In this commentary, Elana Michelson responds to Chad Hoggan and Tetyana Kloubert's critique of Michelson's "The Ethical Knower: Rethinking Our Pedagogy in the Age of Trump" (2019). Michelson concludes that Hoggan and Kloubert are right to call attention to the reemergence of fascist discourse and action across much of the globe and to ask how--explicitly, strategically, and, yes, theoretically--adult learning might respond. They join Michelson in the commitment to countering the assault of public racist discourse at the highest level, the willingness on the part of millions to discount the most basic democratic principles, and the ongoing, horrific global inequalities in the economy, health care, criminal justice, and the environment. In focusing on transformative learning, however, Hoggan and Kloubert miss her main point, Michelson says, which was not only to critique transformational learning (TL) and narrative pedagogy but also to ask the reader to revisit the ways in which the theories that are explicitly or tacitly embraced do or don't respond to this difficult political moment. Progressive adult education has never been successful except when it is part of a larger social movement. New intellectual and political bridges are needed as well as a wider conversation about the public life of information and ideas. [For Michelson's "The Ethical Knower: Rethinking Our Pedagogy in the Age of Trump" (2019), see EJ1218327. For Hoggan and Kloubert's critique, "Transformative Learning in Theory and Practice" (2020), see EJ1258975.]