In the last two months, the gloves have come off. The not-so-new administration in D.C. and governmental leadership in many states across our union have shown their true colors. So, too, our court system. They are intent on doing as much damage as possible to as many individuals, organizations and systems as they can, whether legal or not.

Laws, policies, and even basic human decency seem to no longer matter. It amazes me the extent to which President Donald Trump and his cronies will go to hurt, and even negate, people in every way possible.

This is documented every day both through the news media and via our lived experience. It appears there is no end in sight, short of what could well turn out to be a very emotional and uncivilized war, beyond the current war on words.

Now is not the time to be nice, polite, or “appropriate.” Respectful, yes. But anything short of pulling out as many stops as we can will not yield the results we need to see — an end to the carnage being laid to our democracy. It’s gone well beyond the political; this has become its own form of a savage and personalized witch hunt, with Trump, et al., doing whatever and as much as they can to sabotage what made our country unique in the first place.

We, the people, have every right to be angry. He and they are doing as promised, and worse. Bystanding or kowtowing — popular actions from multiple factions in D.C. and across the country — will only further enable and embolden the powers that be to continue serving up wrecking balls to nearly everything our democracy holds sacred and sacrosanct.

“Normal” responses won’t matter; they will be either ignored or run over. We’ve already seen ample evidence of this.

I don’t and won’t ever advocate violence or disrespect. But short of these negative methods of reacting, I believe the time is now — today — to push back, to raise our voices, votes (when and if we can), and calls for human rights to new levels that we’ve not attempted in civil society for many decades. All in! As Bobby Dylan prophetically wrote and sung so many years ago, the times, they are a-changin’. And not for the better.

If you have not been personally implicated by now, have all fear, as you may well be — you and me and anyone and everyone else whose lives vary even one iota of difference from Trump’s “standard issue American” — those already holding extreme wealth and power. He empowers his kind while disempowering everyone else.

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Contrary to popular belief (at most, Trump’s own belief), there is no mandate! As Pete Buttigieg stated the other day, the opposite of DEI, upon which our nation has been built, is essentially death to democracy. For those wishing to save and savor true democratic ideals, it’s time to push back — hard, loud, strong, unrelenting.

Each day, we need to find a way to dig in, and it’s best not to do it alone. That’s too much for any one of us on a daily basis.

I’m out on a limb here guessing that the majority of Trump voters would or will wish to turn his train back into the station any day now. A national day of protest and pushback, April 5, could be one of many turning points. Bring it on! Let’s continue to boycott, to advocate, to speak truth and reality to lies and nonsense.

Let’s hold ourselves accountable, too. Lack of forceful words and action, silence and passivity, is tantamount to giving in. The late great John Lewis, former civil rights activist and U.S. representative from Georgia, spoke of “good trouble.”

This is good timing for good trouble — and we can all find ways to bring it on! Turn up the volume, raise the intensity, interrupt the corruption, be a positive disruptor. Many hands, many voices, the power of the pen and the purse, and, in time, many votes: the recipe for needed change. Now, today, tonight, tomorrow … nothing less will do. In the short term, nothing less will even matter.

And this is not BS: Hard as it is to say or hear, it’s now-or-perhaps-never. Too many of us and what we stand for are in a desperate situation.

We’re in a high-power learning and teaching mode now. Life has turned into a crash course in knowing how to make a difference and then becoming that difference.

The affordance of taking our time to reflect and demonstrate patience has passed. We’ve got to get our train out and up to speed while being sure to ground and dock that other train in its station — all without anyone getting hurt or dehumanized. Admittedly, it may be a new mindset for many of us, but without turning to it, we may lose our minds as well as our freedoms, safety, and sanity.

Daniel Cantor Yalowitz writes a regular column in the Recorder. A developmental and intercultural psychologist, he has facilitated change in many organizations and communities around the world. His two most recent books are “Journeying with Your Archetypes” and “Reflections on the Nature of Friendship.” Reach out to him at danielcyalowitz@gmail.com.