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Graham Platner won Maine’s Democratic primary in a landslide, then quit after allegations he could not survive. His fall split the movement he built. We believe women, and violence against women is disqualifying, period. But his takedown was also coordinated Republican opposition research, and that is nothing to cheer. What does his exit mean for our movement?

A new federal rule, OMB 0034-2026, hands the White House direct political control over every federal research grant. Buried in dull bureaucratic language, it lets the Office of Management and Budget—now run by Project 2025 architect Russell Vought—override the individual agencies that have always tailored their own grant processes. Its core move, Section 200.205, installs presidential appointees inside every agency with sole authority to approve or deny grants. Peer review by working scientists still happens, but its verdicts become merely advisory—and appointees are actually pressured to reject the proposals experts rate highest. Grants must align with administration priorities, can be killed at any time on a whim, and are barred from researchers tied to advocacy groups, foreign collaborators, or public communication. The OMB actuaries no longer just audit; they command. It is a unitary seizure of power over American science, the very basis of our prosperity and standard of living, and the time to fight it is now through public comments

The midterm elections are shaping up not simply as a chance to take power in
the House and Senate but to lay the groundwork for what our country might
become in the years after 2028. If we are to preserved a multi-racial democracy in the United States, we must start with this years election.

(Photo: Photo: Black Voters Matter, voting rights rally in Montgomery, Alabama, 5/17/2026. (Credit: photojones.co)- From MVP)

Toby Sackton at First Parish Wayland: Why Movements Are Built on Trust, Not Leaders.

In a talk at First Parish in Wayland in March, Toby Sackton gave what might be the most complete account yet of why this moment demands something different from conventional politics and what Lexington Alarm has been building since Patriots Day 2025.

The talk, titled “Building Effective Resistance,” was part history, part organizing theory, part urgent call to action. Sackton began with the personal. “I have been an activist since the 1960s,” he told the room. “When the war in Ukraine started, I was glued to the news every day. Gaza was worse. When Trump was reelected, it was another shock. Truly, the world was coming apart. I doom scrolled. I read every atrocity from doge, the attack on science every firing, every attack on immigrants and Black people.”

What broke the spiral, he said, was not a policy win or an electoral outcome it was human connection. “When a group of us founded Lexington Alarm one year ago, for the first time since the Vietnam era, I felt part of this broad network of people, a movement, that had majority support, all working towards a rough common vision grounded in the ideas of equality and the promise of what America could be.”

Sackton started with a diagnosis. “Since the beginning of 2025, the laws and traditions that have shaped the last hundred years of our history have been violently attacked.

A few days after the No Kings rally in Lexington, Lexington Alarm held a debrief session to gather reactions. There were several successes and a few things to change before our next event.

At a post-event debrief on Zoom, organizers, marshals, volunteers, and participants went through the rally piece by piece. The consensus: it was a success. Nearly 2,000 people attended, more signs were sold than at the 6,000-person October rally, and close to 100 new contacts signed up at the tables. The mood among volunteers was described repeatedly as “uplifting.” The table setup was the best yet — positioned closer to the crowd than in October, generating real conversations, sign sales, and genuine engagement with organizational literature.

photo by Sasha Patkin: Ayla Modirzadeh-March, LHS Junior, Speaking at No Kings Day in Lexington

Nearly 2,000 people came to the Lexington Visitor’s Center, across from the Battle Green, on March 28, part of the largest single-day protest in American history. Nationally No Kings had more than 3,100 events nationwide, with an estimated 8 million participants, including 180,000 in Boston.

Lexington Alarm and IndivisibleLAB held the rally in Lexington, after it became apparent that many wanted one here, as has been done 3 other times this past year. Of course, Lexington is among the most fitting locations. “The Battle of Lexington and Concord was here,” one eighth-grade resident told the Lexington Observer. “It was the first place where we took our stand against kings. And I feel like we’re doing that again.”

Toby Sackton opened by naming the stakes directly. “We are not just fighting for survival, but for the rebirth of our Constitution and its promise.”

At Lexington Alarm we have a theory of resistance. When people have courage to take small actions they generate a response. No action is too small or insignificant not to count. Sometimes the responses strengthen the resistance in surprising ways. This creates a snowball effect, and the resistance to abuses and attacks on our constitutional rights grows stronger.

We have two really important examples from the past two weeks.

By focusing so much on Trump, we have allowed all those who make his atrocities possible to escape responsibility. Here are some tips for focused, stronger messaging to hold Republican enablers accountable as we approach the midterms.