This blog post title is borrowed from Michael Anasara’s memoir of his decades-long journey on the front lines of social movements in the United States, beginning with his teenage years in Massachusetts as a white male who found his way to segregated lunch counters with John Lewis and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), joining Students for a Democratic Society as a Harvard student to protest the war in Vietnam, and taking a lead role in building the statewide citizens initiative Massachusetts Fair Share. I discovered Ansara on C-SPAN doing his book talk with Rep. Jamie Raskin.
Many are finding it difficult to be hopeful these days as the country steadily marches towards greater authoritarianism each passing day. We are witnessing authoritarianism in action under the Trump administration. The only remaining question is whether this will become a permanent fixture in the American experiment. The millions across the nation—and the world—who marched in more than 2700 No King events Saturday give us a sliver of hope that a critical mass of Americans are not ready to bend the knee.
Back in 2018, in the midst of the first Trump debacle and in the wake of the publication of Nancy MacLean’s book, Democracy in Chains, CRISP—backed by the support of Martell Teasley and the National Association of Deans and Directors (NADD)—raised the question: Can Social Work Help Save Democracy? This led to the Social Work Democracy Project, which aims to galvanize the profession around this issue. Not much was done during Biden’s time in office, and little did we know we would get Trump 2.0.
But here we are again, and the voices of social workers must be heard. To that end, CRISP and like-minded allies will be focused on the midterm elections, which may be our last opportunity to derail the authoritarian express train. As we approach Social Work Month in March and prepare for our annual Social Work Day on the Hill events on Wednesday, March 25, 2026, and Student Advocacy Day on Thursday, March 26, 2026, we will concentrate on making our voices heard. Our theme is Our Voices Matter: Your Vote is Your Voice.
According to the Pew Research Center, approximately 12 million voters who supported Joe Biden in the 2020 election did not participate in the 2024 election. They decided their voices didn’t matter, resulting in the chaos we witness from the White House daily. Donald Trump received 1.5% more votes than Kamala Harris, for a margin of 2.3 million votes. He got 15% of the black vote in 2024 compared to 8% in 2020, with 24% of black men voting for him. The Hispanic vote was evenly split, with 51% voting for Harris and 48% voting for Trump. Biden won the Hispanic vote by 25 points in 2020.
President Trump and the Republican Party lied about their intentions to implement the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 action plan to promote their theory of the unitary executive all-powerful presidency. The Republican-led House, Senate, and Supreme Court have all but deferred to the power of the presidency, removing many of the checks and balances that the Constitution’s framers believed were necessary to constrain a lawless presidency. The Supreme Court’s ruling that President Trump is immune from federal prosecution for “official” acts places him above the law.
In today’s caustic political environment, Rev. Jesse Jackson’s oft-repeated refrain of “Keep Hope Alive” is a tall order. Still, Michael Ansara reminds us that it is a never-ending and challenging task. He sees hope not as optimism or wishful thinking, but commitment to the painstaking process of listening, organizing, and staying in the fight long after the marching has ceased. It is the hope of a builder, not a dreamer. This is something social workers do instinctively. We engage across race, class, and ideology to find common ground without compromising our principles. It means striking a balance between passion and reason, and incorporating strategic thinking. We must reassert our historic mission of organizing people and communities. Their voices and our voices won’t be heard through social media alone. Preserving democracy requires the hard work of engendering hope. We must set aside our petty differences and step out of our comfort zones if democracy is to have any chance of surviving.