If there are still Americans that think they can wait for the midterm elections in November or 2029, they are deluding themselves. You cannot vote your way out of an authoritarian state.

The Trump regime is actively building a police state and ICE’s reign of terror in Minneapolis is a portent for what is coming. They are kicking in doors without a warrant. Abducting kids from school or their workplace. Disappearing people, mostly Black and Brown people, off the street in broad daylight.

The regime is sending a clear message that they will not tolerate opposition. In fact, all opposition will eventually be viewed as being “radical left” domestic terrorism. That slogan on Kristi Noem’s podium which read “One of Ours, All of Yours” wasn’t just a threat. It was policy.

And the Democratic Party will not offer any meaningful dissent as they capitulate and appease the fascist regime. Indeed, liberal intellectuals like Ezra Klein are encouraging the party to go even more toward the right than they already are.

Does anyone really think “we stand with Israel” Chuck Schumer will stand up against the brutality of the American state when he won’t even say if he would abolish ICE or reduce its funding, even after it committed murder in plain site? Or Hakeem Jeffries who supported a genocidal state? Or liberal darling, Gavin Newsom, who is opposing a tax on billionaires in his own state?

This is the nascent stage of open fascism. It isn’t even full blown yet, since most Americans are still able to express their frustrations online. But that, too, will eventually be suppressed.

I once encouraged Americans to get out if they could, especially if they are Black, Brown, an immigrant or queer. Or to move to blue states. But even those states will be under siege, as we see in Minnesota.

Right now, more and more Americans are posting their frustration and rage online. More Americans than ever before are saying that civil war is inevitable. And they are preparing. Whether or not they are right, we should all be shocked that so many are saying these things out loud in a country awash in guns. And because words are often the precursor to action.

The only things that will stop this is for white Americans to look to Black, Brown and Indigenous movements. To learn from their oppression by the racist American state and their struggle against it, which goes back centuries. To learn how to build movements, community and sustained resistance. To understand that the powerful are not omnipotent, and a people united are the biggest foil to a brutal ruling class and regime.

Another is to strike. Not a small strike. A nationwide, general strike. The only thing that will force change is to hit the regime economically. Grind its financial machine to a halt. Make its parasitic billionaire class squirm. This is not without tremendous risk. We all know how violent the regime is. But there are limits to every power. And money is their god and their drug.

Will Americans do this? Right now, many are. Every day, thousands of ordinary people are getting out on the street to oppose ICE in Minneapolis. They are organizing and assisting those targeted. They are putting their bodies on the line, even after they murdered Renee Nicole Good in cold blood.

As the cost of living continues to rise exponentially and more Americans are crushed by state violence, more and more will look for solutions. Channeling this rage into non-violent, collective action can turn things around. But the window for that is closing rapidly. And once it is shut, it could take years or decades to pry it open again.

Kenn Maurice Orfanos, January 2026