2025 is almost here, and, along with it, the second Trump inauguration. As we face hard and troubling times, I have decided to make some resolutions.
I resolve to acknowledge my shock, my grief, and my nausea at the outcome of the 2024 election, but I also resolve not to let those emotions overcome me.
In lieu of uncontrollable anger at my fellow Americans who voted for Trump, I will permit myself a little Schadenfreude.
I resolve to remain politically engaged.
Although Trump’s second term will pose a clear and present danger to our civil liberties, I resolve to speak out—and act on—the assumption that those civil liberties remain in full force and effect.
I resolve to put, first and foremost, the protection of the rule of law.
Although the rule of law has suffered great setbacks, and although it is likely to face grave challenges in the near term, I resolve to remain firm in my resolve that the rule of law will ultimately prevail.
To that end, I resolve to support the rule of law not only by speaking out but also by providing financial support for those trying to save our constitutional republic.
I resolve not to be a summer solder or a sunshine patriot.
I resolve not to give way to fear—or to exhaustion.
To the extent humanly possible, I resolve to overcome my cognitive biases and to observe our present political environment with eyes wide open.
I resolve to process all the facts—the facts I like, plus the facts I don’t like, plus the facts that seem so strange that I can hardly believe them.
I resolve always to keep in mind the distinction between a known fact and a reasonable working hypothesis.
I resolve always to keep in mind the distinction between a reasonable working hypothesis and a mere plausible speculation.
I resolve to remember that my name is not Nostradamus: I can plausibly speculate about the future based on the known facts, but, beyond that, I cannot actually predict the future.
I resolve to remember that my name is not The Amazing Kreskin: I can plausibly speculate about what you are thinking, based on how you act and on what you say, but, at the end of the day, I cannot actually read your mind.
I resolve to remember that my name is not Rosy Scenario. I resolve not to just assume that a happy outcome will occur.
I resolve to remember that my name is not Debby Downer. I resolve to remember that a happy outcome is still possible.
I resolve, in the words of the hymn, to “wake now compassion” and “give heed to the cry” of the “voices of suffering” that “fill the wide sky.”
I resolve, in the words of the hymn, to “wake now my reason” and “reach out to the new.”
I resolve, in the words of the hymn, to “take not for granted a privileged place.”
I resolve to work toward a new Democratic coalition of the working class and the educated professional class, and I resolve to do my part in relentlessly promoting a strategy and a set of tactics that will lead to that goal.
Facing MAGA 