Democracy doesn’t mean you get everything you want. It means you MANY of the things YOU want and ALL of the things that the MANY want.
When the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, Ohio’s Republican-controlled legislature wasted no time. Practically overnight, a six-week abortion ban—one of the most extreme in the country—went into effect. There were no exceptions for rape or incest. Clinics shut their doors. Doctors hesitated, afraid that treating a miscarriage could land them in jail.
For some, the impact was immediate and devastating.
In Columbus, a ten-year-old girl—pregnant after being raped—was told by doctors that she couldn’t get an abortion in Ohio. Her family was forced to take her to Indiana, where the procedure was still legal. When the story made national news, Ohio’s Attorney General, instead of showing compassion, called it a lie—until it was proven true.
Meanwhile, a young mother in Cincinnati carrying a nonviable pregnancy was sent home from the hospital because doctors feared prosecution. She developed sepsis.
As these stories became national news, public outrage grew.
Ohioans—many of whom hadn’t been politically active before—suddenly became political. Some protested outside the Statehouse. Others channeled their rage into action. A coalition of activists, doctors, and everyday citizens realize they had a shot to fix this. If lawmakers wouldn’t protect people, the people could do it themselves.
How? Ohio was one of 17 states that allowed citizen-led constitutional amendments. It wasn’t an easy process, but it was a possible one. To get abortion rights on the ballot, activists needed hundreds of thousands of signatures from registered voters in all 88 counties. So they organized. They set up tables at farmers’ markets, outside libraries, in front of grocery stores. People who had never volunteered for anything before grabbed clipboards and helped.
The politicians in power saw the momentum—and panicked. The Republican-controlled legislature rushed through a special August election, trying to change the rules before Ohioans could vote on abortion rights. Their proposal would make it harder to amend the state constitution, raising the threshold from a simple majority of 50% to a supermajority of 60%. Republicans were attempting to move the goalpost.
It backfired spectacularly.
Voter turnout in August—a time when lawmakers expected low participation—shattered expectations. Ohioans overwhelmingly rejected the rule change to Republicans’ dismay. The message was clear: The people, not politicians, would decide.
Then came November. The abortion amendment was officially on the ballot. The opposition was fierce—politicians, religious groups, and corporate donors poured millions into ads filled with fear tactics. But on Election Day, fifty-seven percent of Ohioans voted to enshrine abortion rights into their state constitution.
The victory was historic. Ohio—a state that had been trending conservative for years—became proof that when given the choice, the people will protect their rights, even when politicians won’t.
And just like that, the law banning abortion in Ohio was wiped away.
THE BIGGER PICTURE
Voting for Democrats is no longer enough to solve the issues we face. It’s not that Democrats are the problem. They just aren’t the solution. That’s because the problem is bigger.
It’s not that voting doesn’t matter. It still does. But voting isn’t enough on its own anymore.
The founders established checks and balances in the Constitution to prevent any one branch of government from becoming too powerful. They didn’t anticipate a political party consolidating power by restricting voting and taking control of all branches of government. With no effective check on this, voting can no longer resolve the problem.
There is a solution, though. Make the U.S. Constitution amendable like Ohio’s Constitution is. As our amendment process stands now, amending the Constitution requires two-thirds approval from both the House and Senate, plus ratification by three-fourths of state legislatures—a almost insurmountable barrier.
If that kind of amendment process existed in Ohio, the abortion right in Ohio would not have passed, despite the majority wanting it.
We have to amend Article V of the U.S. Constitution to make future amendments a lot easier to pass.
It’s a surprisingly simple solution, though not an easy one. That’s not a contradiction. Simple means it’s straightforward. That’s not the same as “easy”. Getting any Amendment passed will be incredibly difficult. The last amendment to pass was in 1992. We only have 27 amendments, and 10 of them, the Bill of Rights, were created when the Constitution was ratified. To pass this amendment, we must amend the U.S. Constitution within its current requirements. We have to get two-thirds of both chambers of Congress and 38 of our 50 states on board, and we have to do that in our polarized nation with Republicans in control. Sounds impossible, right?
Let me tell you another story
By the winter of 1864, the Civil War had raged for nearly four years, leaving the nation battered and broken. Fields had become battlefields. Families had been torn apart. More than half a million lives had already been lost. But despite the bloodshed, one thing remained certain—slavery still existed.
Abraham Lincoln knew that winning the war wasn’t enough. If the South surrendered and slavery still stood, everything would have been for nothing. The Emancipation Proclamation had freed enslaved people in rebel states, but it wasn’t permanent. A new president, a new Congress—slavery could return.
It had to be abolished forever.
Lincoln pushed for a constitutional amendment. It had already passed the Senate—but the House of Representatives was another matter. The votes weren’t there. Opposition ran deep, even in the North. Many Democrats argued that ending slavery would destroy the economy or lead to racial equality they weren’t prepared to accept. Some even claimed the Constitution protected slavery.
Lincoln, exhausted and worn, refused to give up. He and his allies fought for every last vote. They made deals. They twisted arms. They promised political appointments. And when that wasn’t enough, they appealed to the conscience of the nation.
On January 31, 1865, the House of Representatives met for the final vote. Tensions were high. The chamber filled with murmurs, with gasps, with hope and with dread. When the final count was read—the 13th Amendment had passed.
The House erupted in cheers. Applause shook the room. Some wept. Some shouted in triumph. In the galleries, Black Americans—formerly enslaved and free—embraced one another. The fight wasn’t over, but history had turned.
Just weeks later, Lincoln would be dead, and the amendment still had a big hurdle—it had to be ratified by three-fourths of the states.
And now, the president was Andrew Johnson.
Johnson was a Southerner. He was no friend to the cause. Openly racist, Johnson despised the wealthy plantation class but believed in white supremacy. He would later veto civil rights bills meant to help formerly enslaved people, and he would oppose Reconstruction at every turn. But even he couldn’t stop the 13th Amendment.
By December 6, 1865, the required number of states had ratified it. Slavery in the United States was officially abolished.
The moment should have marked a new beginning. And yet, racism was still alive. New forms of oppression—Black Codes, Jim Crow, sharecropping, voter suppression, and lynchings—quickly took the place of slavery. The fight for true freedom was far from over. Rosa Parks, Malcolm X, Emmett Till, Medgar Evers, John Lewis, and Martin Luther King Jr. had yet to be born and thrust into what would become a long and ongoing struggle for equality, justice, and fairness.
But the 13th Amendment proved something critical: Even in war, even with a broken nation, even when the odds are stacked against us, even when we’re polarized, we can do what seems impossible.
When the votes weren’t there, they fought for them.
When the war raged on, they pushed forward.
When the President of the United States was assassinated, the cause still moved.
Progress has never been easy. But it has always been possible—if people refuse to give up.
WE NEED MORE THAN A MOVEMENT
Resistance will come—it always does when there’s oppression. But without a clear strategy and an endgame, even the strongest movements burn out and collapse under opposition.
A goal without a plan is just a wish.
How many movements have risen with passion, only to fade away? The Occupy Movement shook the world but brought no lasting change. Campus protests over Gaza made headlines but didn’t stop the war.
Changing Article V is the key to real, lasting change. If we amend Article V to make future amendments easier, everything becomes possible—term limits, abolishing the electoral college, expanding voting rights, Supreme Court reform, protecting choice, and more. No longer controlled by politicians and corporate lobbyists, the power will finally belong to the people.
History shows us that even in dire situations, resistance can work—if it’s strategic and relentless.
- Voting Still Matters—But It’s Not Enough
Yes, Trump’s allies are taking over the government and even election boards, but overwhelming turnout can still beat rigging. It’s happened before—like in Serbia (2000) and Ukraine (2004). That said, winning elections is only step one. If results are overturned or ignored, we must be ready to mobilize immediately. - Mass Mobilization Works
No authoritarian government has ever been stopped without mass, sustained pressure. If Trump moves to consolidate power, millions in the streets—not just for a day, but for weeks or months—can force change. This isn’t hypothetical; it worked in Chile, South Africa, and Poland. - Legal & Institutional Resistance
Not everyone in government supports authoritarianism. Whistleblowers, judges, and local officials can still resist—if they know we will back them up. We must call out corruption, amplify their voices, and demand accountability before it’s too late. - Economic Pressure Hurts Regimes
Authoritarians rely on money and business interests to stay in power. Strikes, boycotts, and disrupting financial systems played a major role in toppling dictatorships worldwide. We need to identify weak points and apply pressure. - Parallel Institutions Can Keep Democracy Alive
If the government falls to authoritarian rule, independent networks—alternative news sources, grassroots organizing, and community-led resistance—will be essential. This is how resistance survived under fascist regimes in Europe and Latin America.
Here is a list of independent media sources. Please search them up on YouTube and subscribe to each and every one. We have to support independent media during this critical time. We cannot just tune out. Take a break as you need, but don’t tune out. Numbers matter.
- Adam Mockler
- Brian Tyler Cohen
- Walter Masterson
- Steve Shives
- The Majority Report w/ Sam Seder
- Adam Conover
- Luke Beasley
- Richard Wolff
- J-L Cauvin
- The Humanist Report – Hosted by Mike Figueredo
- Secular Talk – Hosted by Kyle Kulinski
- The Chud Report
- The Daily Show
- PoliticsGirl
- Legal AF
- Dr. Omekongo Dibinga
- Occupy Democrats
- TRUTH SPEAKS
- Belle of the Ranch (Formerly Beau of the Fifth Column)
The biggest weapon Trump and his allies have is hopelessness. They want us to feel powerless. But we are not. The truth is, if we give up now, we will lose. If we fight back with a real strategy, we can fix this and become better for it.
That’s how we win.
Leave a Reply