Years of Tyranny
Today is January 6th, 2026. Five years since Trump’s riot tried to steal the 2020 presidential election by attacking the US Capitol Building and the Congress within it.
One year (almost) since Trump took office and began his second term. The second Trump administration is markedly different than the first. It is emboldened, seditious, and hostile to the constitutional underpinnings of our nation in ways the first only dreamed. That first admin was filled, likely by laziness, with people who would occasionally side with the law over the President’s illegal desires. The second admin has remedied that conviction. Now populated by sycophants and yes-men, the unconstrained juvenile urges of the head despot and his inner circle of fascists (there is no more accurate term for Stephen Miller and his ilk) flow freely through the arms of the state, subjugating the people and violating American and international law around the world.
Today also marks (almost again) five years of Trump rule, four from the first term and one from this. That is five years of climate antagonism. Of speed-running how much damage they can do to the global ecosystem and the environments of America. That is stealing money allotted by Biden’s Congress to help American industry, research, and environment (and claiming credit for it when cancelling doesn’t work). That’s selling off national, protected lands. It is illegally stopping certified clean energy projects when they are basically done being built, raising the price of energy for Americans. It’s fighting market forces, propping up dying coal plants to the tune of billions, costing the US taxpayer money and poisoning our air at the same time (two for one!). It is setting the world back by being a weight against action instead of a leader ushering in a new age of clean, affordable energy.
The toxins released by fossil fuels kill people. Every year millions die to air pollution and millions more are being impacted by worsening climate disasters, irregular rain patterns, changing crop and animal ecosystems, and an acidifying ocean, all fueled by the carbon and greenhouse gases flooding out from human activity.
Three years to go. That’s a lot of time from Trump to further entrench climate death. As he reaches for more and more illegal power, he’ll gain greater ability to do so as his whims dictate, more dictator than President.
Four years until 2030, the namesake of this publication, the first grand milestone set after the renewed focus on climate swelled up in the late ‘10s. Almost entirely because of the election of Trump (twice), I don’t think we are going to hit most of our targets. 12+ years of Biden policy would have gotten us there, though. He was the most climate forward and friendly President in history.
That alone cements him as one of the greatest, for the number of Presidents who have even faced a threat to our nation on that terrible level is few. Trump is actually one of them, since he faces the same threat. However, he chooses to aid this danger to America and her people. Biden fought it. In that light, Biden finds kinship with our greatest leaders, Washington, Lincoln, Roosevelt. In his antagonism of our nation, Trump instead finds kin with our greatest foes, King George III, Jefferson Davis, Hitler.
One year (less than that really) until midterms, a chance to elect, in spite of threats to a free election, a Congress that will rise up to the challenge of a despotic Executive. This will be our greatest chance to resist, for ourselves, our world, and our posterity, the years of tyranny to come. It will lay the groundwork for what happens in two more years time, when Trump and his acolytes may try to once and for all usurp democracy from the people of the United States.
There is plenty to do in the meantime. Take care of yourself and those around you. When faced with an overwhelming enemy (and Trump is an enemy, even to those who voted for him), it is vital to keep up one’s strength, and doing so requires keeping up one’s sanity, too. Drum up support. Learn about this wonderful world that depends on us to not kill it (of course, the Earth will survive until the Sun says so, but our world and all its fragile beauty, we have to hold onto). Decide what your fight looks like. This, it seems, is part of mine.
Fifty eight more years for me. Factoring average life expectancy and lifestyle habits, that is apparently how many years I have left to expect to enjoy life on Earth (barring accidents or advancements). Trump will likely die pretty soon. While his negative effects on this planet will last decades (at least), that’s still a lot of time for me to fight to make things better, and to experience this life’s beauty.