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A Year of Resistance—in the Streets, in Elections, and in the Courts

On Start Making Sense: Harold Meyerson and David Cole review the year 2025, when a remarkable resistance movement challenged an unprecedented attack on democracy.

Jon Wiener

December 31, 2025

People participate in a “No Kings” national day of protest in Boston, Massachusetts, on October 18, 2025.(Joseph Prezioso / AFP via Getty Images)

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A Year of Resistance—In the Streets, in Elections, and in the Courts | Start Making Sense
byThe Nation Magazine

The year in politics: Harold Meyerson of The American Prospect comments on Trump’s collapsing support in 2025, and the rise of the resistance—in both the unprecedented national mobilizations culminating in the second No Kings Day, and the Democratic triumph in virtually all elections in 2025.

Also: the year in court: David Cole, who stepped down this year as national legal director of the ACLU, reviews the 149 rulings against Trump in federal courts this past year, and the 21 times the Supreme Court has supported his attacks on democracy.

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The year in politics: Harold Meyerson of The American Prospect comments on Trump’s collapsing support in 2025, and the rise of the resistance—in both the unprecedented national mobilizations, culminating in the second No Kings Day, and the Democratic triumph in virtually all elections in 2025. Also: the year in the courts. David Cole, who stepped down this year as national legal director of the ACLU, reviews the 149 rulings against Trump in federal courts this past year, and the 21 times the Supreme Court has supported his attacks on democracy.

Subscribe to The Nation to support all of our podcasts: thenation.com/podcastsubscribe.

The Nation Podcasts

Here's where to find podcasts from The Nation. Political talk without the boring parts, featuring the writers, activists and artists who shape the news, from a progressive perspective.

Stopping Trump’s Slush Fund, plus the Transformations of Bill Gates / Start Making Sense
byThe Nation Magazine

Trump’s Billion Dollar Ballroom is a familiar kind of corruption, but his slush fund to pay the insurrectionists and paramilitary groups that commit violence in his name is an unprecedented attack on democracy. Rob Weissman of Public Citizen explains, and also talks about the immense, and immnsely unpopular, proposed Arc d’Trump.

Also: Bill Gates was once the country’s youngest billionaire and the first billionaire to come from tech. Then he became the most hated man in America; then the biggest philanthropist, and the world’s most admired man. Then we learned of his ties to Jeffrey Epstein. Ben Tarnoff explains how all happened.

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Jon WienerTwitterJon Wiener is a contributing editor of The Nation and co-author (with Mike Davis) of Set the Night on Fire: L.A. in the Sixties.


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