I’m so glad to read this, thank you for writing it. I am very frightened by the idea of political breakdown/fragmentation, sectarian violence and civil war. But I’m even more frightened at the prospect of living under a fascist, totalitarian corporatist regime. Patrick Henry supposedly said: “give me liberty or give me death!” Our generation of Americans may need to decide whether they truly believe this hallowed sentiment.
As a veteran and retired federal employee, I raised my hand on numerous occasions pledging to fight “All enemies, foreign and domestic." At a minimum, I would hope that all Americans engage in “constitutional guerrilla warfare.” We're either gonna be Americans or not.
Grim view for what comes next with our crisis in progress. Perhaps the nazi oligarchs need to be taught that their fortunes are at dire risk when they support authoritarianism via our nazis in power. Evidence of their failures must be expedited beginning with the most immediate threats, i.e.: 'Melvin' musk and related oligarchs supporting his attempts to control/destroy our democracy via the nazi leaning pos in our White House and his supporters, within our ELECTED legislators.
Taking actions to make the outcome perfectly clear appear to be growing and effective (for now). Escalating to much more dangerous actions and repercussions do seem eminent. Who decides the price to pay for our democracy? Is money the only factor? How about loyalty to the constitution? How about supreme sacrifices to save freedoms most precious for We the People of the world?
Voting with our pocketbooks can send a powerful message. Tesla protests will continue - hopefully without property damage. Trump can’t round up & arrest regular Americans for choosing to “defund” cooperating corp entities. We should have more & regular No Shopping Days.
Why hopefully without property damage? Property damage has historically been a tool of democratic movements and sometimes is necessary. Even the nonviolent movement to free India from the British sometimes used property damage as a means of resistance.
Yes, the Constitutional crisis is upon us. J Raskin says it is instead “an attack on the Constitution.” I feel certain that civil unrest is on the horizon, if not all out civil war. Trump, being a sociopath & mobster, would like nothing better than to further unleash his goon squad against those who dare speak out. The irony: the gun fetishizers always claim they must be armed to protect against government tyranny. That tyranny is now on their side (many of them), so it’s all good.
Thanks for clarifying and expanding on my own ideas about this. I've been more like bird stuck indoors flying all over trying to find that one way out.
The part about the military is reassuring. Those officers have studied military and world history which has plenty of instances of rulers gone wrong. The Turkish military kept the country on a moderate path on the secular-religious spectrum throughout the 20th century (finally to be defeated by Erdogan.)
As for civil society mobilization and broad, cross-partisan action, I guess I need to pay more attention to Sanders and AOC to see whether they're laying groundwork for this or just enabling progressives who cannot recognize the overwhelming priority of defending democratic principles over their moral objections to other present day events.
It feels like only a matter of time and the formulation of an excuse (real or manufactured) for Trump & co. to institute the Insurrection Act. They seem hell-bent on accelerating us all towards violence in pursuit of this, the easiest hand to play from their particular mixture of dumb and arrogant.
If there's a glimmer of hope to be had from the "are we really headed to totalitarianism & civil war" insanity it's that Trump is moronically doing absolutely everything he can to piss off the American Military before placing them in a position to fire on American or Canadian civilians.
My contribution to this thread may be too naive, but the best way out of this that I see is a huge national strike. I just don't think that enough people are aware of what is happening to do it. Environmental collapse is inevitable. IMHO this motivated these people to capture the reins of US government, which hasn't addressed the increasing pull towards predatory capitalism in our corporatocracy for a long time. Will we be able to salvage some kind of sane government before there is no food? I vascillate, some days I can hope, some days I can't.
I very much appreciate this essay. I need to read experienced perceptions. The more I know, the more equipped I am to face what must be faced.
Civil society won’t be able to mobilize when our techbro ologarchic government controls the tools for mass organization. It’s not a coincidence that the man trying to replace our federal bureaucracy with AI also bought and killed Twitter
For us Little People in the Hinterlands…remember the Tea Party. Initially small but very loud, in your face, relentless. Grew and became very influential. Dems need to go Tea Party. Join organized groups like Indivisible et al. Get marching orders. Protests, protests, strikes, protests. Showing up to townhalls. Continued calling to legislators. Actively engaging neighbors, coworkers, friends and family to invite them into the Resistance. Boycotts. We all need to participate in the 360 strategy as the Everyman/woman. LOUD AND PROUD. Get over the squeamishness! 💪💪
I think what is clear here is that a mass mobilization of resistance has to center the economic crisis that millions face if it is to succeed. The Resistance, as it was conceived, was narrowly focused on preserving various aspects of US institutional life without bringing a serious critique of the economic and social system. The repression of the Bernie Sanders campaign in 2016 and 2020 by the Democratic Party's leadership ensured that the Dems would present themselves as the party of the establishment, of war hawks, of wealth. If you wed that to the causes of anti-racism, women's rights, LBGTQ rights, the environment, the preservation of democracy, but notably divorce them from social class, you cement your doom in this environment. What became clear under Biden is that those other issues did not matter. What mattered was maintaining the military-industrial machinery, investments in long-term industry but not immediate social investments or the investments in infrastructure that Washington's rival in Beijing can point to...and we ended up losing it all. Campaigning with the Republicans in 2024 got us nowhere but down. Associating the opposition to Trumpism's authoritarianism with the establishment, the rich, foreign wars, and a literal genocide...it got us here y'all. If mass protests aren't grounded in the cost of living crisis, the brutality of our workplaces, the grinding horror of our health system--they WILL fail.
The prospect of a nuclear-armed superpower falling into chaos has only one solution. It is the military that possesses and controls the nukes. The military has the discipline and necessary force to "support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same..." How ironic the "enemy" would be the President/Commander in Chief.
The standard operating procedure for a government collapsing into chaos and violence is the declaration of martial law, deployment of military force to restore order, suspension of the failed government, and support for creating a new civilian government. We have witnessed this repeatedly in South America and elsewhere in the world. With more private weapons than citizens in the U.S., the trick will be the timing of military intervention before the violence becomes unmanageable. A certain level of violence is necessary to justify military intervention, but too much leads to a bloody civil war and escalating chaos.
The military holds a long tradition of honor, discipline, and service to the nation. One of Trump's first acts was to dismiss distinguished top military leaders and appoint unqualified loyalists politicizing the Armed Services. This violates the core concepts of honor and respect towards those whose lives are on the line defending the government. Without military support, Trump's autocratic power vanishes and he can join former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad exiled to Putin's Russia.
"The constitutional system, as currently functioning, may not possess the internal mechanisms to save itself. This isn't defeatism—it's a necessary recognition that the preservation of constitutional democracy may require strategies beyond those envisioned by the framers for a system not yet captured by authoritarian forces." We likely have reached a point of no return and we all should be prepared to make unselfish choices and accept personal sacrifices to provide a foundation for a new, more robust nation. The Republic is dead... long live the Republic.
Trump is threatening the lives of Judges. Republicans in Congress are afraid their families will be killed if they make him unhappy. He has invoked a law that requires Congress to declare a war, and they have not done so. All the people in the Trump administration are corrupt and many are members of dangerous cults. And Trump would do anything Putin wants. The whole pack of them are evil.
The Preamble of the Declaration of Independence lays out an option that is available to the People. If Trump defies the Judicial Branch and/or Congress, the reaction of the public will scare the hell out of Trump. We have an agent of Russia who has wormed his way into getting elected. If he continues to follow Putin’s orders he will not continue to be President. His actions are designed to harm Americans. And if he thinks he will get away with stealing Social Security, Medicare, and Medicade and giving it to billionaires… Well, then he is even dumber than I thought.
I’m so glad to read this, thank you for writing it. I am very frightened by the idea of political breakdown/fragmentation, sectarian violence and civil war. But I’m even more frightened at the prospect of living under a fascist, totalitarian corporatist regime. Patrick Henry supposedly said: “give me liberty or give me death!” Our generation of Americans may need to decide whether they truly believe this hallowed sentiment.
As a veteran and retired federal employee, I raised my hand on numerous occasions pledging to fight “All enemies, foreign and domestic." At a minimum, I would hope that all Americans engage in “constitutional guerrilla warfare.” We're either gonna be Americans or not.
Grim view for what comes next with our crisis in progress. Perhaps the nazi oligarchs need to be taught that their fortunes are at dire risk when they support authoritarianism via our nazis in power. Evidence of their failures must be expedited beginning with the most immediate threats, i.e.: 'Melvin' musk and related oligarchs supporting his attempts to control/destroy our democracy via the nazi leaning pos in our White House and his supporters, within our ELECTED legislators.
Taking actions to make the outcome perfectly clear appear to be growing and effective (for now). Escalating to much more dangerous actions and repercussions do seem eminent. Who decides the price to pay for our democracy? Is money the only factor? How about loyalty to the constitution? How about supreme sacrifices to save freedoms most precious for We the People of the world?
Voting with our pocketbooks can send a powerful message. Tesla protests will continue - hopefully without property damage. Trump can’t round up & arrest regular Americans for choosing to “defund” cooperating corp entities. We should have more & regular No Shopping Days.
Why hopefully without property damage? Property damage has historically been a tool of democratic movements and sometimes is necessary. Even the nonviolent movement to free India from the British sometimes used property damage as a means of resistance.
Time to help break through the new mass incarceration camps of migrants, travelers, and victims.
"...preserving American democracy may require actions that stretch conventional understanding of institutional roles."
What happens when we reach this point? How long do we wait? It feels like we are already there.
Yes, the Constitutional crisis is upon us. J Raskin says it is instead “an attack on the Constitution.” I feel certain that civil unrest is on the horizon, if not all out civil war. Trump, being a sociopath & mobster, would like nothing better than to further unleash his goon squad against those who dare speak out. The irony: the gun fetishizers always claim they must be armed to protect against government tyranny. That tyranny is now on their side (many of them), so it’s all good.
Great article. Thanks!
But, like I argue in my post 'Trump and Totalitarianism,' DOGE does not stand as a parallel government structure. If only.
DOGE is intended to supplant all others, which, in turn, will lead to the simplest form of government - one man rule...
"One man rule" might be easier to overcome. But we are fighting an entire den of snakes.
Thanks for clarifying and expanding on my own ideas about this. I've been more like bird stuck indoors flying all over trying to find that one way out.
The part about the military is reassuring. Those officers have studied military and world history which has plenty of instances of rulers gone wrong. The Turkish military kept the country on a moderate path on the secular-religious spectrum throughout the 20th century (finally to be defeated by Erdogan.)
As for civil society mobilization and broad, cross-partisan action, I guess I need to pay more attention to Sanders and AOC to see whether they're laying groundwork for this or just enabling progressives who cannot recognize the overwhelming priority of defending democratic principles over their moral objections to other present day events.
It feels like only a matter of time and the formulation of an excuse (real or manufactured) for Trump & co. to institute the Insurrection Act. They seem hell-bent on accelerating us all towards violence in pursuit of this, the easiest hand to play from their particular mixture of dumb and arrogant.
If there's a glimmer of hope to be had from the "are we really headed to totalitarianism & civil war" insanity it's that Trump is moronically doing absolutely everything he can to piss off the American Military before placing them in a position to fire on American or Canadian civilians.
This is what I imagine happening
My contribution to this thread may be too naive, but the best way out of this that I see is a huge national strike. I just don't think that enough people are aware of what is happening to do it. Environmental collapse is inevitable. IMHO this motivated these people to capture the reins of US government, which hasn't addressed the increasing pull towards predatory capitalism in our corporatocracy for a long time. Will we be able to salvage some kind of sane government before there is no food? I vascillate, some days I can hope, some days I can't.
I very much appreciate this essay. I need to read experienced perceptions. The more I know, the more equipped I am to face what must be faced.
Civil society won’t be able to mobilize when our techbro ologarchic government controls the tools for mass organization. It’s not a coincidence that the man trying to replace our federal bureaucracy with AI also bought and killed Twitter
Also not a coincidence that they’re killing off the US postal service
For us Little People in the Hinterlands…remember the Tea Party. Initially small but very loud, in your face, relentless. Grew and became very influential. Dems need to go Tea Party. Join organized groups like Indivisible et al. Get marching orders. Protests, protests, strikes, protests. Showing up to townhalls. Continued calling to legislators. Actively engaging neighbors, coworkers, friends and family to invite them into the Resistance. Boycotts. We all need to participate in the 360 strategy as the Everyman/woman. LOUD AND PROUD. Get over the squeamishness! 💪💪
Appreciate the recognition of Canada’s commitment.
I think what is clear here is that a mass mobilization of resistance has to center the economic crisis that millions face if it is to succeed. The Resistance, as it was conceived, was narrowly focused on preserving various aspects of US institutional life without bringing a serious critique of the economic and social system. The repression of the Bernie Sanders campaign in 2016 and 2020 by the Democratic Party's leadership ensured that the Dems would present themselves as the party of the establishment, of war hawks, of wealth. If you wed that to the causes of anti-racism, women's rights, LBGTQ rights, the environment, the preservation of democracy, but notably divorce them from social class, you cement your doom in this environment. What became clear under Biden is that those other issues did not matter. What mattered was maintaining the military-industrial machinery, investments in long-term industry but not immediate social investments or the investments in infrastructure that Washington's rival in Beijing can point to...and we ended up losing it all. Campaigning with the Republicans in 2024 got us nowhere but down. Associating the opposition to Trumpism's authoritarianism with the establishment, the rich, foreign wars, and a literal genocide...it got us here y'all. If mass protests aren't grounded in the cost of living crisis, the brutality of our workplaces, the grinding horror of our health system--they WILL fail.
Violent resistance might be the only way forward.
The prospect of a nuclear-armed superpower falling into chaos has only one solution. It is the military that possesses and controls the nukes. The military has the discipline and necessary force to "support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same..." How ironic the "enemy" would be the President/Commander in Chief.
The standard operating procedure for a government collapsing into chaos and violence is the declaration of martial law, deployment of military force to restore order, suspension of the failed government, and support for creating a new civilian government. We have witnessed this repeatedly in South America and elsewhere in the world. With more private weapons than citizens in the U.S., the trick will be the timing of military intervention before the violence becomes unmanageable. A certain level of violence is necessary to justify military intervention, but too much leads to a bloody civil war and escalating chaos.
The military holds a long tradition of honor, discipline, and service to the nation. One of Trump's first acts was to dismiss distinguished top military leaders and appoint unqualified loyalists politicizing the Armed Services. This violates the core concepts of honor and respect towards those whose lives are on the line defending the government. Without military support, Trump's autocratic power vanishes and he can join former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad exiled to Putin's Russia.
"The constitutional system, as currently functioning, may not possess the internal mechanisms to save itself. This isn't defeatism—it's a necessary recognition that the preservation of constitutional democracy may require strategies beyond those envisioned by the framers for a system not yet captured by authoritarian forces." We likely have reached a point of no return and we all should be prepared to make unselfish choices and accept personal sacrifices to provide a foundation for a new, more robust nation. The Republic is dead... long live the Republic.
Trump is threatening the lives of Judges. Republicans in Congress are afraid their families will be killed if they make him unhappy. He has invoked a law that requires Congress to declare a war, and they have not done so. All the people in the Trump administration are corrupt and many are members of dangerous cults. And Trump would do anything Putin wants. The whole pack of them are evil.
The Preamble of the Declaration of Independence lays out an option that is available to the People. If Trump defies the Judicial Branch and/or Congress, the reaction of the public will scare the hell out of Trump. We have an agent of Russia who has wormed his way into getting elected. If he continues to follow Putin’s orders he will not continue to be President. His actions are designed to harm Americans. And if he thinks he will get away with stealing Social Security, Medicare, and Medicade and giving it to billionaires… Well, then he is even dumber than I thought.