Dear Reader

Dear Reader,

This week’s Indy comes to you from Washington D.C. where chaos and anxiety abound.  As is the case whenever we are on the road, some stories from the week are not going to be ready for Saturday’s dispatch. These include reports on the Budget Coordinating Group, Finance Committee, Planning Board, and Board of Health.  Look for us to catch up next week.

New Series
This week, we kick off one of two new Indy series – What Now? Strategies for Defeating Fascism. This occasional column will report on what folks around the country are doing to fight against the ongoing dismantling of our government and our democratic republic. With Elon Musk’s takeover of the Treasury in what several have called an ongoing coup (see e.g here and here and here) and with Trump threatening to use military force against those who dare to protest his rule, and with the rule of law being actively undermined (everywhere it seems),  and with Project 2025 threatening to subvert the electoral process in order to establish permanent right-wing rule, it seems pretty clear that our familiar modes of protest are going to be insufficient to re-establish the rule of law and democratic order. This new column will report on how autocracies have been brought to an end elsewhere in the world and on the things that folks are doing right now to combat the authoritarianism that is threatening us all.  We invite our readers to share their thoughts on what we can be doing to fend off the clear and present threats to our democracy and to our wellbeing. Please send your contributions to amherstindy@gmail.com or share in the comments section of any of the articles.

Our first installment in the What Now? series is by Nadine Bloch whose article in Waging Nonviolence entitied “ How to Organize Under Authoritarian Creep in a Closing Civil Society” offers us some time-tested advice for stiffening our spine as we face formidable opposition and some historical examples of where people have organized against autocracy and won.

With democracy under assault, it is good for us to talk about what it means to practice democracy and to live in a democratic society. The other new series, tentatively titled, “Democracy in Practice,” will hopefully begin next week.  The new column will look at democracy broadly, including how it is actively being dismantled under the Trump/Musk regime, how people have put democracy into good practice, and how we might imagine a more democratic society. We invite our readers to share their thoughts on democracy in the pages of the Indy.

Thanks for reading the Indy.

Art Keene
Managing Editor