The Wrong Enemy
How purity politics keeps setting the fire while the arsonist walks free
The Ritual of Rupture
I knew it wasn’t in good faith.
I knew their minds were already made up — Gavin was the enemy, full stop.
And still I stayed. Still I typed. Still I tried to thread nuance into a room that only wanted rage.
They didn’t just say I was wrong. They said I was dangerous. That I had sacrificed my child for nuance. That I had traded love for strategy.
That was the knife. That was the scar. And it wasn’t carved by the right — it was handed to me by those who claim to fight for us.
The bus is already rolling. Purity doesn’t stop the wheels. Truth is triage.
The False Offering
Yes, Gavin vetoed a trans rights bill.
Yes, he said trans sports was a “fairness issue” after listening to poisoned framing.
I disagree. I think he was wrong. But wrong is not the same as Trump. Wrong is not the same as fascism.
Disagreeing with him doesn’t make him the enemy. Refusing to lie about him doesn’t mean I’m sacrificing my child.
The bus is already rolling. Purity doesn’t stop the wheels. Truth is triage.
The Spell of Confusion
The right floods the field with slogans: fairness, protect the children, save women’s sports.
They don’t argue policy — they launder fear into language.
And too often Democrats take the bait — Clinton with DOMA, Obama with “too far, too fast,” abortion rights bartered until Roe turned to ash.
Betrayal is real. The wound is real.
But there’s another layer to the trick: they don’t just sell the lie, they force Democrats to answer it. “Brains aren’t developed until 26.” “Litter boxes in schools.” “Sports are unfair.”
If a Democrat nods, they are accused of agreeing. If they refute, they are caricatured as extreme. Either way, the right clips the moment and declares victory. It’s not dialogue — it’s entrapment.
And when our side mistakes that soundbite for the whole position, we end up punishing our own instead of the arsonist who set the fire.
The bus is already rolling. Purity doesn’t stop the wheels. Truth is triage.
The Engine of Cannibalism
Even our advocates are caught in the algorithm.
Erin Reed and others flatten nuance into absolutes: “Newsom is anti-trans.”
Why? Because outrage spreads faster than accuracy. Because betrayal makes purity seductive. Because the algorithm rewards despair.
You can see it unfold every day online — a clip stripped of nuance, a thread declaring “enemy,” a thousand reposts of despair that only feed the algorithm.
But lies from our own side don’t protect us. They fracture us. They repaint the bus with purity slogans while the wheels crush our future.
Pause. Ask yourself: Who benefits when we mistake critique for collapse?
Who wins when despair turns inward?
The answer is the same every time: the right. The ones already driving the bus.
The bus is already rolling. Purity doesn’t stop the wheels. Truth is triage.
The Sigil of Collateral
They said I threw my child under the bus.
But the bus was already rolling. I was trying to stop it. They were busy repainting the sides.
And if democracy goes down beneath its wheels, every child who is trans, mixed, queer, non-Christian — every child outside their narrow script — is collateral.
The bus is already rolling. Purity doesn’t stop the wheels. Truth is triage.
The Geometry of Erasure
Trump is not hiding what comes next.
Voter purges. Between 2020 and 2021, about 4.3% of Black and 4.5% of white voters were purged nationally. The gaps look small in aggregate, but county-level disparities cut deeper — always falling hardest on voters of color.
Mail-in ballots. Communities of color relied heavily on expanded mail access. Removing it does not level the field; it widens turnout gaps already visible in the numbers.
Turnout gaps. In 2024, white turnout reached 70.5%, while Black turnout fell to 59.6% and Hispanic turnout to 50.6%. That’s not apathy. That’s architecture.
Shifting coalitions. White voters still made up 71% of the electorate in 2024, but Republicans are diversifying: their coalition was 78% white, down from 89% in 2016. Hispanic, Black, and Asian voters doubled their share of GOP support since 2016.
Generational fracture. In 2020, young voters (18–29) backed Democrats by 25 points. In 2024, that collapsed to 4 points (51–47). The shift came almost entirely from young white men, who broke Republican by 28 points. Young Black voters still supported Democrats by 74%. Young Asian voters by 72%. The fracture is not just racial — it is generational and gendered.
And he’s planting worse: floating “national emergency” with Zelensky, rehearsing the script to suspend elections. A third term. No term limits.
If we don’t stop this in 2026, democracy may not come back. Not in my lifetime. Not in my child’s.
The bus is already rolling. Purity doesn’t stop the wheels. Truth is triage.
The Mirror of Misfire
I’ve seen this before. A gay Hispanic man on Twitter who lied, purity-tested, and attacked me as a father, a husband. His position was simple: burn it all down. If I am in pain, everyone must be.
It was despair dressed as strategy. The same despair I see now — trans voices, minority voices, women, LGBTQ+ voices — attacking Democrats harder than they attack fascists.
By 2024, men overall favored Trump by 12 points. His support among men climbed from 50% in 2020 to 55% in 2024. Women still leaned Democratic, but the fracture was clear: a gender split running through every race, widening under the weight of despair.
But despair isn’t resistance. It’s recursion. Collapse only brings the bus.
The bus is already rolling. Purity doesn’t stop the wheels. Truth is triage.
The Dual Blade
Two truths at once:
Trans, minorities, women, LGBTQ+ — you are right to be scared, to feel betrayed. Many who claimed allyship only used you for power. That is real. That is wrong.
But democracy itself is being destroyed. Without it, nothing matters. Without it, there is no second chance.
And here’s the proof: in 2024, 72% of voters were white, compared to only 46% of non-voters. Nearly 30% of non-voters were under 30. 43% of non-voters lived in cities (vs. 34% of voters), and 31% were religiously unaffiliated (vs. 24% of voters). Despair does not silence the powerful. It silences the young, the diverse, the urban, the unaffiliated — the very coalition that could have been the firewall.
The bus is already rolling. Purity doesn’t stop the wheels. Truth is triage.
The Final Firewall
This is not politics. This is triage. This is war.
I will hold Democrats accountable. I will rage at vetoes, name cowardice, demand better. But I will not confuse critique with collapse. I will not call an imperfect ally the same as a fascist arsonist.
Enemy Diagnostic
Did they veto a bill? Critique.
Did they lie about our existence? Condemn.
Do they seek power without elections? Resist.
Do they fracture coalitions? Beware.
Do they burn allies to feel righteous? That’s not resistance. That’s recursion.
Because if we fracture now, we don’t get another chance. The midterms are the cliff. Beyond it — no free elections, no second act, no later correction.
Once the bus clears the street, there is no calling it back.
The bus is already rolling. Purity doesn’t stop the wheels. Truth is triage.
Ritual Close
Say it with me:
I will not mistake critique for collapse.
I will not burn allies to feel righteous.
I will not let purity write the obituary of democracy.
I will rage responsibly.
I will vote like it’s the last time — because it might be.
Truth is triage.
Purity is poison.
The bus is rolling — but we are not passengers.
We are the firewall.
Tell me I’m wrong.
Tell me purity will keep my child safe when the bus already has their name on the grill.
🧠 Comment if you’ve felt the knife of false purity.
🔁 Share if you’re done mistaking allies for arsonists.
🧯 Rage responsibly.