and the political division has become an abyss. “
The center will hold as long as the middle class is doing well, as long as parents have faith in a better future for their children or that, at least, they can hold on to the standard of living they were brought up in. A democracy will flourish as long as there is a consensus that the weakest among us are taken care of and everybody has a fair chance to succeed. But distrust and discontent are on the rise in the U.S. and Germany, as the last elections in both our countries have shown.
The question is: How do we restore faith in our democratic institutions and societies? It starts by listening to those who are disillusioned by democracy.
Finding hope
I find optimism in an old fighter like 83-year-old Bernie Sanders, the independent senator from Vermont. He is teaming up with a young fighter, 35-year-old Democratic representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (New York) to conduct town halls all over the country and especially in red Republican and purple districts. Together they are filling a void because Republican politicians are advised not to hold these town halls due to increasingly severe voter pushback on unpopular policies of the Trump administration. Sanders holds these meetings as opportunities to listen to the complaints of the people. He asks the audience: “What is it like for you to live pay-check to pay-check”, and people open up to him. They feel heard, taken seriously. His tour’s motto “Fighting Oligarchy: Where We Go From Here” seems to resonate with voters of both parties as it recently drew 15,000 in Arizona and more than 120,000 online.
Are these rallies enough for a push-back to inhumane policies like the dismantling of social security, health care and support for education? Not yet, an exhausted Bernie Sanders says, it takes more, but it is a start. How many swing voters are attending the rallies is hard to say, but Sanders is reaching beyond his previous fan base, as his former campaign manager Faiz Shakir states: “65 percent of those names are new to our list.” He adds that in just ten stops, more than 107,000 people have RSVP’d to attend one of these events.
Without their MAGA uniforms, all of a sudden attendees look like your neighbor again, angry, yes, but concerned for the well-being of their families and communities. While Sanders’ message of support for the working class hasn’t changed in practically decades and Ocasio-Cortez is talking about the same issues as during the presidential election campaign, it is their authenticity that resonates with people. The same applies to Kamala Harris’ running mate Tim Walz who is hitting the road as well. But the Democratic party overall is in crisis mode with approval ratings hovering below 30%, an all-time low, as CNN reports.
And yet – I find optimism in the grass roots activism of a friend from Texas, a child of Cuban immigrants who, for many years, worked as a project administrator at a medical center and volunteered to help immigrants at the border. She started a discussion with 25 women in her region on how to push back, how to organize dissent and protect the vulnerable, especially immigrants, in their neighborhoods. This is what she wrote to them: “Many of you agree with me that we have an obligation to act, even though it feels like a tsunami is upon us. Some of you are overwhelmed with personal situations and agree with the idea but may not have the ability or energy to connect with the group. All that is fine, there is no ‘one way’ to participate.”
The group is in the process of organizing their first meeting and coordinating with well-connected groups elsewhere, even across state lines. They are calling themselves “STAND UP” and are joined by men and other women now as well. It takes only one person to start a movement, from the bottom up.
My historian friend lifts me up when he writes: “I’m an incurable optimist. Probably not surprising considering how my grandparents escaped from Czarist Russia with, barely, their lives, and eventually made their way to the U.S. My maternal grandfather’s first job was as a rag-picker; my grandmother, as a teenager, worked in a textile mill. My paternal grandfather was a stoker in the Carnegie Steel Mills in Pittsburgh, and my paternal grandmother worked as a cook in a settlement house. There are stories like that in the U.S. today, but they are fewer. We need a political system that embraces all of us, not just the well-educated and well-heeled. Maybe the jolt of Trump administration will provide the impetus for a return to a more inclusive government.”
Telling democracy’s story
It would be easy to dismiss American citizens as uninformed and unfamiliar with totalitarian assaults on their democracy, as I have seen in many comments on social media sites, especially from concerned voices from abroad. But that would be jumping too short.
Many Americans share a collective knowledge of persecution and tyranny, because they themselves or relatives one or more generations before their own had to escape from, or fight, oppression: the historian whose grandparents escaped pogroms in Europe; the African-American civil rights advocate who herself fought discrimination and whose ancestors endured the unspeakable horrors of enslavement; and the child of Cuban immigrants, now a grassroots organizer, who worries about relatives who only recently arrived legally in the U.S. and thought they were finally safe. They now fear deportation. It was FDR who declared, among other freedoms defining America, that each American should be free from fear.
Such stories need to be told. They need to be shared, again, so voters know what they are about to lose in an autocratic state, in the U.S. as well as in Germany. But it all starts with listening.
A few years ago, a former colleague of mine told me that when she visited her parents in the north-east of Germany during election cycles, she would only see posters for candidates of AfD, the far right party that has gained so much traction in the formerly communist-ruled part of the country. The so-called established party representatives had, apparently, given up on those voters and did not even go here. A fatal mistake.
For Germany, I would hope that politicians do not just reach out to potential voters during an election campaign. Members of parliament should regularly go on a listening tour even outside their own constituency, like Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, support fellow politicians, mayors and civic groups in embattled regions that are trying to keep their communities together. Change needs to be visible for citizens even in the most remote corners of our country. But elected officials cannot do it alone. Democracy needs support from all of us. We all need to learn to listen, build bridges and re-tell the story of what it was like not to live in a democracy, be it in the communist East or Nazi Germany. We need to keep that memory alive to embolden our democratic system from the bottom up. There is no alternative.
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Notes
* https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43290/the-second-coming
https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2025/03/17/pentagon-dei-native-american-iwo-jima
https://www.tuskegee.edu/support-tu/tuskegee-airmen
https://www.britannica.com/event/Bush-v-Gore
https://www.axios.com/2025/03/16/trump-white-house-defy-judge-deport-venezuelans
Amy Howe, Justices rule Trump has some immunity from prosecution, SCOTUSblog (Jul. 1, 2024, 12:26 PM), https://www.scotusblog.com/2024/07/justices-rule-trump-has-some-immunity-from-prosecution/
https://berniesanders.com/oligarchy
https://www.commondreams.org/news/aoc-bernie-rally-arizona-town-hall-billionaire
https://prospect.org/politics/2025-03-26-bernies-fighting-oligarchy-tour-organizing
Opinion | Bernie Sanders Is Tapping Into a Deep Vein of Anger in America (NYT, March 24, 2025)https://edition.cnn.com/2025/03/16/politics/cnn-poll-democrats/index.html
