WHERE IS OUR LEADER?

The Resistance Needs a Leader

The greatest failure of the resistance against the rise of American oligarchy is not a lack of passion nor a shortage of people who recognize the danger. It is a failure of leadership.

Every great struggle in history, from the Civil Rights Movement to the fight against apartheid, succeeded because it had a leader. This singular figure could rally people behind a vision, organize resistance, and inspire the masses to act with unwavering determination. Today, in the face of the most pressing existential threat to American democracy, that leader is absent.

Where is our Martin Luther King Jr.? Where are Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, and John F. Kennedy? At a moment when American democracy is being actively dismantled by Trumpism, Musk’s corporate autocracy, and a complicit GOP leadership, the opposition remains leaderless, fragmented, and weak.

The Palpable Failure of Leadership

There is no fire in Congress. Chuck Schumer is not the leader of this fight. His time has passed, and yet he remains the Democratic Senate leader, offering no vision, no rallying cry, and no forceful opposition to the creeping authoritarianism that threatens the republic. Congressional Democrats have failed to communicate urgency or inspire an actual resistance movement. The Democratic Party’s message is muddled, its strategy timid, and its leadership uninspiring.

The political establishment is not equipped for this fight. The threat facing America today is not just a policy debate or a contest of ideas; it is a full-scale war on democracy itself, waged by billionaires, right-wing ideologues, and an increasingly radicalized MAGA base. The old ways of fighting, legislative debates, press conferences, and empty speeches, are no match for the ruthless, reality-warping power of Trump’s movement and his oligarchic backers.

Why Leadership is Non-Negotiable

History has shown that mass movements do not succeed without a clear, decisive, and charismatic leader. Look at the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa. Would it have succeeded without Nelson Mandela? Look at the Civil Rights Movement. Would it have made the progress it did without Martin Luther King Jr.? Even the American Revolution required the presence of Washington, Jefferson, and Adams to succeed.

Movements without leadership fail. They become scattered, disorganized, and ultimately powerless against more structured opposition. The oligarchs we are fighting, Trump, Musk, and their ilk, are not hindered by the absence of leadership. They have their generals, financiers, propagandists, and movement builders. Meanwhile, the resistance is left without a commander, lacking a unifying force to bring it together and direct it toward victory.

Who Can Lead?

The absence of leadership is not just frustrating; it is an existential problem for democracy. Someone who can unify the fractured opposition must emerge, speak in clear moral terms, and mobilize people with the urgency this moment demands.

Who could fill this role?

Some have suggested figures like Neil deGrasse Tyson, a brilliant thinker and communicator but not a movement leader. Others may look to prominent political figures, but none have stepped up with the boldness necessary to inspire a true movement. There may be leaders in business, media, and activism, but they remain hidden, either unwilling or unable to rise to the moment.

If no leader emerges, the movement is doomed. That is the simple, brutal truth. Without leadership, there will be no effective strategy, mass mobilization, and resistance strong enough to turn back the tide of oligarchy.

If we want to stop the unraveling of American democracy, we must do more than resist in scattered ways. We must demand leadership. We must find that leader or create one. Someone must step up, and the people must rally behind them.

If that does not happen, if this void of leadership remains unfilled, then history will record this era as the moment democracy fell, not because people lacked the will to fight, but because they lacked a leader to show them how.

Time is running out. The resistance needs a leader. And it needs one now.

Willliam James Spriggs