This is something I've thought about a lot, although I'm not sure anyone has asked me to justify it directly. I am deeply concerned with the rise of fascism in my country. It has made me wonder why transit and land use are what animate the activist in me the most. I think for me, it comes down to community.
When people live in places where they see each other as neighbors instead of obstacles, whether as an obstacle for their cars or "preserving the character" of their neighborhoods, they are more resilient to the bigotry that elects fascist into office. I am reading Yoni Appelbaum's book, Stuck, and it is clarifying this idea to me. The main thread Appelbaum follows is an interrogation into why Americans move homes far less often than they used to. America's culture owes a lot to the abnormal frequency with which Americans used to move - always towards opportunity. Now, the housing crises makes it so that homeownership us untenable to so many, and the only affordable rents push renters further away from opportunity, not closer. This drives people into cars, and car dependency pushes suburbia even further away in a vicious cycle.
I've understood this for a while, but not until I moved into the downtown of the city that I grew up in, did it hit me in a powerful way. I chose to move without bringing a car, and with that choice, I feel like the city transformed around me. Nearly every day, I run into someone I know on my bike, on foot, or in a cafe. That doesn't mean I know all my neighbors, but I feel the community around me. I feel like a part of my city, not just that I live in it. This is just something you can't get while driving. Sure, you might see someone you know, but you're hardly going to stop your car in the street to say a quick hello. You'll miss out on that connection. While I was never one to fall for the arguments that put Trump in office, I have more awareness of the humanity around me, and I think it's really hard to hate others when you see them in that light. But in order to have these things, people need the option to move where they are available. Some people might still choose the suburban lifestyle, and that's the point. We should have options.
It seems that no one - citizen and non-citizen alike - is safe under this administration. Obviously, we need to fight every breach of our constitution and of human rights that our government pursues, urgently. But I believe that we will make it to the other side, and then we will need strong communities that keep America from reaching this point again.