Ben Franklin, asked by a colonist after the Constitutional Convention what kind of government did the members decide on, answered: "A republic, if you can keep it."
The republic, as imperfect as it was, is gone.
We've crossed a line. A line of credibility. A line of reality. A line of brutality.
No reasonable person can say we are in a functioning democracy (or republic, if you are pedantic). We retain the trappings of representative government. But since the regime obeys no laws, and is restrained neither by courts, nor by any other force, we have a dictatorship.
And a brutal one that is easy to see because we have captured their acts of assault, kidnappings and murders and share them publicly with each other and with the world.
The emperor has no cloths. His mind is going. He is a rapist. He is a felon. He is a pedophile. And he is a violent fascist without restraint in the model of Hitler. We must remember that his regime hasn't done everything it is capable of—yet.
And we must remember who provides him with capabilities. Because he has none. He couldn't make a sandwich. He a moron, a fool, an idiot. But with soulless fools wielding guns for him. His enablers—a small band of thugs—are required to keep him in power. They would be no match for 150+ million people who refuse to obey.
Also, we have a legacy "government" and many other people and institutions who remain blind. This includes a significant minority of the population.
Many are still in denial. They still think we can simply vote our way out of this, that We The People hold meaningful influence over a violent lawless regime. They don't recognize that even if The People are able to force officials to pass good laws, the fascists will ignore those laws. The Gerrman people could not have defeated Hitler with an election. There was no possiblity that Nazi prosecutors and courts would arrest their boss and bring him to Justice.
So it is with our Hitler.
End the illusion and speak the truth loudly and repeatedly:
Trump is a dictator and we live in a dictatorship.
Nobody will save us but us. There are no guardrails or democratic institutions to help. Congress—with mostly horrible career-focused people in it, but also a few very good ones—is toothless.
End Collaboration. Seize Freedom.
We must seize the narrative and then seize control. We have everything we need to do this.
We have 150+ million people in the country who are furious at the fascists, who literally ask every day "is he dead yet?" Nobody needs to specify who "he" is because it is obvious to everyone—even to the fools and knaves loyal to the despot.
We have the power of being the productive force, the ones who keep the society functioning—and we can turn it off, either selectively or totally. That is, We The People produce all the food, all the housing, all the medicine, everything people need (or want)—AND WE CAN STOP. This—not elections, not begging government officials for help, not tough words by judges or prosecutors—is our path to complete victory.
We need thousands and thousands of acts of resistance, of refusal to cooperate, of public exposure of evil, and we need them to be everywhere—dispersed and unstoppable. We need every neighborhood to have prominent signs and flyers declaring that WE THE PEOPLE DO NOT CONSENT and WE THE PEOPLE DO NOT OBEY DICTATORS and ICE ARE TERRORISTS SENT BY THE FASCIST REGIME.
We need to normalize resistance and de-legimize the fascist entity.
You can personally add a meaningful step to a succesful nonviolent revolution today by printing and posting a sign or a flyer. It matters. If you do it, and encourage others to do the same, our contry becomes a billboard of millions of people defying fascism through bold exposure. This isn't the entire project, but it puts everyone—both The People and the fascists—on notice.
We aren't going quietly. Indeed, we aren't going at all.
Demand Friends, Relatives and Neighbors to Stand Up—Or Step Aside
Fascism is only possible with a certain minimum of people actively supporting the regime. It also requires an illusion of power that exceeds the actual power possessed by the fascists.
When our fear dissipates, the regime is weakened. Every murder increases the fury of The People and this fury overwhelms our fear. We become increasing fearless.
We must accompany this fearlessness with action, and these actions must become routine. They can be simple actions, nearly risk free. They work because they normalize resistance. Visibly exposing the truth about the regime—its brutality, its unpopularity, its dependence on our (shrinking) obedience—must be a part of our daily activities, like brushing our teeth. Nothing special, but something that should never be overlooked.
We must speak to friends, relative, strangers. Anyone who is serving the fascists IN ANY WAY must be persuaded to quit, or to slow down, or to "make mistakes." All of us, especially those who's activities help the fascists, must be come sticks in the wheels of fascism. We should proudly support those who resist and shun those who continue aiding the regime.
There is no time for sentimentality. We must act mmediately and resolutely.
Caring For Ourselves and Our Neighbors
But it isn't all aout ending evil. Its also about creating and multiplying good. We should be extra kind to our neighbors and to strangers we see and meet. We need a radical kindness, an everyday radical kindness, to counter the evil and violence that the fascists have unleashed. We need people everywhere to see what the actual options are, and most will realize which side to choose.
We need to grow both resistance and kindness.
Yes, it's wonderful to take part in large demonstrations, In fact, bigger and more demonstrations will undoubtedly be a factor in speeding our victory. But it will be our smaller, more numerous actions—committed by individuals or small groups—that will overwhelm and destroy evil. It is our development of a culture of resistance that will not only remove the fascist regime, but also innoculate us against future would be fascists.
Stop reading. Pause, reflect. Then act.
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