Editor’s Note: This is a guest commentary. The opinions do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial board.

Speaking from the perspective of a historically grounded, theoretically and politically engaged educator, “American Kakistocracy” is my way of expressing what we Americans and others are experiencing today in the United States and globally. I offer this poem, written in the context of rising authoritarian rhetoric, hardline immigration enforcement, and domestic and foreign policy projects that are challenging constitutional norms, democratic values and international laws. Please feel free to share your comments and reflections.

American Kakistocracy

They think
I’m some
Johnny-come-lately
They keep
Trying my patience

False faces
Marching, invading places—
Venezuela, Minnesota
Sovereign spaces
Meeting their quotas?

Local people are fearful
Full-on contradiction
And body-politic shaming
Building fighters from scratch
47 days of empty training
No vision, no mission, but forced extradition.

Poor folks
Just want to last
In Minnesota and elsewhere, fast

Renee Good understood
Her right to defend others, with no pretension
She left us too soon
Leaving children and a wife
Masked bandits
Did her in and took her life.

They think
American Kakistocracy
Is the way by mandate
But American denizens
Didn’t castrate
Their rights or duties
To the Founding Creed
For such an incessant onslaught
Of capitalist greed.

Militarized agencies
Traverse the nation — invasion
Masked faces
Cancered agents
There is no benediction
For their unlawful action

They think
I’m a fool
I’m no tool
For the money-hungry self-proclaimed king
Upon a City on a Hill

Yet, we’re losing
Our self-determination fast
Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address
It’s gone from memory, alas.

They think
They are clever
I outsmart them, whenever
They sing my praises
And offer me recognition
But the working class wants less inflation
And more raises
What’s the American Kakistocrats’ justification?

“The American people want this!” they apprise.

Ask VA nurse Alex Pretti
He refused to surrender
To these beastly yetis
Representing ICE
He was accused of terrorism
License to carry
He proved his heroism
His call was to protect humanity
They took his soul, another tragedy.

They punish me in public
Yet Bayard Rustin insists
I must resist
The acid rain pouring from the top
American Kakistocracy will rot
Our senses
And our freedoms
A deadly mudslide commences.

Their rhetoric
Portends that the past is gone
Yet they invoke it
“Make America Great Again” is their slogan.

I must stay
On the public megaphone, iPhones
And in the lecture halls, not alone
Spreading gold.

Greenland, Iceland — what is the difference?

A pretend king commands
His jackals here and there
Unaware
Of his own destruction
And his heirs.

Letting indifference
Conquer their senses
Federal agents
Acting as new illegals
Camouflage their faces
Masking agendas
And their features.

They think
I will surrender easily
To their propaganda, lies and ICE insurrections
Can’t fool me
With your beastly policies
Or Project 2025
And Trump’s Cronies’ Cacophonies

We must follow
The dictates of our Constitution
Without any illusion
Born from sin
Or must we be born again?
Reconstitution
Is that the solution?

Control the effects of factions
James Madison said
Yet American Kakistocrats have destroyed
Our liberty to breathe
We must rebuild
Never concede
Following a seethe.

Establish afresh
Republi-YES-WE-CAN form of government!

Like an awakened
Sorrowing American eagle
Parting its wings
Widening its talons!

Like Lady Liberty demands
Like Democracy expects
Like Samuel Francis Smith and MLK Jr. decreed

“Let freedom ring!”

Open our doors
Let people in
Non-citizens and citizens
And everything in between
Convict the American Kakistocracy
And we will win.

Carlos Figueroa (He/Him) is an associate professor of politics at Ithaca College. Contact him via email at [email protected].