The world isn't ending...our old systems are.

The Roman empire's collapse can teach us a lot in this moment. History shows that change doesn’t come from the top down... it starts when people decide they're done waiting.

This weekend, I was lucky enough to spend time with my family ice-fishing in Wisconsin with my little brother Landyn, a political history savant with expertise in the Roman Empire (before “my Roman empire” was a popular internet meme). Although our mother passed her love of history to both of us, Landyn took it a step further—reciting passages from Livy for fun and casually debating the merits of land redistribution like we were on the Senate floor in 133 BCE. My mother, as a result, calls us her Gracchi.

For those who don’t spend their free time reading about the late Roman Republic (first of all, good for you), the Gracchi brothers—Tiberius and Gaius—were two reformers who saw Rome’s political system rotting from the inside out. They saw how the wealthy elite had concentrated land and power, leaving everyday Romans struggling. So they did something radical: they fought to redistribute resources, ensuring the people had a fair shot.

The ruling class? They didn’t take kindly to that. The Senate smeared them, blocked them, and when that didn’t work—violence did. Both brothers were killed, and their reforms were buried with them. But their fight exposed the rot. The illusion that Rome’s system still worked shattered, and their deaths sped up the Republic’s collapse.

I reference this historical moment of resistance because it proves something critical: systems don’t break overnight. They erode because they refuse to change. And when they finally collapse, what comes next depends entirely on who’s ready to step into the breach.

It depends on what news you’re watching, but you might wonder if we’re on the verge of a full-blown collapse. The short answer? Not quite. Rome took over 300 years to fall. As digital creator Brown Girl Art captured, the world isn’t ending—just the old systems. The transition will be violent and messy if we don’t get serious about what’s next.

Meanwhile, back at home, the GOP supermajority in Tennessee is treating democracy like a chew toy, gutting local control, scapegoating entire communities, and punishing dissent like it’s a sport. If you’re waiting for a politician or a political party to swoop in and save us, I have bad news: they’re not coming. If you’ve been wondering what governing without accountability looks like, congratulations! You’re living in it.

So What Do We Do With This?

We could wring our hands and say, Welp, the empire’s crumbling, time to get comfortable in the ruins. Or, we could do what we know works:

• Build parallel structures to the state apparatus—When the systems around us fail, we strengthen our own labor unions, mutual aid networks, independent journalism, and local power bases that don’t answer to the supermajority and resist to encroaching criminalization and surveillance.

• Get loud and get local— We are playing legislative whack-a-mole in Dante’s newly created 10th Circle of Hell but localized defense, and community organizing is our way out. The more people who understand how bad policies are shaping their lives, the more we can shift the landscape.

• Invest in what comes next—The GOP’s tactics are about clinging to power in a system that’s slipping away from them. They’re playing defense. We should be playing offense. That means running more local candidates, supporting boldly populist ideas, and laying the groundwork for the Tennessee we want in 50 years—not just the one we’re trying to survive.

The Road Ahead

This session, we’re pushing legislation that forces real choices on the table—legalizing marijuana to fix our potholes, ending Tennessee’s grocery tax by closing corporate loopholes, and holding Big Ag accountable so our rural communities can prosper. Will we win every fight? Nope. Will we make some people in power uncomfortable? Absolutely.

The Gracchi brothers knew they wouldn’t win over Rome’s ruling elite with land reform, but they forced the Senate to reveal its true priorities—and in doing so, exposed the rot at the heart of the Republic. That’s the strategy here. If the supermajority wants to keep rejecting common-sense policies that would help Tennesseans, let’s get them on record. Let’s make them say, out loud, that they’d instead give corporate handouts than end the grocery tax. Let’s watch them squirm when asked why they’d rather keep throwing kids in jail for weed than invest, for the long term, in our crumbling roads. Let’s continue to file lawsuits against their unconstitutional policies and campaign on the fact that they’re bankrupting the state and local governments in the process.

The Gracchi didn’t wait for permission to demand better. Neither will we. The old systems are cracking. Let’s be the ones to build what comes next.

Hang in there,

Aftyn

P.S. If you’re ever feeling overwhelmed by the news, just remember: even Rome didn’t fall in a day. And also, we have memes. (-: