Veterans Day 2025: The Fight for Democracy Is at Home

Veterans Day became a national holiday in 1954, expanding on Armistice Day to honor all who served in the U.S. Armed Forces and those who risked everything to defend freedom and democracy around the world.

As we honor those who fought for freedom abroad, we must also confront the reality that our democracy is under attack from within.

This Veterans Day, the Fight for Democracy Is at Home

Every Veterans Day, we honor those who risked their lives to defend democracy abroad. This year, that gratitude feels heavier. What must it be like to have fought against tyranny overseas, only to watch the same sickness take root at home?

How bitter the irony that the commander in chief has become the greatest threat to the freedoms our veterans swore to protect. That an administration would weaponize hunger, delaying food assistance, cutting healthcare, and dismantling public protections while preaching patriotism. That a government would rip families apart under the guise of “border security,” when it is really about control. That Black women are being forced out of the workforce as wages stagnate and childcare support collapses.

We are watching the deliberate erosion of institutions built to safeguard equality, opportunity, and truth. It is the slow unmaking of a nation’s promise by people who know exactly what they are doing.

Veterans understand the cost of freedom. This year, so must we.

Voting remains our most powerful, nonviolent weapon.

A year from now, we cannot forget what we have seen or how it felt to watch our democracy tremble. Our veterans defended democracy with courage. Now it is our turn to defend it with our voices, our votes, and our vigilance.

To every veteran who served believing in America’s better self, we honor you, and we share your heartbreak. The fight for freedom has come home.