I read reports of outraged pundits furious at the atrocities against our citizens, against our constitution, and I come back to the same question. What can I do? Or, the better question: What can I do that will actually STOP this madness.
I am a long-time supporter of the ACLU, who is waging war with the Trump administration in court. I am a paid subscriber to Mark Elias and support the Democracy docket, which fights for voter’s rights. I send money to Doctors Without Borders and UNICEF to help children and families with medical care and food provisions in war-torn Gaza. I support candidates running for office against Republican counterparts. I call and write to members of Congress in my district. I am 75-years old and stand out on the streets with American flags and No Kings protest signs with my 80-year old husband. At the end of the day, the outrages still occur. Do I feel like I’ve made any difference at all? No, quite honestly, I don’t. Am I losing my sanity? On some days, it feels that way.
You say we are scrolling on. Many of us are not. But what, I ask, can we do that will actually STOP THE MADNESS?? Before we go mad ourselves.
A lot of his fellow Americans are like me. One paycheck away from disaster, disabled family members that you have to take care of so you can’t risk your job, not enough money to send to all of these organizations that are supporting democracy. People like me are the ones that are gonna be hurt the most When the economy finally falls apart, and we keep being exhorted to do something, but there’s no support for us to do anything.
You are right we can't all afford to do everything. And some of us cannot afford the risk of speaking up too loudly. I will second W Hunter Roberts' point that buying local is a big win. But For What its worth so is even telling everyone around you how this will affect them. My experience is that far too many people just tune it out until a trusted voice or a coworker brings it up. That alone can be part of the change. I don't think any one org, certainly no one politican will take down Trumpism, only collective change of minds which happen in offline conversations.
Yes. There truly aren't many of us who aren't going to be hurt, if we're not already hurting. Offline conversations are imperative, because they lend themselves to building community. People in Laurie's situation (which are far too many) are more capable than they give themselves credit for. Just talking with others who are in the same proverbial boat, leads to the sharing of ideas and resources, which makes most people feel more supported, confident, and capable. While networking online can be somewhat helpful, it doesn't hold a candle to in-person, face-to-face human interaction.
We can stop supporting the oligarchs with our dollars. Buy from small privately owned businesses, your neighbors, if you have them; it also affords you an opportunity to get to know them. Don’t shop at Amazon or buy coffee at Starbucks. Buy your food from farmers markets and CSA’s.
General strikes and boycotts are the most effective method of shutting things down. It works in Europe: it will work in the US. Look how quickly Disney restored Jimmy Kimmel‘s show when people canceled their subscriptions.
As Mike has written so clearly here, the use of force in Chicago, and the war on cities all over the country is no longer just a threat. It is a reality. Dr. Jonathan Fisher writes about the connection between the heart and the mind here on Substack. Three weeks ago he wrote that studies show that heart attack risk rises 374% in the two hours following an angry response to something. We are all upset now or have been recently. The answer to your question about what to do is to file a lawsuit on behalf of everyone in the United States against the current administration for reckless endangerment of the nation's cardiovascular health. The administration is playing games with our hearts and our lives. It must be stopped. Not our hearts.
What can we do? I have somewhat randomly ended up tuning into to Indivisible.org's webinars. I've been learning a lot about frameworks for describing authoritarianism, which in turn lead to a plethora of methods and targets for disrupting the regime and complicit institutions. On Indivisible, they talk about what we can expect based on academic studies of historical protest movements. They bring in experts from other areas of expertise (more people and organizations to follow.) The discussions here have been intellectually satisfying (a priority for me) and a reliable source of hope.
Every indivisible online webinar or training includes a range of assignments and ideas for action now.. These are always in the context of more long term plans and possibilities. (Oct 18 No Kings is the next big mass protest, btw.)
What can we do? Consult genuine authorities who are dedicating their lives (and possibly risking them) to becoming experts in answering this question. Leah Greenburg and Ezra Levin have been at it since 2019. They are providing me with what I need to figure out what my role should be at this existential crossroads.
I saw this populate my email earlier and tried to scan it. I have so many excellent journalists and authors zoom into my email earlier/ at my choice/ I will sometimes scan. I didn’t think I could get through (💔) yours but just came to it as it populated in Substack.
It’s up to us We the People RIGHT NOW!
We must protect our Freedoms
Please join with us to peacefully protest on Oct 18th
Hi, like Lynda I do the standard stuff (plus maybe pasting some cute anti-regime stickers in public places). It feels like not nearly up to what we're facing. But I figure you don't mean most of the people that follow "Notes."
1/3 of people are horrified, 1/3 range from somewhat scared to meh, and another 1/3 are the cult, game for everything this administration is putting out, and will never budge. Having lived abroad for a chunk of my life, I can safely say Americans are the most civically illiterate and uninvolved population in the Western world. That's a big contributor to what we're living. Add in huge income inequality and all that goes with it, poor education for many, a lack of critical thinking and imagination promoted by the infrastructure and culture, backwoods-style religion, monopolies, information capture by the right-wing, and tons of money in politics, and this is the result.
Still, I have to think (hope) there will be some point at which even some of the disengaged start to see the stakes for them personally. There's almost a guarantee that the kamikaze economic policies will hurt many people pretty soon.
Spot on. Mike, thank you for all of your contributions on this stack which I’ve been tracking for some time. You are saying it as well and as clearly as it can be said.
The Constitutional order is deteriorating by the hour at this point. Your post is focusing on the problem of Americans’ complacency and willing suspension of disbelief in what is plain to see. History tells us this will continue. Folks don’t join the fight until they feel the boot on their very own necks.
So how can we change that? (Not a rhetorical question!). I have two thoughts though. One scary, and the other hard.
First, the hard: I think we need to give shape the resistance by focusing less on the analysis of the fall and more on concrete recommendations for how to engage.
I think there are millions ready to rise to the moment but who are flummoxed as to where to begin. Turning our efforts to offering strategies big and small is difficult but it’s the necessary work right now. Planning and organizing and creating an entry point for people to join.
The scary idea comes from the world of addictionology. There’s an idea that an addict only makes a change when they hit “bottom.” The problem is that “bottom” for most who are addicted is too late. So the challenge is in finding strategies to “raise the bottom” so they hit it before their disease destroys them.
In this analogy, the public is addicted to an accommodationist mindset and will continue normalizing autocracy until every last freedom has been taken. How do we raise the bottom so that people feel the boot on their neck sooner; and while they still are empowered to resist.
The shutdown may do this. It may make the water hot enough that the frogs jump the pot. (To bring in a new metaphor). How else?
« My how the worm begins to turn. » having said that I am with Mike here. Stand up and say no whether that means protesting on 10/18, constantly writing and calling your elected representatives in the House and Senate (including at the state level), fighting book banning or boycotting companies that support the madness or bend the knee to it. Maybe you can only do one or two of these things. Maybe you’re good at talking to people or knocking on doors to spread the word. Every bit counts and all of it matters. The key is getting g all of us to do something.
I wasn't arguing that the response from US residents should be passivity or acceptance. What is being done is intolerable. I was saying, from the point of view of an outside observer (whose own country's sovereignty is currently under direct threat from the United States), that this is of a piece with what the US has done elsewhere in the world, now turned inward, and that Americans had seemingly largely accepted it when it was not done on their own shores, when it was just subjecting non-Americans to those same intolerable conditions.
P.S. I am ashamed we are threatening your beloved country’ whether that be Canada, Gaza (via our unquestioning support fir genocide) or Venezuela or any other. I cling to the hope that we will wake up to our own imperialism.
Totally understood that and agree. I was not clear. I meant the worm was turning on us, as Americans. Our country has much to shame us. I’d argue it is getting worse by the hour.
Mike, you have an amazing ability to articulate what I am trying to say in my private thoughts. What you do not answer — what no one has been able to answer — is what I or we could do about it. I want to find something I could do that would actually change a situation that is much bigger than just me, and that the vast majority is ignoring. It is not enough to understand what is happening. I want to know what I can do about it.
Vought & Co. spent years preparing Project 2025. They do not care about its obvious illegality, because they consider it to be a "second American revolution," which it is, except without the residents of that apartment building or anyone else fighting back. Any solution will require collective action; I, alone, can not stop anything, let alone everything.
Your analyses are insightful and consistently correct, but...
Any and every collective action is initiated by a single person, is it not? Pick any one thing that you're doing, even if it's just choosing not to buy stuff that you don't really need, and start talking about the reasons you're doing it - to friends, family, the person next to you in the grocery aisle, ANYone who will listen. Just formulate a simple sentence (comment) that you can drop into any type of in-person interaction... like, "I'm not buying anything I don't need because I'm trying not to support the wealthy people who don't give a rip if we all die." That's mine, but you can find words that feel okay to you. Sometimes, that single comment starts a conversation, which is what we need more of. Finding your people requires reaching out in a way that is personal, and that's how collective actions begin - starting small, and growing larger and larger. No one expects you, alone, to get thousands of people to wake up and start moving!
Again, we are not yawning. We are losing sleep. It’s insufferable that this is happening to any child and family. Flash bangs and drug busts can be heard from blocks away. Each time a door gets kicked in and a swat team enters, there are always a spate of 911 calls from concerned citizens mistaking the sound for gunshots. These aren’t abstractions to many of us. We know the difference between gunfire, fireworks, flash bangs, and backfiring vehicles.
Great column by Mike as usual. I'm 76 years old, and I also 100% endorse the commenter below.
But what to do? I believe a lot of people are outraged, but I do not believe that No Kings protests are a sufficient response (though I do intend to be at the next one). There has to be something else we can do.
As Mike said, this should be the number 1 news story in America. The question is, how do we spread the word even more? I think many Americans would be as horrified as we are, if they knew about it and weren't too ground down by just trying to live.
was glad to see that People magazine, of all outlets, had a big headline about it. Not the pathetic NY Times, though.
It takes FOREVER to organize these protests and they don’t accomplish a lot. I have two ideas - neither original but both, I believe, would help. One, have the huge protests but do them in more meaningful places - like, DEMAND our elected officials do something by showing up at their places. But more important, a national economic strike needs to happen. A lot of people freak out - I can’t NOT go to work! - and I am in that boat. But we can ALL stop buying non-essentials, cancelling subscriptions, supporting the businesses who have funded and colluded this regime. We know the fascists and their enablers do care about and respond to one thing - loss of wealth. A sustained national economic strike would actually get their attention. I don’t know why no one with reach has organized that yet - it requires no permits or permission.
fwiw, the folks at Indivisible.org address all these issues in positive and constructive ways, but mostly via their online webinars. (This means we have to absorb their thinking by sitting and listening rather than running text searches or reading papers.) Essentially, they are developing longer term strategies and timelines that look all the way towards the midterms. There is audience participation, and concerns similar to those here are always raised and addressed. One of maxims at Indivisible is the "3.5% rule" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3.5%25_rule , which counteracts the idea that "protesting doesn't do any good". They are evangelical about getting more and more people involved. Yes, things are happening.
I like the idea of elected officials showing up at protests. As for a general strike, that gets discussed often, but as something that will need careful planning and probably in the context of further growth of the overall resistance. Re: boycotting and economic resistance action, their framework of the "pillars of power" (government, business, religion, etc.) offers a wide ground for creative ideas like these.
(Apologies for beating this drum by way of hijacking the substack. My comments are just reporting and resource sharing as opposed to Mike's continual hard work at thinking through this mess.)
It’s sufferable until it’s not. A critical mass of resistance will inevitably arise from this abuse. Don’t mess with Chicago, I’m from there and we won’t be fucked with!
Thanks for writing this, Mike. I was trying to decide if I should write something, but there is so much to untangle, I just didn't know where to start. You've captured my feelings in this essay.
My most intense disgust is directed at our local Chicago TV stations. As you say, this should be the biggest story in America, let alone in Chicago. But this morning they managed to find 5 minutes in a 20-minute newscast to talk about the latest news from the P Diddy trial. Appalling.
What all those clutching their pearls out there fail to grasp is that in the final analysis, if someone is attempting to restrict your freedom by force, you must be willing to resist with greater force, even if that means taking up arms. If you are not willing to do so, you will inevitably lose your freedom. It is that simple. The American Revolution was not won by writing editorials.
We can stop supporting the oligarchs with our dollars. Buy from small privately owned businesses, your neighbors, if you have them; it also affords you an opportunity to get to know them. Don’t shop at Amazon or buy coffee at Starbucks. Buy your food from farmers markets and CSA’s.
General strikes and boycotts are the most effective method of shutting things down. It works in Europe: it will work in the US. Look how quickly Disney restored Jimmy Kimmel‘s show when people canceled their subscriptions.
Unfortunately, we’re now in the “Find Out” part of our 10-year FAFO of taking our freedoms for granted. The “Fuck Around” part is over. We fucked around when we said “Hillary just doesn’t do it for me, so I’m gonna vote for Jill Stein”, or “I’m gonna punish Biden over his handling of Gaza by not voting for Harris”. We fucked around by not bothering to show up for midterm elections. By failing to even take a passing interest in our own local government.
The world is run by those who show up. The right has been showing up for decades. The left shows up when it’s convenient. When they get around to it. Or not at all because “Someone else will probably show up, right”? Yeah, “someone else” DID show up, and they’re called “MAGA”. And now we get to “Find Out” what the cost of fucking around really is.
My question where are the children are they safe from gestapo predators. pedophiles. Have they been returned to their parents. Does no one care. for God’s sake people. Time to man the barricades
I read reports of outraged pundits furious at the atrocities against our citizens, against our constitution, and I come back to the same question. What can I do? Or, the better question: What can I do that will actually STOP this madness.
I am a long-time supporter of the ACLU, who is waging war with the Trump administration in court. I am a paid subscriber to Mark Elias and support the Democracy docket, which fights for voter’s rights. I send money to Doctors Without Borders and UNICEF to help children and families with medical care and food provisions in war-torn Gaza. I support candidates running for office against Republican counterparts. I call and write to members of Congress in my district. I am 75-years old and stand out on the streets with American flags and No Kings protest signs with my 80-year old husband. At the end of the day, the outrages still occur. Do I feel like I’ve made any difference at all? No, quite honestly, I don’t. Am I losing my sanity? On some days, it feels that way.
You say we are scrolling on. Many of us are not. But what, I ask, can we do that will actually STOP THE MADNESS?? Before we go mad ourselves.
You are doing all you can do. And if your fellow Americans were as engaged as you, our democracy would be saved. I thank you for love of country.
A lot of his fellow Americans are like me. One paycheck away from disaster, disabled family members that you have to take care of so you can’t risk your job, not enough money to send to all of these organizations that are supporting democracy. People like me are the ones that are gonna be hurt the most When the economy finally falls apart, and we keep being exhorted to do something, but there’s no support for us to do anything.
You are right we can't all afford to do everything. And some of us cannot afford the risk of speaking up too loudly. I will second W Hunter Roberts' point that buying local is a big win. But For What its worth so is even telling everyone around you how this will affect them. My experience is that far too many people just tune it out until a trusted voice or a coworker brings it up. That alone can be part of the change. I don't think any one org, certainly no one politican will take down Trumpism, only collective change of minds which happen in offline conversations.
Yes. There truly aren't many of us who aren't going to be hurt, if we're not already hurting. Offline conversations are imperative, because they lend themselves to building community. People in Laurie's situation (which are far too many) are more capable than they give themselves credit for. Just talking with others who are in the same proverbial boat, leads to the sharing of ideas and resources, which makes most people feel more supported, confident, and capable. While networking online can be somewhat helpful, it doesn't hold a candle to in-person, face-to-face human interaction.
We can stop supporting the oligarchs with our dollars. Buy from small privately owned businesses, your neighbors, if you have them; it also affords you an opportunity to get to know them. Don’t shop at Amazon or buy coffee at Starbucks. Buy your food from farmers markets and CSA’s.
General strikes and boycotts are the most effective method of shutting things down. It works in Europe: it will work in the US. Look how quickly Disney restored Jimmy Kimmel‘s show when people canceled their subscriptions.
Excellent points! ⬆️🗽
As Mike has written so clearly here, the use of force in Chicago, and the war on cities all over the country is no longer just a threat. It is a reality. Dr. Jonathan Fisher writes about the connection between the heart and the mind here on Substack. Three weeks ago he wrote that studies show that heart attack risk rises 374% in the two hours following an angry response to something. We are all upset now or have been recently. The answer to your question about what to do is to file a lawsuit on behalf of everyone in the United States against the current administration for reckless endangerment of the nation's cardiovascular health. The administration is playing games with our hearts and our lives. It must be stopped. Not our hearts.
What can we do? I have somewhat randomly ended up tuning into to Indivisible.org's webinars. I've been learning a lot about frameworks for describing authoritarianism, which in turn lead to a plethora of methods and targets for disrupting the regime and complicit institutions. On Indivisible, they talk about what we can expect based on academic studies of historical protest movements. They bring in experts from other areas of expertise (more people and organizations to follow.) The discussions here have been intellectually satisfying (a priority for me) and a reliable source of hope.
Every indivisible online webinar or training includes a range of assignments and ideas for action now.. These are always in the context of more long term plans and possibilities. (Oct 18 No Kings is the next big mass protest, btw.)
What can we do? Consult genuine authorities who are dedicating their lives (and possibly risking them) to becoming experts in answering this question. Leah Greenburg and Ezra Levin have been at it since 2019. They are providing me with what I need to figure out what my role should be at this existential crossroads.
Then you and your husband rock. You set an example for all of us. Mike is right: many more of us need to follow your example. Keep on!
I saw this populate my email earlier and tried to scan it. I have so many excellent journalists and authors zoom into my email earlier/ at my choice/ I will sometimes scan. I didn’t think I could get through (💔) yours but just came to it as it populated in Substack.
It’s up to us We the People RIGHT NOW!
We must protect our Freedoms
Please join with us to peacefully protest on Oct 18th
Locate your state events at this link:
https://mobilize.us/s/WdCaag
💙🇺🇸💙
I'll be there on October 18 in Forest Park, IL. That's 5 minutes from the Broadview ICE facility.
You made my day. Thank you.
Rick Rick Rick! Thank you!!
👏💙🇺🇸💙👏
Hi, like Lynda I do the standard stuff (plus maybe pasting some cute anti-regime stickers in public places). It feels like not nearly up to what we're facing. But I figure you don't mean most of the people that follow "Notes."
1/3 of people are horrified, 1/3 range from somewhat scared to meh, and another 1/3 are the cult, game for everything this administration is putting out, and will never budge. Having lived abroad for a chunk of my life, I can safely say Americans are the most civically illiterate and uninvolved population in the Western world. That's a big contributor to what we're living. Add in huge income inequality and all that goes with it, poor education for many, a lack of critical thinking and imagination promoted by the infrastructure and culture, backwoods-style religion, monopolies, information capture by the right-wing, and tons of money in politics, and this is the result.
Still, I have to think (hope) there will be some point at which even some of the disengaged start to see the stakes for them personally. There's almost a guarantee that the kamikaze economic policies will hurt many people pretty soon.
Spot on. Mike, thank you for all of your contributions on this stack which I’ve been tracking for some time. You are saying it as well and as clearly as it can be said.
The Constitutional order is deteriorating by the hour at this point. Your post is focusing on the problem of Americans’ complacency and willing suspension of disbelief in what is plain to see. History tells us this will continue. Folks don’t join the fight until they feel the boot on their very own necks.
So how can we change that? (Not a rhetorical question!). I have two thoughts though. One scary, and the other hard.
First, the hard: I think we need to give shape the resistance by focusing less on the analysis of the fall and more on concrete recommendations for how to engage.
I think there are millions ready to rise to the moment but who are flummoxed as to where to begin. Turning our efforts to offering strategies big and small is difficult but it’s the necessary work right now. Planning and organizing and creating an entry point for people to join.
The scary idea comes from the world of addictionology. There’s an idea that an addict only makes a change when they hit “bottom.” The problem is that “bottom” for most who are addicted is too late. So the challenge is in finding strategies to “raise the bottom” so they hit it before their disease destroys them.
In this analogy, the public is addicted to an accommodationist mindset and will continue normalizing autocracy until every last freedom has been taken. How do we raise the bottom so that people feel the boot on their neck sooner; and while they still are empowered to resist.
The shutdown may do this. It may make the water hot enough that the frogs jump the pot. (To bring in a new metaphor). How else?
Asking for a friend.
Americans are having done to their country what America has done to other countries.
Rest in peace Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh.
Rest in peace President Salvador Allende.
« My how the worm begins to turn. » having said that I am with Mike here. Stand up and say no whether that means protesting on 10/18, constantly writing and calling your elected representatives in the House and Senate (including at the state level), fighting book banning or boycotting companies that support the madness or bend the knee to it. Maybe you can only do one or two of these things. Maybe you’re good at talking to people or knocking on doors to spread the word. Every bit counts and all of it matters. The key is getting g all of us to do something.
I wasn't arguing that the response from US residents should be passivity or acceptance. What is being done is intolerable. I was saying, from the point of view of an outside observer (whose own country's sovereignty is currently under direct threat from the United States), that this is of a piece with what the US has done elsewhere in the world, now turned inward, and that Americans had seemingly largely accepted it when it was not done on their own shores, when it was just subjecting non-Americans to those same intolerable conditions.
P.S. I am ashamed we are threatening your beloved country’ whether that be Canada, Gaza (via our unquestioning support fir genocide) or Venezuela or any other. I cling to the hope that we will wake up to our own imperialism.
Totally understood that and agree. I was not clear. I meant the worm was turning on us, as Americans. Our country has much to shame us. I’d argue it is getting worse by the hour.
Mike, you have an amazing ability to articulate what I am trying to say in my private thoughts. What you do not answer — what no one has been able to answer — is what I or we could do about it. I want to find something I could do that would actually change a situation that is much bigger than just me, and that the vast majority is ignoring. It is not enough to understand what is happening. I want to know what I can do about it.
Vought & Co. spent years preparing Project 2025. They do not care about its obvious illegality, because they consider it to be a "second American revolution," which it is, except without the residents of that apartment building or anyone else fighting back. Any solution will require collective action; I, alone, can not stop anything, let alone everything.
Your analyses are insightful and consistently correct, but...
What do we DO?
Any and every collective action is initiated by a single person, is it not? Pick any one thing that you're doing, even if it's just choosing not to buy stuff that you don't really need, and start talking about the reasons you're doing it - to friends, family, the person next to you in the grocery aisle, ANYone who will listen. Just formulate a simple sentence (comment) that you can drop into any type of in-person interaction... like, "I'm not buying anything I don't need because I'm trying not to support the wealthy people who don't give a rip if we all die." That's mine, but you can find words that feel okay to you. Sometimes, that single comment starts a conversation, which is what we need more of. Finding your people requires reaching out in a way that is personal, and that's how collective actions begin - starting small, and growing larger and larger. No one expects you, alone, to get thousands of people to wake up and start moving!
Thank you for another great article Mike. Here is a helpful resource for your readers who want meaningful guidance for taking action now:
https://www.thedemocracyhabit.com
Again, we are not yawning. We are losing sleep. It’s insufferable that this is happening to any child and family. Flash bangs and drug busts can be heard from blocks away. Each time a door gets kicked in and a swat team enters, there are always a spate of 911 calls from concerned citizens mistaking the sound for gunshots. These aren’t abstractions to many of us. We know the difference between gunfire, fireworks, flash bangs, and backfiring vehicles.
We know it could be any us? Do you?
Great column by Mike as usual. I'm 76 years old, and I also 100% endorse the commenter below.
But what to do? I believe a lot of people are outraged, but I do not believe that No Kings protests are a sufficient response (though I do intend to be at the next one). There has to be something else we can do.
As Mike said, this should be the number 1 news story in America. The question is, how do we spread the word even more? I think many Americans would be as horrified as we are, if they knew about it and weren't too ground down by just trying to live.
was glad to see that People magazine, of all outlets, had a big headline about it. Not the pathetic NY Times, though.
What to do?
No Kings protests are not meant to be the only thing we do: not sufficient but necessary in my opinion.
It takes FOREVER to organize these protests and they don’t accomplish a lot. I have two ideas - neither original but both, I believe, would help. One, have the huge protests but do them in more meaningful places - like, DEMAND our elected officials do something by showing up at their places. But more important, a national economic strike needs to happen. A lot of people freak out - I can’t NOT go to work! - and I am in that boat. But we can ALL stop buying non-essentials, cancelling subscriptions, supporting the businesses who have funded and colluded this regime. We know the fascists and their enablers do care about and respond to one thing - loss of wealth. A sustained national economic strike would actually get their attention. I don’t know why no one with reach has organized that yet - it requires no permits or permission.
fwiw, the folks at Indivisible.org address all these issues in positive and constructive ways, but mostly via their online webinars. (This means we have to absorb their thinking by sitting and listening rather than running text searches or reading papers.) Essentially, they are developing longer term strategies and timelines that look all the way towards the midterms. There is audience participation, and concerns similar to those here are always raised and addressed. One of maxims at Indivisible is the "3.5% rule" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3.5%25_rule , which counteracts the idea that "protesting doesn't do any good". They are evangelical about getting more and more people involved. Yes, things are happening.
I like the idea of elected officials showing up at protests. As for a general strike, that gets discussed often, but as something that will need careful planning and probably in the context of further growth of the overall resistance. Re: boycotting and economic resistance action, their framework of the "pillars of power" (government, business, religion, etc.) offers a wide ground for creative ideas like these.
(Apologies for beating this drum by way of hijacking the substack. My comments are just reporting and resource sharing as opposed to Mike's continual hard work at thinking through this mess.)
I appreciate your paragraphs on the British use of general warrants 250 years ago and the analogy to Chicago raid this week.
It’s sufferable until it’s not. A critical mass of resistance will inevitably arise from this abuse. Don’t mess with Chicago, I’m from there and we won’t be fucked with!
Thanks for writing this, Mike. I was trying to decide if I should write something, but there is so much to untangle, I just didn't know where to start. You've captured my feelings in this essay.
My most intense disgust is directed at our local Chicago TV stations. As you say, this should be the biggest story in America, let alone in Chicago. But this morning they managed to find 5 minutes in a 20-minute newscast to talk about the latest news from the P Diddy trial. Appalling.
What all those clutching their pearls out there fail to grasp is that in the final analysis, if someone is attempting to restrict your freedom by force, you must be willing to resist with greater force, even if that means taking up arms. If you are not willing to do so, you will inevitably lose your freedom. It is that simple. The American Revolution was not won by writing editorials.
We can stop supporting the oligarchs with our dollars. Buy from small privately owned businesses, your neighbors, if you have them; it also affords you an opportunity to get to know them. Don’t shop at Amazon or buy coffee at Starbucks. Buy your food from farmers markets and CSA’s.
General strikes and boycotts are the most effective method of shutting things down. It works in Europe: it will work in the US. Look how quickly Disney restored Jimmy Kimmel‘s show when people canceled their subscriptions.
Unfortunately, we’re now in the “Find Out” part of our 10-year FAFO of taking our freedoms for granted. The “Fuck Around” part is over. We fucked around when we said “Hillary just doesn’t do it for me, so I’m gonna vote for Jill Stein”, or “I’m gonna punish Biden over his handling of Gaza by not voting for Harris”. We fucked around by not bothering to show up for midterm elections. By failing to even take a passing interest in our own local government.
The world is run by those who show up. The right has been showing up for decades. The left shows up when it’s convenient. When they get around to it. Or not at all because “Someone else will probably show up, right”? Yeah, “someone else” DID show up, and they’re called “MAGA”. And now we get to “Find Out” what the cost of fucking around really is.
My question where are the children are they safe from gestapo predators. pedophiles. Have they been returned to their parents. Does no one care. for God’s sake people. Time to man the barricades