Listen To This Story

Nobody I’m on speaking terms with much liked 2025. It’s been grimly amusing to read and watch wag after wag vying to outdo each other in trying to come up with fresh, pungent words and phrases for just how bad this year under Donald Trump’s cruel, corrupt, and cancerous thumb was. 

A common theme of the many 2025 retrospectives I’ve read is the frank concession that the year was much worse than the writer thought it would be — in some cases, thought possible.

Readers familiar with my writing will know that I won’t be making such an admission. This year, in all of its florid depravity, was no surprise to me. It matched the year my columns predicted as if it were following a script. My only gloss on that is, as I noted in one of this year’s pieces, “Even the confidently predicted can be shocking as you watch it unfold in reality.”

The columns chosen for this retrospective kick off with a once-taboo examination of parallels with the Third Reich, particularly the playbook for consolidation of power, and run through a warning about the conduct of next year’s elections. One notable, and terribly disturbing, lack of historical parallelism is that Hitler was elected only once while Trump was elected twice, with what, the second time, should have been comprehensive national awareness of who he was and what he would bring. If that could happen here, what can’t?

Writing got harder and harder for me as the year wore on, with its cumulative derangement and sustained assault on comprehension. Report the news and developments, yes; but my beat is commentary and, after a certain point, what was really left to add to the portrait already painted of Donald Trump and his evil entourage? 

Nevertheless, like my also aghast colleagues here at WhoWhatWhy, I persisted. I tried to shed light deep into the crevices between the battles, depths that most of the media was skimming over. And at the same time to keep the focus on the big picture — the war. As Joyce Vance put it so succinctly, “Giving Up Is Unforgivable.” And I would add that our job is not to be silent — silence is how we know that depravity and evil have been normalized.

In the year ahead, democracy in America will face its greatest challenge in living memory and perhaps in our nation’s history: every day as Trump grasps for ever more power in the face of ever shrinking popularity; and then, very directly, in November when the people go to the polls. 

How will that election be protected from the machinations of a man (and his cult) with utter contempt for democracy, who cannot face defeat? It will take more than thoughts and prayers — it will take unprecedented levels of preparedness, vigilance, cooperation, and fortitude.

It will be our supreme test — as citizens and upholders of democracy. And it will be a thematic focus of my work at WhoWhatWhy. We’re in uncharted, and very dangerous, waters. Next year at this time, we may perhaps have a better sense of our destiny.

You might, understandably, be tempted to skip these columns that center on some of the lowest points of 2025. After all, it’s the holidays! Who, already exhausted, wants to relive the nightmare? 

But, as my colleague John Stoehr reminded us in his column earlier this week addressing Bari Weiss’s auto-kneecapping of 60 Minutes, “It bears repeating that the primary crisis facing American democracy is about information. There are just too many ways for the rich and powerful to control the truth.”

We’re in the information business — neither rich nor powerful and with no aspiration to become either, just a dedication to protecting the truth against those who would, by controlling it, kill it. We write, we read, we see, we act — and the seeds of truth begin to grow again into a mighty tree.

A Fourth Reich? It’s Not Just a Bad Dream

Defend our democracy now — or lose it. Read more. 

A Deep Dive Into Why Everything Is Bonkers in Trump’s America

Philosopher John Rawls dared to envision what a truly good and fair society would look like. It doesn’t look anything like us. Read more.

Normalization, Rationalization, Illusion: Three Short Poems for Our Time

Unlike in previous, more or less normal times, the devil right now is not in the details. Read more.

My First Harvard Donation in Nearly 50 Years: They Can Thank Trump

My contribution bears the hope and faith that my alma mater’s fortitude in the face of Trump’s attack is not short-lived or performative. Read more.

A Tale of Two Numbers: Lives Saved by Trump and the April Jobs Report

At what point do we stop believing? Read more.

The Dictator’s Doom Loop Revisited: Trump Won’t Go Gentle

Which is worse, the cliff or the off-ramp? Read more.

Stopping Trump: It’s the Economy, Stupid!

We need a weapon Trump can’t turn against us. Read more.

As His Popularity Tanks, Donald Trump Turns to Power

Speaking of tanks, are we prepared for what’s coming? Read more.

A Modest Proposal: How Democrats Could Take the House (Before November 2026)

Come in, they said, we’ll give ya shelter from the storm. Read more.

Poem: ‘Prescription’ — My Pre-Dawn Vision of a Darkening World

Silencing artists, attacking scientists, and whitewashing history are sure signs that Donald Trump is a despot bent on absolute power. Read more.

The Handwriting on the Rubble: The East Wing and Election 2026

Trump’s hide-the-wrecking-ball tactics won’t stop with buildings. Read more.