In a recent newsletter, Simon Rosenberg summed it all up.
First, let’s talk about Trump. That he is a wrecking ball, in clear physical and cognitive decline, and a wanna be dictator – not a President – has become impossible to ignore. In just a few months he has re-ignited inflation, slowed the economy, exploded the deficit, torched our alliances and damaged America’s standing throughout world. He is wrecking our health care system, attacking our world leading scientific and medical research centers, laying siege to the farm economy, throwing innocent people into foreign gulags without due process, invading our cities, recklessly walking away from the global consensus on climate change, leading an extraordinary coverup of a prolific sex trafficker and pedophile, enriching himself and his courtiers, and is now using the government to lawlessly pursue and silence his domestic opposition.
America under Trump has become less prosperous, less safe, less healthy, and less free, a far weaker nation. His regime represents a profound and historic betrayal of America and everything that has made us great, and the most powerful nation in history. All of this has also made him extraordinarily unpopular as the American people wake up to the destruction he is causing, wake up to that he really is pursuing an agenda of “more for me, less for you” now.
For sentient Americans, that summary is impossible to rebut. The obvious question, however, is: what can genuine patriots do about it? How can ordinary citizens who are horrified by the daily news (much of which might be introduced under the heading “what fresh hell is this?”) resist? More to the point, how can we come together to create a mass resistance movement?
I wish I had a snappy answer to that question. I don’t. But I do believe that massive participation in the upcoming No Kings protests will be essential. We need to turn out many millions of Americans who are ready and willing to send a. message of non-compliance, who publicly reject the lawlessness and the utter stupidity of the bigots who currently control the government–and not just in Washington, but in Red state capitols like Indianapolis.
Survey research tells us two things: one hopeful, one depressing. It’s hopeful that polling uniformly shows that a majority of Americans loath Trump and oppose virtually everything his administration is doing. It’s depressing that the minority is so large–depending upon the poll, somewhere between 37% and 42% of us still approve of him.
It’s hard for me to get my head around the fact that so many of our neighbors are perfectly willing to support a lawless and increasingly vicious regime, willing to ignore or excuse or even support the reality of the summary with which I opened this post. Many of them, no doubt, are unaware of much of it–they live in bubbles, getting their “information” from Fox and multiple other propaganda sites. To the extent that they are aware, they are evidently supportive of what they see as an exchange of constitutional civic equality for the White Christian male dominance they would prefer.
Historians tell us that the effort to turn America into a Christian theocracy–an effort summarized and documented in Project 2025– began decades ago. Normal Americans have largely been unaware of that effort as they’ve gone about their daily lives. It’s understandable that the majority are only now waking to the magnitude of the threat. (The pace of that recognition has actually been abetted by the sheer buffoonery and incompetence of the Trump administration.)
There are a number of signs, large and small, that the majority is finding its voice: the increasing number of spontaneous protests; the huge Jimmy Kimmel response; the efforts by lower court judges to hold the constitutional line and protect the rule of law… and the fact that Amazon is selling lots of pre-made protest signs, suggesting there’s a substantial market.
In the future, it may be necessary to mount massive boycotts of the companies bending the knee to our wanna-be autocrats. It may be necessary to participate in a national strike, or take other measures to resist the destruction of the America most of us love. But right now, No Kings Day is our vehicle, and we need to ensure that it demonstrates an enormous resistance by millions of citizens ready, willing and able to retake our country.
See you on OCTOBER 18TH.
And just like the oligarchs planned for this authoritarian regime “decades ago,” what we plan today may take time for it to materialize. So yes, attending mass protests is how we prepare for our future.
I’ll wave the rest of my comment to Matt Stoller, who wrote in his newsletter this morning, an exchange between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson about the American Revolution:
“In 1815, John Adams wrote a letter to Thomas Jefferson about the American Revolution. “What do We mean by the Revolution?” he asked. “The War? That was no part of the Revolution. It was only an Effect and Consequence of it. The Revolution was in the Minds of the People, and this was effected, from 1760 to 1775, in the course of fifteen Years before a drop of blood was drawn at Lexington.” Adams cited the legislative records, the pamphlets, newspapers, and the public debates “by which the public opinion was enlightened and informed concerning the Authority of Parliament over the Colonies.”
The Legislature is set up to prevent a dictator from taking over the presidency and, therefore, the nation. The Legislature is refusing to perform the duties and responsibilities of their office which they swore to uphold under oath. The few who are trying to uphold democracy, Rule of Law and the Constitution are outnumbered by blatant liars in BOTH PARTIES. Sitting mute and idle IS upholding the status quo which is the current recreation of Hitler’s Fascist government in America. Someone should explain to Trump how that ended for Hitler, his woman and his dog in underground tunnels along with his supporters. In today’s ultra-modern world with instant connections and filmed attacks in real time; we should be moving to that end along faster than we are today. WE outnumber his ICE troops and the military members he has sent to stand against American citizens. What are their orders as an American citizen if an American citizen takes action against them?
WHO must we resist against to end this violent non-violent street war?
we dont allow the names that stand behind trumps coup. though id say its more like the heritage foundations coup. most of the ideals and written playbook is fully exposed in project 2025,and not put in the spotlight. those people involved spent many years,and spent many dollars in research and buying out/up people and power. tech is a facebook provacatuer of money and the sole few who cant get enough,egged on by political powers. money is the big instigator,wall street in the shadow wants to control the whole economy,and ever cent of it. the power play is probably gonna fall to the fed reserve, if the trump regime can control congress long enough. this 40 plus year comes down to a surge, all at once of repression,take over, demoralizing, and the fleecing of the public. trump is the clown. hes bangged up, spit out and chewed up. the fact is, the clown show shows how stupid one half of the electorate is, and how they have fallen to false media,social media and greed and hate. instead of using the tools to define the issues, they use word of mouth shoved into their ears because they have become to lazy to defend and fact check or demand thier spoiled give it to me democracy. many have died over defending this democracy. maybe its time to shove it into their face. though im from a street fighters life, and walk with it, ill be damn if some ignorant shit will dictate to me or others whos gonna screw us out of our freedoms over a take over by the people who only want to dictate and screw those who have given freely to this country without question. ive worked non stop since i was 15. ive accumilated nothing in return revieved the freedoms i damn well earned protecting others and our democracy. trump is a sleeze bag, understand, every person who supports his (heritage fondations) game is a sleeze bag. now put it in their face.. we must take the big step to push back or get housed in core civics gulags.
I have had similar conversations with friends and colleagues — that “normal” people see Trump for what he is — but many still think that the other 37-42% who currently support him will wake up once one of his disastrous policies directly affects them.
I wish I thought that was the case, but I’m beginning to feel that those in the minority supporting this slide into fascism will never come around. As long as they believe that the people they hate have it worse than they do, they can continue to endure all the crap this administration throws at them, no matter how much it hurts. They are content to lose their health care, their right to vote, their ability to afford the basic necessities of daily life, as long as their black/brown/LGBTQ+/female neighbors have it worse off than they do. They are willing to suffer almost anything as long as they are not on the bottom rung of society’s ladder. This need to have someone to look down upon and scapegoat is so intense, they are able to continue to vote against their own best interests.
Andy,
Clearly, you’ve read LBJ’s books and comments. He, being a Texan, knew of those people so ensconced in their confirmation bias that they would probably sell their mothers into slavery than opt for fairness, democracy and the spirit – as well as the letter – of the Constitution. It’s a cultural thing that raises subsequent generations with the same prejudices and narrow-mindedness from the day they’re old enough to hold their heads up. Add that to the southern church indoctrination and you have the result of defining that 35%.
Oh, Trump’s utter incompetence and insanity will bleed off a couple of percent here and there, but those hard-core, pathetic non-thinkers will persist forever. As Todd suggests, those “patriots” have been with us forever. Every society has them. It’s the nature of humans who are secretly shamed by their own failures and incompetencies to rail against those they perceive who have even less.
In summary, I’ll guess that Trump’s disapproval ratings have come close to the ceiling in this country. My friends in Canada say that over 75% of Canadians hate Trump and his “government”. We’ll never get there in part because of Andy’s summary.
Out on the street, on Oct. 18th!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I plan to be at No Kings, Lee County, Florida. I believe we were under counted for the first one. I’m hoping that local media takes the protest more seriously than it did the first time. If I recall correctly, we need to top 12 million people nationwide to get to “movement” status and be taken seriously.
One big reason to try to get to movement status is to insure that we will have an election in 2026. From where I sit, it looks more and more like Orange Jesus is planning to invoke the Insurrection Act and cancel the election, or at the very least, postpone it until after the 82nd Airborne has taken Portland and Chicago.
insurrection act, passed when workers were fighting to unionize.
I agree with what you’ve said. I’d add that after the last No Kings March – there was the massive Missile Attack on Iran. That was most successful in Dividing Us – and diverting the Momentum Built up then and slowing if not stopping Organizing Work that could have come out of the Local Marches.
Trump and the Republicans – if/when – the Marches are Massive – will Retaliate (again) Diverting Attention and similar against us all!
Resistance- True Resistance – requires that we – NOT be stopped or slowed similarly again!
Can we possibly have in all states, undergrounds working as we learned were in all European countries before and during WWII???
We can hope we have people as intelligent in this enlightened age as those who were uninformed but that were active prior to mid-1930s and through the war years. They were the working Resistance against Fascism and the Gestapo within and between nations while government bodies sat mute and idle as we are watching today in Congress.
God willing, I will be there on Oct. 18.