Liam Glavin ‘27 (he/him) is a government major from Falls Church, Va. He loves running, reading and spending time with friends and hopes to instill values of political and civic engagement across the community. Contact him at ljglavin@wm.edu.
The views expressed in the article are the author’s own.
Feb. 19, 2025, author Ta-Nehisi Coates, alongside Angela Davis, gave a talk at the University of Michigan. The event was to commemorate the release of Coates’ new book, “The Message.”
While speaking to the audience, Coates gave his diagnosis of the state of the Democratic Party, following its disastrous 2024 election loss.
He said, “We are at a moment right now where people are asking themselves why can’t the Democratic Party defend this assault on democracy … and I would submit to you that if you can’t draw the line at genocide, you probably can’t draw the line at democracy.”
Since the start of his second term, Donald Trump has taken it upon himself to send Immigrant and Customs Enforcement into cities to terrorize local communities. This Gestapo force has now gone so far as to summarily execute two American citizens: Renée Good and Alex Jeffrey Pretti.
Where is the Democratic Party in the midst of all of this? What are they doing to protect our constitutional rights? The short answer is nothing.
In the U.S. House of Representatives, Democrats are preoccupied with voting to fund Trump’s murderous ICE regime. They are busy voting in support of a resolution thanking the immigration enforcement officers who kidnap and kill our neighbors.
Other Democrats continue to show their cowardice. House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries refuses to whip voters against ICE funding. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz pleaded to President Trump, as if there’s nothing Walz can even try to do to protect his citizens.
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer refused, only until recently, to use the appropriations process to rein in ICE. (While finally using this funding process as leverage is a step in the right direction, Democrats do have a track record of caving on spending fights, so it wouldn’t surprise me if they somehow “magically” come up with the votes required to vote with Republicans and keep the government open.) New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker claims that the issue with ICE is simply a lack of training, not its very existence as a terrorizing entity.
It goes on and on and on. This is what we get under our two-party system. We get a fascist party intent on destroying our republic, and another party of pathetic and cowardly losers who will do nothing when faced with this collapse.
I can’t say that I’m surprised about any of this. To the point of Coates, why would a party that wouldn’t stand against helping to fund and facilitate the genocide in Gaza care enough to stop this bloodshed?
Israel bombed hospitals. They’ve withheld aid to starving children. They’ve butchered families, conducting a genocide against a captive Palestinian population. None of this violence would be possible, at least on its current scale, without our unconditional and bipartisan support for Israel’s war crimes.
In the occupied West Bank, Israel continues its militant violence in enforcing its illegal, settler-colonial, racist Apartheid regime. Of course, Israeli forces deploy vicious tactics on Palestinians, similar to what ICE has been doing in our own cities.
Does the Democratic Party draw the line at these crimes against humanity? Absolutely not. Our leaders continue to take money from Israel’s lobbying arm: AIPAC. They continue to offer unconditional support to Israel, voting to send billions of dollars in military and economic aid to the country.
Wake up. There is nothing stopping the Trump administration from surging ICE agents into the commonwealth of Virginia and onto our college campuses. There is nothing preventing the federal government from occupying our cities here in Virginia, or coming onto our campus, kidnapping and murdering our neighbors.
The Democratic Party has shown no interest in protecting us. It’s shown zero interest in being a party that fights to stop violence against civilians. When Democratic Party leaders cannot stop themselves from enabling inhumane violence abroad, it should come as no surprise when this cruelty boomerangs back to us.
Ultimately, what we do have is each other. We have our shared community. When our institutions and elected leaders fail to protect us, we can protect ourselves.
We are already seeing this kind of community protection in Minneapolis. Mutual aid networks have sprung up to help those in need. Community watch groups operate 24/7 to monitor the locations of federal agents. Whistles are now a potent tool, alerting local community members to ICE officers.
If Williamsburg, Richmond or any other city in Virginia were to come under a federal occupation similar to Minneapolis, I don’t doubt that we’d all come together in a similar vein to look out for one another.
What I encourage everyone to do, though, is not wait. Prepare before they come. Make a plan. Reach out to loved ones, neighbors and friends. Familiarize yourself with local community aid organizations. Help do the work now required to protect ourselves, so that we’re not left scrambling when it’s too late.
