We the People Were Born For This
Rejecting MAGA's White Winter and Turkish Delights
Greetings from the grey-bird-rainy-then-freezing Tetons ~
With a 70-degree temperature shift from 20 degrees (F) below zero to the 50s in the last week, it’s been whiplash between the weather and the barrage of news since the presidential inauguration. Unprecedented or the New Normal?
Watching the inauguration unfold while Southern cities were blanketed in snow, I immediately thought of the “White Winter” from CS Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia. Some quick research to refresh my memory on The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe revealed endless metaphors for systems of control through crises that challenge resilience and demand collective response.1 2
The White Witch's reign in The Chronicles of Narnia and the Southeastern deep freeze during Donald Trump’s inauguration symbolize disruptive, oppressive forces that upend norms through environmental and societal upheaval. In Narnia, the White Witch imposes an eternal winter devoid of life and joy, freezing the land into stagnation and suppressing resistance through fear. Similarly, the historic January 2025 cold blast—which brought record-breaking snowfall, subzero temperatures, and widespread chaos —mirrored this theme of harshness, disrupting daily life, paralyzing infrastructure, and creating a climate of instability.
The White Witch enforces her regime through fear, deception, and the literal freezing of dissenters. At the same time, Trump’s rhetoric and policies—such as pardoning Jan. 6 rioters and targeting political opponents—reflect a similar erosion of democratic norms and institutional checks. The White Witch’s ban on Christmas, which stripped Narnia of hope and renewal, parallels Trump’s focus on divisive cultural battles (e.g., rejecting diversity initiatives and rigid gender definitions), policies critics argue prioritize ideological control over collective well-being. Both leaders exploit crises to consolidate authority: the Witch leverages her “Deep Magic” to justify executions, while Trump declared national emergencies to bypass legislative hurdles on immigration and energy.
In The Chronicles of Narnia, the Witch weaponizes Edmund’s craving for candy—a symbol of immediate gratification and personal desire—to isolate him from his siblings and dismantle their collective power. The White Witch’s use of enchanted Turkish Delight to corrupt Edmund’s loyalty mirrors Trump’s political strategy of appealing to individual economic self-interest at the expense of collective responsibility. Similarly, Trump’s economic policies, such as tax cuts for corporations and pledges to eliminate taxes on tips and Social Security benefits, frame prosperity as an individual pursuit rather than a shared societal goal.
Just as the Witch’s enchanted treat creates an insatiable hunger that blinds Edmund to the consequences of his betrayal, Trump’s rhetoric frames economic policy as a zero-sum game where individual advancement justifies dismantling systems like affirmative action or environmental regulations.
Both scenarios reveal how appeals to individualism—whether through magical sweets or promises of deregulated prosperity—can fracture collective resilience, replacing shared governance with transactional loyalty.
One of my more optimistic friends said, “I keep thinking maybe we’re just talking about the Grinch and that eventually, his heart might melt.” And then there’s Voldemort … but I digress.
News Flash: We are the only ones who are going to save us
This is a calling. Everything is shifting.
Our government and all the different iterations of it, no matter what party you are from or voting for or connect to, have massively let us down. There’s a movement of people that span the entire globe who are right beside you, dreaming of and innovating for a future where we reclaim our power by rejecting the systems of superiority based on the scarcity mindset. We need to forget about trying to find a savior. We will reject individual greed and the mindset that there are winners and losers and the only way to win is to be the same as the oppressor. We lean into the groundswell of activity about collective power and liberation. To save what we can at this moment in our collective history will take determination and robust trust in ourselves to courageously show up, set different goals, and build communities of care.
It’s easy to feel defeated when you think half the country backs this administration, but the truth is that only 63.9% of eligible voters participated in the election—out of a voting-eligible population (VEP) of approximately 244.7 million citizens aged 18 and older, excluding noncitizens and felons. Of those who voted, Donald Trump received 49.8% of the total votes cast (77.3 million), meaning only 31.6% of the eligible population supported him.3
That leaves 69.4% who did not vote for Trump’s chaos, plus countless others—noncitizens, disenfranchised individuals, and those excluded from the process—who represent untapped potential for collective action. These are powerful odds.
These numbers aren’t just statistics; they’re proof of the overwhelming potential for collective action, especially when viewed alongside the global resistance against oppression that spans continents and generations. We stand on the shoulders of ancestors who fought for justice, and we’re building a future where our children—all children—live in alignment with the forces of nature and the values of dignity, equity, and freedom. Imagine generations decades from now saying, “This was the moment they chose life.”
Where the heck do we start?
I don’t know about you, but I’m getting more emails asking for signatures and $3 than before the election. We tried uniting behind the Democratic Party, but it backfired. I’m looking for new solutions and welcome your ideas. I don’t have an answer other than to remind myself to focus on what I can change: myself, my interactions, and my impact on my family, friends, my community, and this special place I call home.
Other than deleting X from all my devices, I’ve come to believe that it’s my obligation to commit to using technology for good. I will feed AI, learn to reason better and harness her power to improve myself. I will only use social media in ways that inspire and make the world better, not angrier.
Like the rest of you, I’m limiting my news consumption for my mental health. But I’m not disconnecting altogether—the stakes are too high. Instead, I’ve intentionally filled my mind with inspiration from activists, astrologers, spiritual guides, political analysts, young adults, and sustainable business leaders who are stepping deeply into the spirit of innovation and moving toward something new.
Here are some highlights:
New York Times best-selling author and astrologer Chani Nicholas offered this simple meditation:
“Take a nice deep breath in and call your energy back into your body.
Feel like you are reclaiming the energy from the world.
Reclaim your energy and power of imagination and your powers for coming back from this collective nightmare.
Reclaim your power of creation and re-creation with your mind and your psyche with your mind and body; call it back into your body.
We are seeding a new reality in the face of great odds. This is the call. We have no choice but to answer.”
Ezra Klein implores us, “Don’t Believe Him.” This 14-minute listen discusses the administration's strategy of using "flood-the-zone-with-shit" tactics—overwhelming media ecosystems with disinformation, scandals, and chaos to disorient the public and paralyze opposition. This strategy intentionally creates a firehose of controversies that fragment public attention, erode shared truths, and make coherent collective resistance nearly impossible. DON’T MISS THIS!
JOY?
I am deeply grateful to have been skiing powder last weekend, filling my evenings with friends and family and watching my son compete in the Grand Targhee Freeride competition. I am also grateful for this proof that algorithms aren’t all bad; this came up in my Facebook feed to remind me that joy and rest are critical acts of resistance, but only when they lead to action:
No stranger to putting money where his mouth is, Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard says this:
Last night, I listened to this NYT Daily discussion, The Story Is Not Like Us, outlining the history of Drake and Kendrick Lamar's drama. It was produced in advance of Lamar’s highly anticipated 2025 Super Bowl halftime performance. The final disturbing words in the piece were this:
“Maybe also, we just love to hate. Celebrities are built up to be torn down all of the time. We get sick of people. We like to see them humbled. The only thing we like more than watching a rise is someone’s downfall.”
Contrast that to what Glennon Doyle says:
“We're going to keep showing up for each other. We are not afraid. We were born to do this. Or maybe we are a little afraid AND we were born to do this. That feels true at the moment.”
We know where hate got us …
How are you reaching out to others, gathering, sharing your skills and powers, and stepping up to dismantle old systems and create new ones? Please let me (and other readers) know in the comments what you are doing these days and share any ideas for the best course of collective action.
In peace,
Sue
Enticed by the hype around DeepSeek AI, I gave her some prompts to research and edited DeepSeek’s answers. This is what we collaboratively came up with. If you’re interested, you can see how the conversation went here. What I love about DeepSeek is that she shows you how she reasons while waiting for her response. https://www.perplexity.ai/search/summarize-in-2-3-sentences-the-R.RTXDsmSDa7Jt2GRpVehA#3
If you love C.S. Lewis, you might like the new historical fiction book Once Upon a Wardrobe. Author Patti Callahan theorizes how Lewis imagined Narnia and his characters through the eyes of a young, critically ill child and his sister, who forms a life-changing relationship with Lewis, a professor at her college.
DeepSeek helped with this, too. https://www.perplexity.ai/search/what-percent-of-the-total-elig-NSw0LcG0QWao6.n3jyiUsg#1
Loved the analogy, Narnia is perfect for this.