Top 5 posts on Playing with Fire in 2025
These were your favorite posts to read this year
One of my favorite things to look back on at the end of the year are the posts that have really resonated with you, the readers of Playing with Fire. This year, unsurprisingly, the ones that were most popular were about how to reject an administration that is systematically destroying all our country has been built on.
Let’s get into your favorite posts of the year:
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#5:
After the mass shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, I knew what to do. I knew I needed to create a Facebook page where women could congregate and mobilize to fight back against the gun industry.
After Donald Trump was elected in 2016, I knew what to do. I joined the resistance and marched and rallied and worked with other volunteers to help prevent him from passing any federal gun legislation for four years.
After Kamala Harris became the presidential candidate for Democrats last July, I knew what to do. I helped organize the largest Zoom in history to raise $11 million for her campaign and then went on the road as a surrogate.
But for the past few months, since Trump’s reelection and amidst the chaos, corruption, and cruelty he’s fomented, I’ve felt like I’m in quicksand. I’ve met with groups of women and contemplated different actions, but each time, I’m stymied and unable to move forward.
#4:
I spent the past few weeks telling friends and family about our decision to leave Northern California, our home for over five years, for Florida and their reactions have all followed the same trajectory: First a look of confusion, then shock, and then concern—as if I’ve just told them I’m struggling with a terminal illness.
So why am I moving across the country to live in a red state? It all started back in 2020, when my husband, John, and I moved from Colorado to California to be closer to his corporate office. John had been commuting for over a year and, once my youngest left for college, I didn’t want us to be living apart. However, the day after we moved to California, the pandemic shut down the world and, in turn, my husband’s office.
#3:
It feels like months since Donald Trump took office, but it was just in the last few weeks. In that short time, we’ve experienced the whiplash of executive orders, confirmations, and quiet erasures of government workers. Dangerous cabinet members have been confirmed. Diversity and equity gains were gutted with the stroke of a pen. The federal government’s reproductive rights webpage disappeared overnight as if it had never existed (but here’s the archived version). The chaos is all-consuming—each move expected, yet somehow still landing like a fresh gut punch.
Trump is operating from the playbook he promised voters, but watching men whose own family members have accused them of predatory behavior march into positions of power while women are marginalized feels like a full-throated “fuck you” to feminism. It’s as if the men who are now in power are hellbent on rolling back all of the progress women have made since the 70s and they’re reveling in their revenge.
#2:
Back in 2016, after Donald Trump was elected President by the Electoral College, I kept waiting for someone to save America. A Senator, a Congressmember, a state lawmaker, a celebrity, even a progressive billionaire. Someone. Anyone. But about a year into the Trump administration, as pundits, politicians, and the media became more and more obsequious, I realized that wasn’t happening. The cavalry wasn’t coming.
Maybe that’s why, after the Harris/Walz ticket lost, I wasn’t as freaked out as I had been after the loss in 2016. I knew better than to expect a famous, wealthy or powerful person to step up and try to stop whatever was about to happen. Honestly, it’s probably unfair to think any one person could save America. After all, a democracy is about the power of the collective, and right now, most of the people in the collective have lost their minds.
#1:
I’ve been a Democrat for as long as I can remember. In fact, the first full sentence I spoke, which my parents taught me as a toddler, was: “Nixon lied to the people” (it was 1973). Since turning 18, there hasn’t been an election cycle when I haven’t supported or donated to Democratic candidates. During college, I campaigned for Bill Clinton. After I graduated, I went to work for Missouri Gov. Mel Carnahan. In my 40s, I started Moms Demand Action. And during the last half of last year, I spent every waking hour campaigning and raising millions of dollars for the Harris/Walz ticket. In summary, I’m a loyal, mainstream, middle-aged liberal—someone kids might call a “normie Democrat.”
So, it’s been dismaying, to say the least, to watch too many Democratic leaders mostly fail to meet the moment after Donald Trump was reelected. Instead of speaking from a place of outrage, they’re going on Sunday cable shows and spewing consultant speak. Instead of pushing back on Trump’s reckless and dangerous orders, some are voting to pass his legislation and approve his cabinet picks. Instead of giving the 75 million voters who supported them their marching orders, they’re either ignoring us or sending emails asking for money.
I’d love to hear from you - what topics from the year really stuck with you? What would you like to see in this space in 2026? Let me know in the comments.
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I just looked in here as a 73 year old woman (but in Uk),
I’m all for women’s rights and wrote a book on local suffragettes.
You’re right about so much, but can I suggest you look into the substack’The Truth Matters’
Ok, it’s written by a Brit but he’s had extensive experience within the US elections.
He agrees with you, Democrats aren’t going to step up to the plate- it’s got to be from the collective x
- watching on with concern x