Stop Saying "We've Been Here Before"
There is another phrase that can be more helpful.
In the effort to endure this new political regime, I hear a lot of people saying, “We’ve been here before.”
Their intent is to reassure people that we have seen bad actors in political office before. We have faced injustice and repression. We survived then, and we can survive now.
While I do believe that we can resist and persist through this regime, I do not think it is helpful, or accurate, to say “we’ve been here before.”
History is the study of continuity and discontinuity—what has changed and what remains the same.
There is some continuity between the past and our political present.
We have seen presidents pardon criminals—Hello, Andrew Johnson. We have see racist presidents—too many to list. We have protested through the suppression of voting and civil rights—basically all of our history.
But saying “we’ve been here before” with the implication that we can overcome now just as we overcame then is akin to thinking that just because you beat a particular team last year, you will certainly beat them again this year.
But there are new coaches, different players, altered game plans, injuries, and updates in facilities and equipment.
People might be playing with the same color jerseys as the last time, but you are both substantially different teams the next time you meet.
The past is helpful for finding principles and patterns but not for prophecy.
While we have faced political headwinds in the past, and even this very same president, we have not been here before. Not exactly.
How This Time Is Different
We can go through a litany of differences in our political landscape just from the last Trump administration to this one.
Digital media has become an even bigger factor in communication and shaping social perceptions.
Trump’s appearance on the Joe Rogan show leading up to the 2024 presidential election garnered intense, and mostly positive, attention.
We can’t know the exact numerical impact this interview had on voters, but we do know that in just three days, nearly 40 million people viewed that episode.
Digital media saturation did not just include Trump. There was an entire coterie of right-wing personalities advocating for him on YouTube pages, right-wing media sites, X/Twitter, Facebook, and TikTok.
Another difference this time is that Trump has been president before.
In 2016, we could only image what a Trump presidency would be like. Not surprisingly given his lack of experience and focus on garnering attention rather than governing, his administration was full of chaos and ineptitude.
This time, Trump’s team not only has the experience of a four-year term behind them, they also have a blueprint for the future. It’s called Project 2025 and his officials have already begun implementing it.
An analysis by TIME found that nearly two-thirds of the executive actions Trump has issued so far mirror or partially mirror proposals from the 900-page document, ranging from sweeping deregulation measures to aggressive immigration reform.
It’s not helpful to say “we’ve been here before” because this time the Trump regime has a plan, and they’re not afraid to use it.
Nor have we ever seen a president who fomented an insurrection, was twice-impeached, and not only escaped accountability but was re-elected.
Trump, his team, and his supporters now feel they have a “mandate” from the people and even a crusade from God to do whatever they want.
We have not been here before.
The Most Important Difference
The most importance difference between the last Trump administration and this political climate—as well as the past overall—is that we are now facing the rollback of progress that previous generations never enjoyed.
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965 markedly expanded political participation and legal protection of historically marginalized groups including women, Black people, and people of various religions.
Decades later we had become so accustomed to having these rights that they seemed like a foundation we could build a future on rather than a rug that could be pulled from under us.
In the current context, however, we’re seeing the those rights yanked away.
For instance, the Supreme Court struck down a key provision of the Voting Rights Act.
The 2013 Shelby County v. Holder case ruled Section 4(b) unconstitutional. This section contained the formula used to determine which jurisdictions with a history of racial discrimination in voting were required to seek federal approval (preclearance) before making any changes to their voting laws or practices.
The ruling effectively rendered Section 5, the preclearance requirement, unenforceable, leading to concerns about voter suppression and the implementation of restrictive voting laws in several states.
In 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard and Students for Fair Admissions v. University of North Carolina that race-conscious admissions policies, commonly known as affirmative action, are unconstitutional in higher education.
The Court's decision effectively ended the consideration of race as a factor in college admissions, ruling that such policies violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment—one of the Reconstruction Amendments passed to protect newly freed Black people after the Civil War.
And within his first week in office, Trump and his team have moved to dismantle democratic institutions and safeguards.
He issued pardons for nearly 1,500 people involved in the January 6, 2021 attempted insurrection.
Trump has declared a “national emergency” at the U.S./Mexico border.
He has suspended refugee admission, eliminated DEI programs in the federal government, and more.
No. We have not been here before.
The insistence that this time is much like any other in the past, or even just like the first Trump administration, short-circuits our ability to be nimble and adapt our resistance to the current situation.
What We Should Say Instead
At a recent gathering of Black Christian leaders, the Reverend Traci Blackmon made a point that can be helpful right now.
She spoke about a house in the Palisades area of Los Angeles that survived the horrific fires that roared across the region.
The house stood when many others burned.
The house’s owner had fortified it to withstand the fire. It was built for it.
Instead of saying “We’ve been here before”, we should say “We’re built for this.”
As people of faith and those committed to democratic principles, we are built for this.
We are built to resist injustice, to forge new pathways for progress, and to withstand the temporary triumph of unscrupulous leaders.
True, not all of us have prepared for this moment. Some people have a basic foundation, but will still need to do a lot of work to truly encounter this moment with courage and boldness.
Others of us, though, have been fighting, resisting, and persevering for a very long time.
Even though we have not been here before, we are built for this.
Especially as followers of Christ.
We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body (2 Corinthians 4:8-10).
It will not be easy. It will take agonizing time and studied effort. But we, as a people, will remember, or discover for the first time, that we are indeed built for this moment.
What quotes, Bible verses, or thoughts have you been reminding yourself of in the first week of this regime? Share in the comments.
We have a great cloud of historical witnesses who were built for their times, too. Learn more about them in these books.
While we’re at it, let’s dump “it will be fine” and “all shall be well.” Thanks, Jemar.
The folks I've encountered who say, "We've been here before," say it to dismiss the threat rather than encourage others to resist it. They usually follow with, "we'll make it." to which I would counter that many of us won't make it. The reason I have joined this community is that your concern level matches my own. I'm ready to resist and can't do it alone. As to Bible verses: We must build one another up in the faith. Be aware of the devil's schemes (he loves it when I talk or think about DJT more than Jesus btw). And most importantly, remember that this is a spiritual battle in which many Christians have been deceived, so only use the armor that God allows, truth, righteouness, etc. Overcome evil with good. (Sorry for leaving out the citations!)
Be strong in the Lord, friends.