The 2026 Tipping Point

Echoes Of The Past Are Too Hard To Ignore

The 2026 Tipping Point

History doesn’t repeat itself exactly, but I’ve come to believe it echoes. As we begin 2026, those echoes are getting louder and harder for me to ignore. The fabric of our democracy is now stretched so thin that it will either tear or be reinforced. I believe we are approaching that tipping point.

I’ve read about the crises of the last century, and I see a clear, chilling pattern: the most dangerous time for a country is when a leader senses their power slipping away. When someone views power as a personal prize rather than a public trust, they don’t just walk away when they lose. I don’t know if it’s pride or stubbornness, but they tend to stay, fight, and escalate.

We see this even in the Torah. The demagogue Korah used populist rhetoric to mask a personal power grab against Moses. But Moses gave us a different model: knowing his time was up, he asked God to appoint a successor so the community wouldn’t be left “as sheep without a shepherd.” He had no ego about the transfer of power.

I see the echoes in recent American history—the Joe McCarthy era. In the 1950s, McCarthy was a senator whose anti-communist attacks didn’t need facts; he made enough noise to keep people scared and confused. He treated anyone who disagreed with him as an enemy. He threatened, blackmailed, schemed, and threw our country into turmoil. But eventually, his support dissipated.

I see the shadows of Richard Nixon. I mostly experienced his policies through the songs of the time, which were rebellious and anti-war. But later, as I became more aware of politics, I came to understand that he perpetuated crimes, threats, and lies to remain in power. And when that started catching up to him, he tried to dismantle the legal system during the “Saturday Night Massacre.” He fired the people investigating him. He even kept an “Enemies List”—a secret document of people he wanted to harass.

And then, in 2021—I saw it with my own eyes on TV—the insurrection prompted by Trump. For the first time in American history, we watched a sitting president try to overturn an election by force because he didn’t want to let go of power and possibly be prosecuted for his illegal activities. That wasn’t just a breakdown in norms—that was a leader showing us exactly who he is when he loses.

Now that he is back in power, a fomenter of tremendous chaos that benefits only the uber-wealthy, I feel a resistance growing. People are waking up. I sense the “fever” of the last decade is showing signs of finally breaking, but that is exactly what makes this moment so high-stakes. Trump, clearly mentally diminished and physically weakened, will surely double down on every horrific policy he has ushered in—to distract from his crimes and corruption—while using every lever of power he can before he risks losing the House or Senate. What’s more, the “vipers” he installed in power will have no trouble pouncing if he weakens further.

2026 is when the fever either breaks or becomes permanent. These midterms represent the last electoral check before 2028. If we fail, I feel sure what comes next is the dismantling of the integrity of elections themselves and the freedom of the press to report without fear of state-sanctioned retribution.

I’ve realized that most major media outlets are owned by the very forces that benefit from keeping us confused. When billionaires own the news, they manufacture permission for their own power. This is why I turn to independent voices: The Bulwark, MeidasTouch, Ground News, Robert Reich, Brian Tyler Cohen, and journalists like Jim Acosta, Ari Melber, and Don Lemon. I triangulate—I look for facts that hold steady across multiple sources. When mainstream media loses its nerve, we’ve got to become our own editors.

To my Republican friends: There’s a difference between conservatism and authoritarianism. You don’t have to vote Democrat—but you do have to refuse to vote for a President and his sycophants who have sold their souls and treat the Constitution as an obstacle. Sitting out isn’t weakness; it’s the most conservative act possible. It says: “Not this. Not in my name.”

Pay attention. Stand firm and tall. Don’t accept “whataboutism.” Have uncomfortable conversations with the people you love. Insist that we need not surrender to demagogues. Together, we can build a better life and stop letting manufactured hatred tear us apart. We could finally become what we were meant to be: mishpacha—family. Not a family defined by a party, but a family defined by our shared humanity.

May God bless you all. Peace, my friends.

Rabbi Steven Blane is the founder and Dean of JSLI Rabbinical and Cantorial School (JSLI.net), the first online rabbinical school. He is the founder of Sim Shalom (SimShalom.com), the first fully online synagogue, and the Universal Judaism movement (UJUC.org).