I want to remain hopeful, but I can’t shake my pessimism about America’s future. I want to believe that we can vote, petition, and protest our way out of the challenges we face. However, it has become increasingly difficult to overlook how fragile those mechanisms appear, especially as the institutions themselves seem to be drifting away from democratic accountability. The Supreme Court feels disconnected from public opinion, as it wields the power to reshape everyday life for generations to come.
Perhaps this outcome was inevitable. The Supreme Court was always going to be this country’s Achilles’ heel, and its capture by a supermajority of conservative judges has finally taken America to where it was always destined to go. The systems we have in place were established long ago and reflect the beliefs and values of their time. The Constitution created a republic but still permitted slavery. The Electoral College was designed with an inherent bias from the start. The Senate was never intended to represent the population equally. Moreover, the two-party system has successfully maneuvered itself into a checkmate situation, leaving many Americans, such as myself, feeling like collateral damage.
As discussions about power evolve, discomfort is growing over the increasing centralization of authority. This unease has only intensified following the recent Supreme Court ruling in Trump v. U.S., which affirmed that the president has absolute immunity for actions within his core constitutional authority, as well as presumptive immunity for actions that fall within the broader scope of his official responsibilities. When Kevin Roberts, the president of the Heritage Foundation, celebrated this ruling by saying, “Our side is winning. We are in the process of the second American Revolution, which will remain bloodless if the left allows it to be,” it hit me just how serious the situation in this country has become.
Voting our way out of this mess may not be the solution we think it is. Politicians often prioritize their own agendas, and systemic issues like gerrymandering, voter suppression, and the influence of money in politics undermine the electoral process. State elections matter now more than ever, but the reality is that we seem to be heading toward a Balkanized nation. However, dividing the country would only solve a small fraction of our problems. We need to find solutions for the extensive list of issues we face, and that list is impossibly long. Perhaps collapse is inevitable. America may have finally run its course.
The celebration of the Fourth of July feels different to me now. It’s supposed to commemorate America’s freedom from the grip of monarchy, but it seems like that noose is tightening around our necks once again. A nation founded on slavery can only travel so far before realizing that it has always been going in circles. Alas, my fellow Americans, this is what it feels like to be owned.
Most people are not asking for anything particularly radical. They want affordable healthcare, housing that doesn’t devour entire paychecks, wages that support a reasonable quality of life, livable environments, schools that don’t leave them in crippling debt, and political systems that prioritize the needs of the majority over the interests of donors. They desire less corruption, less violence, and less instability. Above all, they want to feel that their lives are not being consumed entirely by someone else’s accumulation of power. Americans want to have a true democracy, one in which the majority actually rules. Unfortunately, bread and circuses still function remarkably well.
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Krista Marson 