On July 15, 1944, Anne Frank wrote:

“It’s difficult in times like these: ideals, dreams and cherished hopes rise within us, only to be crushed by grim reality. It’s really a wonder that I haven’t dropped all my ideals, because they seem so absurd and impossible to carry out. Yet I keep them, because in spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart.”

These are inspiring words. And I have found reason to quote them many times over the years. Still…

Less than a month later, on August 4, 1944, Anne Frank was arrested.

Six months later, in February 1945. Anne Frank died at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.

Hope and ideals did not save Anne Frank.

I’m not saying this means we should abandon hope in our current political circumstances. We shouldn’t. But understand that having hope doesn’t guarantee a future positive outcome. Neither does grit and determination. You can still wind up in a concentration camp. And die. In fact, in the darkest of times, as we are now experiencing, hope rarely saves us from dire outcomes.

Yes, in the end, the Nazis were defeated. So I suppose hope was rewarded beyond Frank’s death. But the defeat came at a terrible cost.

We will almost certainly need to pay a serious cost as well. What we have already seen, from Trump’s Cabinet nominations and policy announcements, makes that very clear. Trump 2.0 will be nothing like Trump 1.0. No doubt, it will require difficult action and resistance on our part. And, even so, success won’t be guaranteed.

So have hope. And take action. Victory may yet come. But not without a struggle such as we have never seen in our lifetime.

[P.S. As of 2022, approximately 88 of the world’s countries were classified as autocracies, home to 70% of the world’s population.]