We are living in an Upside Down moment, and the danger is no longer metaphorical. You don’t need to have watched Stranger Things to recognize that the threat is real, not lurking in another dimension. It’s prowling in the White House, and no blinking lights are spelling out SOS.
This is what an Upside Down world looks like: Donald Trump, an accidental president, openly threatening catastrophic violence against another nation’s civilian infrastructure, while those with the constitutional authority to stop him hesitate, equivocate or remain silent.
History will remember: On Easter Sunday 2026, Donald Trump posted a message so reckless, so unhinged, that it would be disqualifying in any functioning democracy. Threatening the destruction of Iran’s power plants and bridges, invoking apocalyptic language and wrapping it all in bravado, he revealed not just poor judgment but a fundamental disregard for human life and the rule of law. Two days later, he added this warning: “A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will.”
Unfortunately, there is little credible evidence that the vice president and a majority of the Cabinet are engaged in serious discussions to remove Trump under the 25th Amendment.
So it is falling to the American people to do what elected officials are failing to do: unseat a president unfit to serve. Protests against the war need to be as ubiquitous as daffodils in spring—visible, sustained, impossible to ignore. The anti-Vietnam War movement did not stop the war overnight, but it changed the political calculus until continuing it became untenable.
The millions at No Kings rallies have been doing their part. Now, perhaps, they’ll take a new tack. Imagine citizens moving from street protests into the halls of Congress, confronting their representatives in their Washington offices and home districts. Asking, insisting, refusing to leave without an answer to a simple question: What are you doing—right now—to stop him? To stop the madness?
The people have begun doing their part. Congress must now do theirs.
Rob Okun is editor emeritus of ‘Voice Male,’ which has long chronicled the profeminist men’s movement.
