Ezra Klein

But not everything that everyone else says between now and October 2026 can or should be poll tested. It is a thin vision of politics to back literally everything out from elections. When Senator Chris Van Hollen went to El Salvador, and I'm very glad he did, he was representing his constituent, Obrego Garcia's wife, a U.S.

But not everything that everyone else says between now and October 2026 can or should be poll tested. It is a thin vision of politics to back literally everything out from elections. When Senator Chris Van Hollen went to El Salvador, and I'm very glad he did, he was representing his constituent, Obrego Garcia's wife, a U.S.

citizen and a Maryland resident, whose husband had been disappeared by the president.

citizen and a Maryland resident, whose husband had been disappeared by the president.

That is Van Hollen's job. That is constituent service of the highest order. And the rest of us, we have other jobs, other roles, and they're not all about winning elections. We're in the midst of an attempted authoritarian breakthrough. I don't think there's another way to say that.

That is Van Hollen's job. That is constituent service of the highest order. And the rest of us, we have other jobs, other roles, and they're not all about winning elections. We're in the midst of an attempted authoritarian breakthrough. I don't think there's another way to say that.

How much opposition the Trump administration faces from other corridors and other power centers will matter to what they do. If it's easy to deport people to an El Salvadoran prison, they're going to do a lot more of it.

How much opposition the Trump administration faces from other corridors and other power centers will matter to what they do. If it's easy to deport people to an El Salvadoran prison, they're going to do a lot more of it.

One lesson from history, I think, one reason I am so focused here, is that when the machine of disappearing people begins rolling, when that becomes a tactic, it can roll pretty damn far if it's not stopped early. It's the same with Trump's effort to break the universities, to break the law firms, to break the government. If it's easy, they will keep going. They will do more of it.

One lesson from history, I think, one reason I am so focused here, is that when the machine of disappearing people begins rolling, when that becomes a tactic, it can roll pretty damn far if it's not stopped early. It's the same with Trump's effort to break the universities, to break the law firms, to break the government. If it's easy, they will keep going. They will do more of it.

They will do it faster. If it's hard, they might not. They also have limited bandwidth, limited energy, limited attention, limited resources. The election isn't next week. We have more than 550 days until just the midterms. Civil society needs to act in the interim. There is not just one job here, and we are not in the final two weeks of an election campaign.

They will do it faster. If it's hard, they might not. They also have limited bandwidth, limited energy, limited attention, limited resources. The election isn't next week. We have more than 550 days until just the midterms. Civil society needs to act in the interim. There is not just one job here, and we are not in the final two weeks of an election campaign.

And then I've been hearing this other argument, an argument that can sound to me like a kind of fatalism, as if the country has already fallen, as if Donald Trump's power is already limitless, as if the fight is already lost. The most common email I got in reply to last week's episode was, isn't it naive to think we're going to have midterms at all? I think we will have midterms.

And then I've been hearing this other argument, an argument that can sound to me like a kind of fatalism, as if the country has already fallen, as if Donald Trump's power is already limitless, as if the fight is already lost. The most common email I got in reply to last week's episode was, isn't it naive to think we're going to have midterms at all? I think we will have midterms.

And I think one reason it can be hard to imagine a way into that is so many people are working in their head with comparisons to other places, to other times. To Putin's Russia, or Mussolini's Italy, or different authoritarian takeovers in Latin America, or even Hitler's Germany.

And I think one reason it can be hard to imagine a way into that is so many people are working in their head with comparisons to other places, to other times. To Putin's Russia, or Mussolini's Italy, or different authoritarian takeovers in Latin America, or even Hitler's Germany.

And the problem with all those stories is that we know how they ended. At least for a time, the tyrant successfully consolidated power. The opposition lost. Elections were no longer a usable check. When we start to think that the only way to understand our moment is through those moments, it becomes easy to slip into a kind of mental inevitability.

And the problem with all those stories is that we know how they ended. At least for a time, the tyrant successfully consolidated power. The opposition lost. Elections were no longer a usable check. When we start to think that the only way to understand our moment is through those moments, it becomes easy to slip into a kind of mental inevitability.

But we don't need to look abroad for our comparisons. Not saying there's no value in doing so, but it shouldn't be the only thing we do. Deportations and expulsions and abuses of civil liberty and the taking away of rights, that's all part of the American tradition. Illiberalism is part of the American tradition. Jim Crow, the Red Scare, Japanese-American internment, Operation Wetback.

But we don't need to look abroad for our comparisons. Not saying there's no value in doing so, but it shouldn't be the only thing we do. Deportations and expulsions and abuses of civil liberty and the taking away of rights, that's all part of the American tradition. Illiberalism is part of the American tradition. Jim Crow, the Red Scare, Japanese-American internment, Operation Wetback.