The Democratic Party needs to find a way to make its tent bigger, at least at the national level. As long as we have autocracy, policy disagreements are irrelevant because Congress is impotent. It doesn’t need to continue to be called the Democratic Party—it could be the Unity Party, or some other name, but we need to find a way to reconfigure the opposition party to include liberals , progressives, conservatives, libertarians, independents and others, all with a seat at the table. Six weeks in to the new administration, we are now so far on the path toward fascism and dictatorship that only a united, cohesive opposition can change the direction of the country.

I appreciate the Democratic Senators who are showing leadership in this moment. With no criticism intended of them, it is not enough. For many years our two-party system has helped carve the dividing lines among the American people, eroding a common center of shared values and filling the gap with suspicion, anger and lies. And we are left with a President and Vice President who are siding with a dictator against our democratic allies, claiming a commitment to free speech while stifling it, politicizing our civil service by replacing expertise with loyalty, claiming to overturn the “weaponization” of the department of justice by weaponizing it against anyone toward whom the president bears a grudge, eroding the rule of law, undermining our health system and our scientific leadership, and co-opting and censoring the arts. I saw a recent comment that America may be losing its leadership of the free world. But no: not only is America not the leader of the free world, it is no longer even a part of the free world.

We need everyone—everyone—who opposes the destruction of our country by a corrupt oligarchy to unite. We need to think beyond the political lines and parties that have divided us and come together to resist tyranny. Maybe we can even learn to talk to each other again.

If we don’t do it now, we may not have the chance again.