Henry Jay Karp is the Rabbi Emeritus of Temple Emanuel in Davenport, Iowa, which he served from 1985 to 2017. He is the co-founder and co-convener of One Human Family QCA, a social justice organization. This essay first appeared on his Substack column.

Shortly after the recent election, Democratic State Representative Ken Croken, one of the members of the Quad Cities delegation to the Iowa legislature, hosted a meeting at a local library. The theme was, “Where Do We Go From Here?”

The room was packed. It was booked for an hour, but for the first half hour those in attendance were obsessed with the question of “Where did the Democrats go so wrong?” Every speaker had his or her view on why Democratic candidates failed so miserably, both nationally and in Iowa.

It was interesting, to a point. It allowed people to grieve and vent their anger, but it wasn’t very useful and it definitely was off topic. Finally, I raised my hand in frustration and said, “We’re talking about the wrong thing! It will be two years before we can effect change through the voting booth! But it will only be two months before January 20 and day one of the Trump presidency! Right now we have bigger fish to fry and not a lot of time to get cooking!”

We know what’s coming down the pike, and it looks pretty ugly.

How do we know? Donald Trump told us in every one of his campaign speeches. He was boastfully proud of the horrible fates he was planning for entire segments of the population. We know because it was set to paper in more than 800 pages in the Heritage Foundation’s manifesto, Project 2025.

Trump and his followers really think that by persecuting and punishing people, by restricting freedoms, dismantling entire segments of our governmental structure, and by Trump gobbling up as much power as he can for himself and his minions, taking it away from the people he is supposed to be serving, that he will “Make America Great Again.” Obviously, his definition of what “Makes America Great” is very different from mine, and (I hope) many Americans share my views.

Our nation is so divided. Some think the best days a just ahead of us, and others, myself included, who dread that our nation is on the brink of being enveloped in a cloud so dark that we may never see the light again. Will we ever be able to bridge this divide? I surely hope so, but I know in my heart that it will never be fully bridged.

The big question is, if we somehow we can bridge that divide, how wide and how sturdy will be the bridge that is born?

Born? Yes, born. It will be born out of how these next few years unfold. Which side of the divide will be proven to have had a truer vision of what the future will hold? Will the cynics like myself, with our fears of a coming dystopian America, be proven wrong as we find ourselves living in a far better society, better for all its residents and not just the select, privileged few?

Or will those who placed Trump in power be proven wrong as many discover that they and those they love have also become the victims of the tectonic social changes, which Trump clearly announced during the campaign and followed through on, once he was back in power?

Will those seniors who voted for Trump find themselves the victims of the major cuts some conservatives have proposed for Social Security and Medicare? Will the individuals and families of those receiving health care and other supports through Medicaid find themselves abandoned, without the vital services they need to literally survive? Will the nearly 50 million Americans who benefit from the Affordable Care Act find themselves no longer able to access health care services? Will the anti-vaxxers sing a different tune when, thanks to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., they helplessly watch loved ones fall ill or even die from diseases that had been controlled by vaccines no longer available?

Will hard-working Americans find themselves with lower salaries, fewer benefits, weaker unions, or out of jobs, as corporate bigwigs reframe labor policies? Will the parents who can’t afford to send their children to private schools find their children receiving substandard education in public schools after the Trump administration dismantles the U.S. Department of Education, and state and federal funding is mostly redirected to private schools?

How will the American people feel about the kneecapping or elimination of the Food and Drug Administration when they and their loved ones fall ill or die from consuming untested, unregulated food, such as raw milk and uninspected meat?

When one of the Trump administration’s top priorities, the mass deportation of immigrants, pulls significant numbers of workers out of the workforce, how will the American people respond to the inevitable shortages of goods and services?

All those issues don’t even begin to touch upon the impact on freedom and the state of democracy in the U.S. The incoming administration may fundamentally alter those with crusades to arrest, imprison, and even execute those with the audacity to challenge the Trump-controlled government. Say goodbye to freedom of speech, for only pro-Trump speech will remain free. Others could be prosecuted. Say goodbye to freedom of the press, for journalists in print or electronic media may no longer be permitted to criticize those in power.

We already are seeing an attack on the important value of respecting social diversity, as public ans private institutions are shutting down their DEI (Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion) departments. Likewise, we see GOP-controlled states waging war on women’s reproductive rights (denying a woman’s right to control her own body) and on the rights of the LGBTQIA+ community, especially transgender people, as the U.S. Supreme Court has disgracefully allowed.

If such a dystopian vision becomes reality—and I sincerely believe it will—then the ranks of the discontented will include far more than just ranting liberals like myself. Our mutual discontent, and the disillusionment of many ordinary people who helped to put Trump back in power, could give birth to a bridge that will span the vast gap that now divides us.

But by then, the hour will be so late that effecting positive change may be a nearly insurmountable task. It could be such an uphill battle that it may literally take a conflict comparable to the Syrian Civil War, which took thirteen years to achieve its goal. I hope not, but only the future will tell.

That is precisely why we cannot wait until it’s too late to address the present dangers to our society. That is why the resistance must begin now! It must begin before the dreaded changes are made. It must begin while such changes are in the talking and consideration stage. It must begin while peaceful protest is still possible. It must begin while the voice of the people still carries some weight in framing the direction of our nation.

Imagine if the people of Germany had stood up in the 1930s against the evil intentions of the Nazis, and were able to nip those intentions in the bud, before they flowered and bore bitter fruit. In fact, in one case that is exactly what happened.

One of the principles of Nazi ideology was that of “Lives Not Worthy of Living” – Lebens unwertes Leben, in German. The concept was first proposed in 1920, in a German book entitled Allowing the Destruction of Life Not Worthy of Life, authored by Karl Binding, a jurist, and Alfred Hoche, a psychiatrist. They proposed a program of euthanasia for the brain damaged, intellectually disabled, and psychiatrically ill, whom they considered a useless burden on society (see this article in Wikipedia).

The Nazis not only adopted this concept but acted on it. In 1939 they set up what they called the T4 Program. This program purported to provide free care for their targeted victims: the brain damaged and the mentally ill. They were sent to mental hospitals, where they were eventually murdered in gas chambers. The cremated remains were returned to their families with letters of condolence, claiming that their loved one had died of some natural cause, such as pneumonia. These were the first victims of the gas chambers, laying the groundwork for the mass murders of the Holocaust.

However, in 1940, the Roman Catholic Church, became aware of what was happening. Public protests were organized and the Nazi government was forced to stop the program. While it continued a variation of the program secretly, on a much smaller scale, those early public protests saved the lives of many people with special needs.

So it can be today, if we choose to begin to stand up against the harmful and inhumane proposals being set forth by the new administration. If we start now, we may be able to block them and effect positive change.

In a previous post, I shared about One Human Family QCA, the anti-hate, diversity supporting social justice organization I co-founded with Rev. Richard Hendricks, of Davenport’s Metropolitan Community Church. We launched the group in 2016, shortly after Donald Trump’s first presidential election victory. On December 2, our organization held a public meeting to start planning on how One Human Family QCA would begin to address the many social justice challenges that now appear before us. It was well attended.

Here is what we came up with:

We would seek out other local social justice organizations to invite them to partner with us on a multiple of actions and efforts. Rev. Hendricks and I will be inviting their leaders to a meeting to discuss that possibility.

While the Quad Cities form a bi-state community that includes residents of cities in Iowa and Illinois, and One Human Family QCA was initially established to serve the needs of people in both states, over the years, our organization has been forced to focus more on Iowa-based issues. This focused changed because Iowa has become a “red” state, while Illinois has remained “blue.” As such, legislation coming out of the Iowa legislature and supported by Iowa’s governor were far more harmful regarding social justice issues than the work of the the Illinois legislature, which tended to be more protective of social justice concerns.

However, with the national governmental scene so dramatically being altered, Illinois very well may find itself sharing social justice concerns which, up until now, were more pressing in Iowa than Illinois. Therefore our efforts will need to once again extend to both sides of the Mississippi River.

We set up four working groups to address what we viewed at the most immediate issues:

A Community Education Committee will organize periodic (perhaps monthly) breakfast gatherings, during each of which one issue of concern will be addressed. There would be a presentation by a speaker who is qualified to inform the audience of the facts (not the myths) surrounding that issue. followed by a Questions & Answers sessions, table-talk discussions, and brainstorming action items which we hope will be positive and problem-solving in nature. The sessions will be designed to be non-partisan and focus on attracting not only like-minded attendees, but also those with other perspectives. Attendees will be encouraged to join already existing committees and working groups addressing the issue of the session or to help form a new committee or working group.

An Immigration & Mass Deportation Committee was created to partner with the organization Progressive Action for the Common Good, which has already established a similar committee. This joint committee will will take many directions, including seeking ways to advocate against the possible injustices of mass deportations, develop strategies to protect the targeted victims, and promote serious, humane effective reforms of immigration laws and policies.

A Transgender Action Group was set up to explore ways to advocate against anti-transgender legislation, such as has been experienced in many state in the form of bans on gender-affirming care and transgender participation in school sports teams, and to develop strategies to defend and protect the members of the transgender community.

A Public Education Committee was set up to address the very real dangers to the core nature of public school education posed by such proposals as the dismantling of the U.S. Department of Education, and the expansion of school voucher programs that direct public funds to private schools. The manifold concerns include such issues as:

• serious cuts to public school funding;
• the transformation of public schools as the sole yet underfunded venue for special education;
• required teaching of revisionist history which overlooks some of the darker moments of America’s past;
• book bans;
• violations of the First Amendment’s Non-Establishment Clause which establishes the Separation of Church and State, particularly when it comes to the issue of the role of religion in the public schools; and
• the protection of all students, regardless of their identities, from discrimination in our public or private schools.

These groups are just a beginning. They will grow in number as we expand our focus and workforce to address many additional issues.

The Quad Cities metro is but one miniscule segment of our nation. To secure our democracy, and defend the diversity of our society from the dangers that lurk weeks away, then the resistance must begin now—not just in my little corner of our land, but across the 50 states, in every community, small and large.

It will take many shapes, reflecting the varying views, approaches, and diversity of our people. But now is the time to accomplish this task both peacefully and effectively. May we find the strength, courage, wisdom, and insight to achieve our goals. When Benjamin Franklin was asked after the signing of the Declaration of Independence, what type of nation we will have, he famously responded, “A republic, if we can keep it!” Today, “We the People” need to become the “Keepers of the Republic.”