Hope Abandoned

They say hindsight is 20/20, and you think America would have learned its lesson, now that 2020 was hindsight. Yet somehow, Donald J. Trump was in the White House again.

Part I

How did Trump manage it? Well, he didn’t, at first, but the scenario was a few years in the making. After Democrats failed to pass meaningful voting rights protections due to the filibuster in 2021 and 2022, Republication-controlled state legislatures had carte blanche to pass even more restrictive voting laws, gerrymander congressional districts to favor their own, and to dump dark money into targeted campaigns.

Rebranding itself, the GOP became the new America First Party, so as to root out dissenters from the old Republican guard. The Republican Party was dead; AFP, a populist movement with authoritarian flair was reborn in its ashes. It would be ruthless and uninhibited.

The AFP never commanded a majority in opinion polls, but it didn’t need to. Where it controlled state legislatures, it drew the lines to favor the AFP in both state and federal races and to disadvantage others. In its Machiavellian calculus, it didn’t matter if the elections were “free and fair”, as long as they could win. Whatever the AFP did was right and just, whatever anyone else did was partisan and illegitimate.

Prior to 2024, the Department of Justice would challenge many of the state voter suppression laws, particularly those obviously singling out people of color and other minorities, such as in Georgia and North Carolina. Some of these archaic bills would get rolled back, but the victories were small and temporary. The sheer volume of voter suppression laws, numbering in the hundreds, meant the DOJ didn’t have the manpower to challenge them all, at least not in time for the midterms in 2022, or the general election in 2024.

With congressional redistricting, and with the aid of extreme gerrymandering in key states, the AFP won a slim majority in the House of Representatives in 2022, by five seats, without getting the majority of votes in these races. That was fine since they were playing the long game. In the case of the Senate, the Dems lost a seat while picking up another, so it was again a fifty-fifty split, and the gridlock would continue. Whatever collegiality that once existed in the Senate was laid to rest in Arlington.

Facebook lifted Trump’s suspension in 2023. Just in time for 2024, Trump was back! Trump posted vigorously, firing up his narrow base with vitriol. However, his confederates in the AFP would recirculate his 24-hour musings over and over, amplifying his voice across the digital sphere. Facebook didn’t have the stomach to abate it. Facebook didn’t want to be “political”, they just wanted to make money.

Trump easily won the AFP nomination. Going into 2024, as was mentioned, the sentiments of the general population had not changed towards Trump… but the laws had. In his third time running for president at the top of a major party’s ticket, Trump was not expected to win.

Turnout had increased by a few million in 2024, even though the AFP voter suppression laws had still managed to depress the vote. In 2024, as in 2020 and 2016, Trump lost the popular vote, this time by nearly 9 million. However, the electoral college was going to be trickier this time. Pennsylvania and Michigan were close but remained in the Democrats’ Blue Wall. However, Arizona, Georgia, and Wisconsin were squeakers.

Voter suppression in Georgia paid off, yielding a narrow Trump victory, by 1360 votes. The AFP-controlled legislature now had oversight of any recounts or audits, and they were unconcerned about those numbers changing the Georgia tally. Arizona and Wisconsin were ostensibly less messy with the Democratic challenger about ten thousand votes ahead in each. However, brutally gerrymandered Wisconsin’s legislature was under AFP control as was Arizona’s.

The usual, unsubstantiated cries about voter fraud flew once again from the Trump camp. Arizona and Wisconsin recounts and audits proceeded a little differently this time. Instead of a transparent process, the results were reported to the state legislatures. Simple majorities of the Arizona and Wisconsin legislatures chose to award their electoral votes to Trump, regardless of the will of voters or the actual numbers. The laws had been changed to accommodate just such a scenario.

Thus, the electoral college awarded Trump 269 electoral votes, and his opponent 269 electoral votes. Neither party had achieved the requisite 270 votes to win the electoral college; the fact that Trump lost the popular vote by 9 million was immaterial. The matter went before the House of Representatives, but being that the AFP controlled more state delegations, they handed the presidency to Donald Trump. – The complexities of the U.S. electoral system had been manipulated, but its design was already perverse. The AFP utilized the levers of government to give themselves the advantage and had now entrenched themselves federally and in a majority of state legislatures. The AFP now had narrow margins in both the House and Senate, but they would waste no time killing the filibuster and cranking through legislation.

Trump had the presidency and his America First Party had Congress. The composition of the Supreme Court remained the same, in the AFP’s favor. With all branches now under AFP control without winning actual majorities, the U.S. was now under one-party rule. America was now a democracy in name only, but this was just the beginning.

Part II

Crystal Brown walked from the light rail station on campus at Arizona State University and crossed Rural Road to get home to La Cresenta Apartments. Tempe was in the Phoenix Metro Area, and as part of the Valley of the Sun, it seared down at a blistering 119 degrees. This was a record temperature for early May 2026, but each year was hotter than the last, a trend that would continue due to climate change.

Crystal’s unit was a one-bedroom apartment on the first floor of a two-story 1970s-built complex, surrounded by trendy, modern high-rise condos and suites. Her complex was one of the only originals in the Lemon-Terrace neighborhood. However, Crystal didn’t choose it for nostalgia; it was cheap and had a great location, close to ASU and Arizona’s paltry public transportation.

Stopping in front of her door, she sighed. Her long black braids felt heavy in the heat. Looking down, a fleck of gold caught the sunlight and then her eye. Stooping down, she picked up the heart-shaped locket that had been a gift from her mother when she graduated from ASU. It must have fallen off when she was in a hurry to go to the ASU Health and Wellness clinic. She put the necklace back on, the metal stinging her skin. She opened the door and braced herself for the coming conversation.

“Hey Dallen, glad to see you’re awake, now that it’s 1:00 in the afternoon,” said Crystal, as she strolled in and shut the door promptly behind her.

Dallen, watching the news, replied, “Looks like we pulled out of the Paris Accords… again. – Where have you been? I don’t have a shift at the bar until later, so I’ve just been basking in the air conditioning.”

“Oh…” Crystal paused, “I just had an errand to run on campus. I do have a favor to ask… Could I borrow your car tomorrow morning? I’m substituting in Chandler and have no way to get there, plus it’s the last week of school.”

“My car, unfortunately, is kaput. I’d take it to the shop, but since I can’t afford to fix it anyway, I figure I’d let it collect moss. Wait… what happened to your car?”

“Funny story… remember that protest in Phoenix last week? Well, now because of the new anti-protest laws, there are all these new restrictions… long story short, my car has been impounded and it’s going to cost 400 bones to get it out. As you know, that’s a good chunk of our rent. How were you going to get to work then?”

“Shit. That blows. Sam, my coworker, is going to give me a lift on his way to Scottsdale,” Dallen said, staring ahead at the TV.

Dallen Spencer was a PhD candidate in religious studies at ASU. In addition to being a research assistant, he bartended and tutored to make ends meet. Crystal’s situation was similar, finishing her master’s in political science, and serving and substitute teaching on the side. The two met at a political protest in 2022 and hit it off. A gay ex-Mormon local boy and an Afro-Caribbean Latina from Milwaukee may have appeared an odd pair, but they made it work. Crystal got the bedroom and Dallen slept on the sleeper sofa in the living room. It was an economical yet friendly arrangement.

“Why don’t you just take an Uber tomorrow?”

“Because it will be like 25 dollars each way… and the sub job is only about $100. On top of that, ever since the legislature outlawed ‘Critical Race Theory’, they always give me a list of topics not to discuss in class, like I’m an invalid,” she sighed again, “This is just the frosting on top of my fucking cake!” Crystal finally lost her cool and hot tears streamed down her face.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa… It’s alright,” Dallen got up and put an arm around her. “What the hell happened?”

Crystal returned the embrace and regained some composure, “I went to the ASU clinic because I’m late.”

“Late?”

“Like very late… Like I’m pregnant, Dallen.”

“Oh, shit. I had no idea. I didn’t know you were seeing anyone…”

“I’m NOT!”

“You know what, it’s none of my business. Just tell me what you want to do,” Dallen said, taking a seat on the edge of the sofa.

“No, I’ll tell you. I went to a house party a couple months back, on my own. I had a couple drinks and was having a good time, but I was in control. Then this slick law student chatted me up. It was obvious he was a charmer, but I was having a good time. Anyway, I think he slipped me something.”

“Jesus, Crys, did you tell anyone?”

“Tell who what? I don’t remember his name… and I was fine, until this complication. I did have a bad feeling about it.”

“Crystal, you weren’t on birth control?”

“I was, but then that Supreme Court case came and took the teeth out of Roe and all the laws changed. Birth control is no longer part of my health insurance. And I would have gotten Plan B the next day, but they took that off the market too!”

“Whoa. What about Planned Parenthood?” Dallen asked.

“Dal, there is no more Planned Parenthood in Arizona. Abortions are now only permissible in the hospital during the first eight weeks… I didn’t know until today.”

“How long?”

“Nine fucking weeks along.”

“Well, if we fix my car, maybe we can go to the border?”

“Which border?”

“Mexico… or California would work too?” Dallen proposed.

“All I know is I can’t afford this now. My mom is dead and I have no support!”

Dallen looked up at the heart-shaped locket, “Was that from her? She died from COVID?”

“Yeah, college graduation gift,” Crystal said, opening it, “And yeah, she died from complications during the pandemic.”

“I see there’s a picture of her in there, but who is the white guy?” Dal asked, raising an eyebrow.

“That’s Saint Jude… My mother was pretty Catholic, although she did the Vodou thing too, being Haitian.”

“Oh, Jude, the patron saint of hopeless and lost causes.”

“I see you’re familiar,” Crystal said.

“Yeah, religious studies, you know. Maybe we could use old Jude right now?”

Crystal heaved a third heavy sigh, “I abandoned hope a long time ago...”

Authoritarianism is not in some far-flung future. We must be vigilant, for someone might be laying the groundwork for that dystopia right now.