The president has made dangerous inroads in his push toward autocracy. Yet the prospects for his success are dimming

How do we commemorate America’s democracy as Donald Trump undermines it? By embracing his opposition. The United States was founded by breaking from a monarchy. Trump wants to become king. An imperfect yet powerful system of checks and balances is being deployed to prevent him. The resistance is worth celebrating.

This is hardly the first challenge to US democracy. The early nation had no rights for Black people and no vote for women. It survived Jim Crow, the McCarthy era, and the “war on terror”. Yet there is no denying the seriousness of the threat posed by Trump.

The 250th anniversary is arriving among Black communities as a whisper instead of a roar

Not soon after Donald Trump’s 2025 inauguration, there emerged a viral illustration of four Black women sitting at the top of a building while watching the world burn at a distance. They are observing with coffee cups in hand. An American flag hangs over the edge. If that exhaustion hadn’t been made clear enough, Black people, particularly across TikTok and Threads, have urged one another to “not give them a reaction”.

The “them” is white people who find Black rage exciting and lucrative for their own personal gain. We’re not allowing our anger to become spectacle. We’re not shouting any more. What is most important is to stay alive, take care of one another, and to allow ourselves to step to the forefront for the rights that they have taken for granted as we’ve risked our lives to protect them. There is an old African American proverb: “If you can’t hear, then you must feel.”

Morgan Jerkins is a senior writer, race and equity, at the Guardian US