In the month of April, temperatures in Northeast Ohio drift from cold to cool, the earth softens and gardeners abandon all else to plan and prepare beds of flowers, vegetables and herbs. By the end of May, eight weeks of pleasurable, muscle-aching work have set the stage for months of beautiful flowers, fresh produce and meals shared outdoors.
Come September, temperatures begin to drop and flowering plants, grown large over the summer, look happier. Nights become cool enough to sleep with open windows, yet days remain warm enough to keep gardens in a state of seemingly eternal beauty. Then suddenly, as happened last weekend, a killing frost moves in and everything that was carefully cultivated for months must be rushed inside or die.
Creation requires time and effort and, therefore, patience. Destruction, on the other hand, is most often delivered swiftly. This is true of living things, physical structures, organizations and even systems of government. Change is inevitable, even necessary, but rarely do impulsive actions lay the groundwork for future stability.
For the second time in my life, a new global order is manifesting. In the late 20th century, when I was a young woman, the Soviet Union collapsed and with its demise so too went the Cold War, which had dominated the world order my entire life until that point. With the only other global superpower suddenly vanished, the United States was left in a vacuum. Discussions on what role the U.S. should take to establish and maintain global order and priorities were hotly debated everywhere from academic conferences to Sunday morning political talk shows.
Soon after the new century began, the U.S. was stunningly attacked by terrorists; China’s power, both economically and politically, quietly gathered strength; and, under Vladimir Putin, a former KGB lieutenant colonel, Russia moved to reconstitute its power on the global stage and over the former Soviet republics.
During the Cold War, it was made endlessly clear in school, on the news and in kitchen-table conversations that the Soviet Union was America’s enemy. We were taught to fear the communist nation for many reasons, the most terrifying of which was that they wanted to drop a nuclear bomb on our democratic nation. Reports of Soviet submarines detected in American waters caused fear in the minds of children, but also for many adults.
Yes, those fears proved overblown, yet it is inexplicable that our government is suddenly extremely cozy with Russian leadership. In 2022, Russia began a full-scale war against Ukraine, a country it had invaded in 2014 when it took control of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula. Currently, Russia supplies Iran with military arms and intelligence, which are used against American troops in the war with that country started by President Trump last February. Yet recently, Trump lifted sanctions against Russia while simultaneously withdrawing support for Ukraine, thereby aiding Russia in its war of aggression unlike any in Europe since World War II.
Here in Akron, my quiet life is good. And yet I have a foreboding unease that feels familiar because it is exactly how I felt the fall of 2020. Back then, I wanted the turbulent, irrational administration of the first Trump presidency to end in that fall’s election, but I was also anxious as to what Trump would do if he lost. He did lose and my fears, it turns out, were not misplaced.
The global structure that was established after WWII − one of laws, order and alliances − is being pulled apart in front of our eyes and with our federal government’s active incitement. Inside the United States, billionaires and the world’s first trillionaire are pouring heretofore unimaginable sums of money into elections (including the senate and gubernatorial races here in Ohio), giving their voices and desired goals overwhelming priority over those of regular citizens.
No matter which party controls the U.S. Senate and Congress after next month’s election, America’s role on the global stage is already irrevocably diminished. Our government, as evidenced in rampant corruption and minimally regulated campaign financing, is no longer of the people, by the people and for the people. Instead, it is too often of, by and for the ultra-rich, as implemented by the executive branch with the passive acquiescence of Congress.
The only way to ensure rampant corruption and income inequality don’t continue to accelerate, and the fundamental principle that no person is above the law isn’t eroded to irrelevance, is to vote Democrat on Nov. 3 − even if you don’t usually. Congress must have its full power restored so it can resume its constitutional obligation to act as a check on the executive branch’s overreaches and folly.
This column was first published in the Akron Beacon Journal on Sunday, October 25, 2026.
