You can’t have a government “of, by, and for the people” if the people don’t participate. When Americans are distracted from politics, avoid learning about politics, or think all politicians are dirty so there are no real choices among them, our government does not serve the people. It only serves those who participate.

In 2010, the Supreme Court decided in the Citizens United ruling that money equals speech. They argued that limiting campaign contributions is the same thing as limiting our right to free speech. This unbelievably harmful ruling ensures that big money rules our elections. The rich can spend so much on campaigns that they drown out whatever ordinary people are trying to say.

Trump and his billionaires are the end result of a process that has been going on for decades. Ordinary Americans should be driving this car, but most have been too distracted or too cynical to do the job. Instead, the very rich have pushed us aside. They have taken the wheel of American politics so that they can just keep on getting richer. The politicians they put in power are the ones who will do what they want. This means lower taxes for the rich, higher taxes for the rest of us, fewer regulations, and less oversight, so they can get away with more monkey business.

Now Trump’s administration is in the process of destroying the working parts of our government. They are not trying to throw out the bathwater and keep the baby. They’re throwing the baby out too. Education? Medical research? Food safety? Consumer protection? Environmental rules that fight climate change? The billionaires have decided we don’t need any of that.

It’s much easier to destroy things than to build them. It took a long time and a lot of work to get our government to help people in crisis, take care of the elderly, educate children with special needs, and keep industry from spoiling our air and water. Now all the structures that were so carefully put in place to help ordinary Americans are being torn down as fast as the billionaires can manage.

For a long time, Americans have allowed ourselves to believe that we don’t have to participate in politics. What difference does one vote make, after all? The problem is that if millions of people think this way, it makes a huge difference.

Trump and his billionaire besties are driving this car right over a cliff. His tariffs make everything we need more expensive, not cheaper. He is turning our allies into enemies, and making friends with dictators. He is leaving our country at the mercy of the next epidemic, in spite of all we learned from COVID. Instead of negotiating fair deals for the resources we need, he threatens to take them by force.

It won’t be easy to take the wheel back from the billionaire class that has grabbed it. They are ruthless, they own most of the media, and they don’t care whom they hurt. They will lie, cheat, and use violence to keep themselves in power.

But that car belongs to us, the people of the United States. We have a Constitution for a reason. For all the faults of that document, it does insist that the country belongs to the people who live here, not just the rich and powerful. If we pay attention, if we decide to participate, we can take this country back.

It is tempting to sleep through this era of loss and destruction. But the only way to rescue our country is to wake up to our power to change things. Too many of us have left the driving to others. We need to take the wheel and steer ourselves back toward peace, justice, and a sustainable future.