MALDEN, MA – In case you missed it, Democratic Whip Katherine Clark (MA-5) was invited by The Harvard Crimson to share a few thoughts with the Class of 2026. You can read her op-ed HERE or below:
Our Democracy Will Survive — If You Fight
Congratulations. You made it.
I know it wasn’t easy getting here. This past decade has been one of disease, violence, venom, and new lows in our national life. And I’m afraid it’s all coming to a head right now.
You are stepping into your adult lives at a crossroads that will determine what the rest of your years ultimately look like. We are in the throes of a battle over what it means to be American, what it means to live in a republic, what it means to be free — and we very much need you in the mix.
After all, you already have some experience defending democracy. It is revealing that, of all the feuds they’ve waged and all the institutions they’ve targeted, anti-democratic forces have reserved particular animosity for one whose motto is simply: Veritas.
At the core of their extremism is the need to control, alter, and manufacture what is considered true. The Trump administration and its allies have embarked on an unprecedented attempt to corrupt and reshape the pillars of American life. Through the abuse of power and the cooperation of friendly billionaires, they have tried to enact a new set of rules around what we are allowed to say, write, and think.
Museums are expected to sanitize exhibits that offend the president. Libraries are expected to dispose of books deemed too “woke.” Law firms are expected to offer pro bono advocacy for the president’s causes. News networks are expected to produce coverage favorable to the administration. Students are expected to keep heterodox opinions to themselves if they want to avoid being disappeared by masked thugs. And universities are expected to embrace state ideology if they don’t want to be sued by the U.S. Department of Justice.
Most institutions that have drawn the administration’s ire have capitulated, or at least attempted to feign submission. But this remarkable community of students, alumni, faculty, staff, and administrators has held strong against a laundry list of ultimatums — including demands for students’ personal information, government audits of professors’ personal beliefs, and even flat-out cash ransom payments. All of this has come amid severe financial threats to Harvard’s lifesaving research and intimidation against its students.
In the face of these brazen attacks on the independence of the University, the constitutional rights of students, and the basic integrity of American academia, the Harvard community has stood its ground. You have been part of a momentous, national struggle for truth and freedom. My plea is that you continue.
Fascists normalize themselves through the exhausted, dispirited, half-hearted consent of the people. Do not hand it to them. As my friend and mentor, the late Representative John Lewis, liked to say: “Find a way to get in the way.”
Wherever this next chapter takes you, there will be ways to get in the way of authoritarianism. Find them, and keep doing them. To be a Harvard alum is to defend truth, and to be an American is to suffer no kings.
I know it’s not easy or pleasant or glamorous to be in this fight. These are suffocatingly dark times. The institutions of American democracy and free society have been challenged and severely damaged. But I continue to believe in our ability to save them.
Earlier this month, amid voter suppression the likes of which we haven’t seen in half a century, I traveled south for a national day of action at the Alabama State Capitol.
Those steps had been the site of Jefferson Davis’ inauguration as president of the Confederacy. On the same spot, George Wallace had declared “segregation forever.” In 2026, they bore witness to the righteous fury and solidarity of a people who refuse to go back. Thousands of activists resolving to fight on together — gathered in the same city where Americans organized, bled, and died so that their children and grandchildren would know this democracy belongs to them too.
There are so many reasons to be tired. And yet, even amid a pandemic, even in the wake of an insurrection, even in the face of the most heinous opponents, the foot soldiers of democracy have marched on.
Our republic will survive, so long as good people still believe in the power of the people. This 250-year-old story will continue, so long as you keep finding a way to get in the way.
Congratulations again; I’ve been proud to represent you during your time at Harvard. Keep marching, and I’ll see you out there.
Katherine M. Clark is the Representative for the Fifth Congressional District of Massachusetts and the House Democratic Whip. She is a graduate of the Harvard Kennedy School.
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