“It is not enough to be against Donald Trump and MAGA, or against the control of both major parties in the USA by destructive corporate power, or even to be committed to hard work for the next eight and a half [now 6] months here in the USA to defeat the billionaire-supporting, would-be dictator Donald Trump. Our problems are too deep to accept this essential next step as the ultimate goal. Short-term, essential goal yes, but looking at things historically, it can only be the first major step in a fundamental, revolutionary process that over time not just saves the planet and its people but, at long last, matches our desires as a species with the way that we organize ourselves, economically, politically, culturally and socially.” 

21^st Century Common Sense, Part 1, February 2026

I believe, I really do believe, that it is (still) possible that this world can be turned upside down, in the way Jesus of Nazareth meant in the Sermon on the Mount when he said, among other things, in Luke 20-21: “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled. . . Woe to you who are rich. . . for you will mourn and weep.”

Why do I believe this?

My reading of history, in all its positive and negative aspects, inclines me toward feeling hopeful, just as I am fully aware that we have many rivers to cross and mountains to climb and descend until human society becomes, worldwide, finally, what it can become.

Orban in Hungary being defeated is hopeful. The changes brought about in US society because of the Black Freedom movement of the 50s, 60s and beyond make me hopeful. The changes brought about by the women’s movement in so many ways in so many places in the world make me hopeful. The MAGA Republicans being overwhelmingly defeated in various local and state and special elections all over the country since Trump was elected in 2024: this is very important for us to remember and internalize.

I am encouraged when I read in the April, 2026 issue of Scientific American an article based on research entitled, “The Kids Are All Right,” that “youth are more empathetic and less narcissistic than in the past, as well as more open-minded and inclusive. Drug use is down, youth violence has dropped and teen pregnancies have declined. IQs have gone up, and kids exhibit more self-restraint and patience than they did 50 years ago.” And then there are youth organizations like the Sunrise Movement which have shown real staying power and organizing ability over the last 10 years.

There are the tens of millions of people of all colors and cultures in thousands of localities who took to the streets in 2020 after George Floyd was murdered by local police in Minneapolis. There are the successive wave of nationally coordinated actions of resistance to Trumpfascism beginning the day before he took office and continuing ever since up to the latest No Kings action on March 28, with over 8 million people coming out in 3300 localities.

But the ultimate reason why I believe that we have a fighting chance to truly bring into being a very different, much more just and democratic world is the fact that, for the first time ever, our earth, this wonderful third planet from this solar system’s sun, is facing a common enemy that can only be defeated by our peoples joining together: the worldwide climate crisis, caused primarily by the coal, oil and gas industries and their blind supporters in government, like Trump.

Most people get it on the existential seriousness of this crisis. According to a public opinion survey conducted in 2024: “Four out of five people around the world (80 percent) want more climate action from their country. They also seek global unity in responding to the crisis, with 86 percent agreeing that their countries should set aside geopolitical differences, such as those regarding trade and security, and work together on climate change. There is a clear expectation that governments need to lead and strengthen their commitments to address climate change, with a resounding 89 percent of people wanting to see more climate action from their governments.”

These opinions, combined with the many positive reasons to get off fossil fuels and onto renewables—like saving money, reducing air, water and land pollution, job creation—have been translating into worldwide action for many years. Here’s what the International Energy Agency reports:

“Global energy investment in 2025 is set to reach a record $3.3 trillion, with over $2.2 trillion directed toward clean energy—including renewables, grids, storage, and efficiency—which is double the $1.1 trillion invested in fossil fuels. Solar photovoltaics (PV) lead all energy sources in investment, while total energy transition investment reached a record $2.3 trillion.”

And check this out, from an AI Overview: “The 2026 war in the Middle East, leading to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, has severely disrupted global energy markets and catalyzed an urgent shift to renewable energy, transforming energy security into a, if not the, top policy priority. With nearly 20 million barrels of oil stalled daily, countries are moving beyond short-term energy rationing to accelerate long-term investments in solar, wind, and battery storage to gain independence from volatile chokepoints.”

Would a successful “urgent shift to renewable energy” mean that the USA and the world have become the much more just and democratic societies that we can become? No, it would not, but such a successful energy revolution, taking place in major part because of the demand of masses of people from below, will empower all of us, literally allow us to breathe better. It should stimulate a continuation of other world-changing actions to eliminate hunger, reverse the destruction of animal and plant species, provide adequate homes and worthwhile jobs, free and good healthcare for all and so many other positive things. A huge weight will be lifted from us, the weight of so many of us afraid to have children or afraid for the world our children and grandchildren and the seven generations after us will inherit.

I really do believe all of this is possible. I believe that we can win.

 Ted Glick has been a progressive activist and organizer since 1968. He is the author of two books, Burglar for Peace and 21^st Century Revolution, published in 2020 and 2021 and both available at https://pmpress.org . More info can be found at https://tedglick.com.

Six weeks ago I wrote a column entitled, Fighting Climate Meltdown and the Death Cult. In it I said, “This would-be fascist government wants to roll back hundreds of billions of dollars approved in 2022 for wind and solar energy, electric cars, buses and trains and other clean and jobs-producing energy. This is the kind of energy we must shift to as rapidly as possible if we are to avoid the breakdown of ecosystems and human societies worldwide. It’s as if Trump and the MAGA’s were a death cult, truly, and not just when it comes to energy policy.”

I wrote this before the vote, one week later, on the Big Billionaires Bill that passed in the House and the Senate by the narrowest of margins. Millions of US Americans, predominantly low-income working people, will be hurt because of this bill’s passage.

At the very last minute of the months-long work of putting together this legislation there was an effort to insert language to make its energy provisions even worse by adding a new tax on wind, solar, batteries and other clean energy technologies. This tax would be levied if companies cannot prove that their products are made without Chinese parts. This provision, if passed, would have made the bill much worse. Fortunately, there were enough Republican Senators who refused to support it so that it was taken out before the final vote.

Interestingly, as far as I can tell, no one has come forward to take credit for this diabolical effort to decimate these rapidly-growing and world-critical technologies. I’d put my bet on Trump and/or Steven Miller being behind it, almost certainly.

One week ago this Trumpist campaign in support of fossil fuel industry dominance of US energy took another huge step when Lee Zeldin, head of the EPA, announced that it will move to overturn the 2009 Supreme Court “Endangerment Finding” which determined that there are six greenhouse gases (GHG’s) that are air pollutants which endanger public health and welfare.

If this 16-year-old finding is ultimately overturned by the current Supreme Court, it would be a huge dagger, a knife to the chest, of US efforts going on since 2009 and before to reduce those GHG’s and shift, instead, to a 21^st Century clean energy economy that cleans up air, water and land, particularly in environmental justice communities, and gives humankind a fighting chance to prevent worldwide ecosystem and societal breakdown as this century progresses.

Then there is the recently revealed Trump Administration policy linking lower tariffs for other countries to their agreeing to buy US-produced, climate-destroying methane gas exports. Was this from the beginning a major purpose of the tariff campaign?

Truly, maddeningly, Trump, Miller, Zeldin, Vance, the whole cabal, can best be described given all of these actions, and more, as no less than a death cult. Their actions prove that they literally don’t care about anything other than the amassing of as much wealth and power for themselves and their billionaire backers as they can. They are climate criminals.

Fortunately, the US movement for climate justice is very much alive and kicking. There is organizing going on in every state and numerous localities in support of the urgently needed shift away from fossil fuels and to clean renewables, battery storage, electric vehicles and electric heating/cooling systems. These clean energy technologies are advancing worldwide and, still, if now more slowly, in the US.

Support for renewables among the US population continues to be high. A recent Pew Research poll in June reported that 68% continue to support wind power and 77% support solar power.

Our job today is to expose the deadly implications of the Trump/MAGA policies, activate the clear majority which supports making the clean energy transition, fight in every way we can against the planned dramatic expansion of fossil fuel, especially methane gas, pipelines, export terminals and infrastructure, and groundswell a visible, in the streets, mass climate justice movement that refuses to quit.

Down with the Trump death cult.

Ted Glick has been a progressive activist and organizer since 1968. He is the author of the recently published books, Burglar for Peace and 21^st Century Revolution, both available at https://pmpress.org . More info can be found at https://tedglick.com.

“This is a fight for life. And like all fights, you need a tremendous amount of bravery to take it on. Before I started working on climate change, I didn’t think of myself as a fighter, but I became one because I felt I have a responsibility to preserve the world for my son and children everywhere. That kind of fierce protectiveness is part of the way that I love. We can draw on that to have more strength than our enemies because I don’t think they’re motivated by love. I believe love is an infinite resource and the power of it is greater than that of greed or hate. If it weren’t, we wouldn’t be here.”

-Dr. Genevieve Guenther, The Guardian, June 24

On June 14^th I spoke at one of the 2,200 or so “No Kings!’ actions around the country, this one in Newark, NJ. In part I said, “This would-be fascist government wants to roll back hundreds of billions of dollars approved in 2022 for wind and solar energy, electric cars, buses and trains and other clean and jobs-producing energy. This is the kind of energy we must shift to as rapidly as possible if we are to avoid the breakdown of ecosystems and human societies worldwide. It’s as if Trump and the MAGA’s were a death cult, truly, and not just when it comes to energy policy.”

I’ve thought about this characterization that I made since I did so publicly. I’ve wondered if it was too over the top, too rhetorical. I’ve thought about all of the many other people down through history, Hitler and the Nazis as exhibit number one, who clearly fit this description.

There’s no question Trump would like to rule the world and that he cares little about the lives of Black, Brown and Indigenous people, low-income people, women and lgbtq people. He’s a racist and sexist through and through. He’s OK with genocide in Gaza, doesn’t even feign to be concerned, instead dreaming about turning Gaza into another luxury resort on the Mediterranean Sea. He wants to drastically increase the already obscene US military budget, etc., etc., etc.

But what I think makes the “death cult” phrase unquestionably accurate is his and his billionaire buddies’ very explicit efforts to stop and reverse the growing worldwide, and US, shift from fossil fuels to renewables and a truly clean and green economy.

We are already far down the road as far as climate disruption and danger. Climate scientists are telling us that there is a very real possibility of soon passing environmental tipping points that could destabilize the climate for generations, centuries. Those who are doing all they can to set back renewable energy and achieve “energy dominance” via coal, nukes, oil and methane gas; these people, Trump and his government appointees, the fossil fuel industry and the banks and billionaires who support them, are absolutely a death cult.

Fortunately, a big majority of the US population supports the shift to wind, solar, electric vehicles and heat pumps and other truly renewable energy sources. This is crucial, and a reason not to lose hope.

What is the evidence for this assertion? Here is one source: a poll released in late January this year by the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication:

Registered voters across the political spectrum support many policies designed to reduce carbon pollution and fossil fuel dependence and promote clean energy, including: 

• 88% support providing federal funding to help farmers improve practices to protect and restore the soil, so it absorbs and stores more carbon.
• 77% support funding more research into renewable energy sources, such as solar and wind power.
• 74% support setting strict limits on methane emissions from oil and gas production.
• 73% support regulating carbon dioxide (the primary greenhouse gas) as a pollutant.
• 69% support providing tax credits or rebates to encourage people to buy electric appliances, such as heat pumps and induction stoves, that run on electricity instead of oil or gas.
• 69% support funding more research on global warming and climate change by Federal agencies such as NASA, NOAA, and the EPA.
• 67% support requiring fossil fuel companies to pay a carbon tax and use the money to reduce other taxes (such as income tax) by an equal amount.
• 63% support transitioning the U.S. economy (including electric utilities, transportation, buildings, and industry) from fossil fuels to 100% clean energy by 2050.
• 58% support providing tax rebates for people who purchase electric vehicles.

Note that these percentages could not be what they are unless more than a few Trump voters had these views. There is widespread, tri-partisan support on this huge issue.

So is there hope? Yes, there is. There’s hope not just because of the results of this, and other, polls but because of the massive local demonstration turnouts in every state since Trump took office, over 5 million people the most recent time on June 14. There is hope when climate and social justice state assemblyman Zohran Mandani decisively wins the New York City primary on June 10. And there are so many more examples, so many of us rising up on issue after issue and continuing to resist.

There is absolutely no question that the national progressive movement in the United States is in the ring, landing punches and fighting hard in this existential and urgent battle for the future.

Ted Glick has been a progressive activist and organizer since 1968. He is the author of the recently published books, Burglar for Peace and 21^st Century Revolution, both available at https://pmpress.org . More info can be found at https://tedglick.com.