The Democratic party has more to learn from Alexei Navalny or the protesters in Serbia than it does from Chuck Schumer or strategists obsessing over message-testing crosstabs. This battle is half mass mobilization and half asymmetric warfare. Over the next year those tactics will matter more than traditional political messaging as it has been practiced here in living memory.
Once you accept that reality, our next steps become clear.
Join now
The rough roadmap for how to proceed goes like this:
Demonstrate popular power in the provinces through large-scale rallies.
Use these events to organize the resistance into a mass movement that can be called into action.
Direct the mass movement into targeted political strikes: Getting blowout wins in special elections; boycotts of Tesla; etc.
Politicize everything: Attack the authoritarians for every bad thing that happens, anywhere in the world. Flood the zone.
Elevate the corruption/graft in a way that pits the billionaire insiders against the “forgotten man.”
When the moment is right, bring this movement to the Capital for a show of strength.
Use this demonstration as a slingshot to take back legislative power in the 2026 elections.
More importantly, use it to send a message to the institutional actors that people will have their back if they show courage.¹
Share
2. The Near Term
Winning in 2026 will not be sufficient to stop the authoritarian push; but it is necessary.
And the only way to win is people power. That’s it. No institutions are going to save us. The courts won’t stop the authoritarians. Corporate interests won’t stop them. The Democratic party won’t stop them, either. If the authoritarians can be stopped then the Democratic party will be the vehicle through which people wield power. But the Democratic party, as an institution, is too weak and desiccated to stage a real fight against Trumpism. It will have to be pushed into fighting by a mass popular movement.
AOC’s public events over the last week have been exactly what the opposition needs.
She is making herself a rally point and telling everyone who wants to resist that they have a place to go. She should do these rallies, over and over, across the country. But not in Washington or New York. Not yet.
When you look at the history of dissident movements, they almost always begin in the outer provinces.
The autocrats’ power is greatest near the literal center of the government they control. The further you get from their power center, the weaker their hold and the more risks they have to take if they want to put down demonstrations.
AOC went to Denver and Phoenix last week. She needs to go to Nashua and Nashville. Houston and Chicago. Oakland and Oklahoma City.
The bigger these rallies get, the better. Make them ongoing events.
She will need an infrastructure. It’s not enough to get 30,000 people in the streets. You need to get them organized. People in the pro-democracy space will need to help figure out how to do that—how to turn live attendance into lists that can be activated.
And when I say “activated” I do NOT mean for fundraising. Keep Act Blue away from this project: These lists should never be used for ginning up donations. They should be used to direct people into actions. Getting them registered to vote. Getting them to turn out for elections. Getting them to show up at the next rally; to organize their friends.
This will require a sophisticated data operation. AOC will need help. It would be great if Mark Cuban or Scott Galloway could step in here. The dissident movement will need its own platform.²
It will also need its own media. Because believe me, the New York Times is never going to be explicitly anti-authoritarian.
And don’t forget Bernie Sanders! He may be too old to run for President, but he ain’t over the hill for creating good trouble. April 19, 2025 is the 250th anniversary of the first shots of the American Revolution at Lexington and Concord. We, the people, should turn out in droves to signal our revolution against tRUMP and muskRAT!
I haven't forgotten Bernie, good ole Bernie Although he is absolutely correct, the problem, all of it narrows down to a class war, like Warren Buffet said, "there is a class war and my class is winning", Well it won.
Bernie's problem was that he could not communicate that to people who needed to hear it. minorities.
Racial discrimination, inequities are a subset of the class warfare. But people who have had to endure the effects of racial discrimination, don't want to hear that, in their mind racial discrimination is THE problem, and to hell with class warfare
It is myopia, and we all suffer from it to some degree
Bernie is not an educator, and that is what we needed, an educator that is handy with bumper sticker statements. Like the Republicans are.
Towards the end of his life, Martin Luther King said that the problem is class and that racial discrimination is a technique the ruling class uses to divide the working class.
Perhaps you're underestimating people who have had to endure the effects of racial discrimination.
Jamie Raskin, again steps into the cauldron to keep our democracy alive and thriving. He just say what he believes and knows, which are atop the shining hill, IMHO! THE TIDE IS ROLLING!!
Glad Raskin is bringing sanity and needed leadership. I'm thankful for him, and I'm not leaning to name one person as "the one".. AOC, Bernie, Kinzinger and so many more on on the starting team...judges, Governors...all together we'll build a way through ...
Williamsburg James City County Indivisible organized one yesterday for Rob "Runaway" Wittman; it was great! Almost 300 people showed up (which is a good turnout for our town), and the best part was that almost a third of those attending had never been to political rally/demonstration before.
We've started planning our empty chair Spineless Clineless Town Hall in red Shenandoah County VA. April 10, 7-9 pm at Edinburg's Charterhouse School, all residents of VA6 are welcomed.
Linda A - When/if you are going please ask whoever shows up (hopefully a democrat to take their place) how, and why, the government is using the app Signal to send classified information about targets in Yemen and other such activities. How damn irresponsible it is of Hegseth and his people to use a hackable app that includes information about our military operations. Not to mention the emails and websites that they use that are not safe. Granted it was also used by select people in the Biden administration but at no time was it used to disseminate classified information. If they are as lax about that then you can be sure that they should never have our private information - or give it to doge. Also, what plans do they have to make sure that our adversaries don’t poach a few disgruntled/desperate former workers who were unjustly fired and are willing to give up inside information to how our government works.
Just read about both of those stories in the AP News and I was reminded just how bad our government is. I am hoping that someone has answers.
Our planned structure is NOT to provide answers, but to allow constituents to express their worries and rage and build community. I write messaging for the Shenandoah County Democrats (ShenandoahDemsVA) on FB. Every day before 6 am, I post a simple call script for our 1400 followers, so that even when Cline ignores us, his staffers have to listen to us. Tomorrow's post is a script about the Hegspeth debacle. I've also posted numerous times already today (Mon), and I've pre-posted several items for the upcoming week. FB is not the only way we get our messaging out, but it's got the best engagement of all our platforms (206,000 last month!).
"We will fight shoulder to shoulder, every day, and we will win in the end. The truth will prevail. Love will prevail over hate. Democracy will prevail over fascism."
These town hall meetings could be a most effective means to renew democracy and to promote candidates who stand for the Will of the People, not propaganda from the surly clownish thugs. I admire Rep. Raskin for his stolid support of democracy, his command of the law, and for his willingness to confront the very real threats to the integrity of this country.
The carton of milk was past its expiration date, stinky and rotten. That's why they had to put MIA on the milk, some people thought that Andy Harris was there.
Elon said the same (large) group of (paid) attendees at the Bernie AOC rallies were moved around from Colorado to Tucson. There were 30,000+ people in Colorado (must be costing the Democrats tons of money). Town halls and rallies are excellent ways for protests to register. Politicians holding these rallies and the absent politicians = media coverage. Keep stepping up, Democrats. It's working. Voices are being heard. Minds are being opened. Handful or huge crowds--fight to win back this country.
Rep. Raskin is the kind of representative and/or senator we need to clone. I was incredibly impressed by his audiobook "Unthinkable: Trauma, Truth, and the Trials of American Democracy," and I'm so grateful for his leadership and candor.
All we do is talk, talk, talk. When will we see some arrests? If I did any of the stuff trump is pulling, I'd be awaiting arraignment. Let's DO and move beyond DISCUSS. This is infuriating .
I know...I hope, hope, hope there are plans being laid to take those actions & they will be taken soon. I heard one discussion that said whenvtge Supreme Court is defied, that will be the line not to crossed 🤔
"Why Republicans plan to impeach judges who haven't done anything wrong."
"Republicans in the House and Senate were quick to follow Donald Trump's March 18 orders to impeach federal judges who ruled against his illegal actions.
But when pressed about which high crimes and misdemeanors the judges committed to warrant such an extreme measure, Republicans had no good answer.
Instead, the only "crime" they came up with was that the judges didn't let the lawless president trample over the Constitution to do whatever he wants, whether that be deporting immigrants without due process; letting co-President Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency bros access sensitive government systems, shut down federal agencies, and chaotically fire federal employees; or remove health data from government websites because it was tangentially related to “gender identity.” (Daily Kos)......
Barbara - Republicans screamed when we discussed making changes to the SC but now they are calling for impeachment of judges who are doing their jobs. They cried about endless wars but their rhetoric about our allies are possibly creating a new one. They were behind helping Ukraine, especially when they lasted longer than most people expected, but now they would rather cuddle with Russia. They claim to be for the working people but they fire them. They claim to be about protecting children but once they are out of the womb they are on their own. They are “horrified” by school shootings but won’t do anything about common sense gun control and only offer prayers. They claim to want a strong military but they erase anything that is not white or male because it offends their sensibilities. They blame others for when things don’t go right. The list goes on and on and they can’t make up their minds about what they want.
What these Republicans who cry about 'outside Democrats being bussed' in to attend 'Republican' town halls seem to forget is that these Congresscritters, even though they have an 'R' after their names, represent everyone in their district, Republican, Democrat, Independent or whatever. Democrats have just as much right to attend these town halls as do Republicans.
As a former anti-Vietnam war activist, I thought I'd heard the end of that 'outside agitator' nonsense. I guess not.
Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont is encouraging progressives to run as independents instead of as Democrats, like he does.
In an interview, Sanders said he hopes more people will get involved in politics and run outside the Democratic Party to help defeat Trump and limit the power of billionaires.
He shared this message before traveling with Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to speak at rallies across the Western U.S.
Sanders, who is 83, has been an independent for most of his career but has worked with Democrats when it benefited him, including when he ran for president in 2016 and 2020.
He has often criticized the Democratic Party, saying it needs to include more working-class leaders.
His idea might not be a bad one—running as an independent means less control from the Democratic Party and its often predictable, uninspiring leaders.
It could give candidates more freedom to push for real change without party politics getting in the way.
The only problem? Democrats have a history of suing independent and third-party candidates to get them off the ballot, making it harder for them to compete.
If Democrats don’t open up to new voices, Sanders believes more people will start running as independents across the country—whether the party likes it or not.
Yes, we need a third political party, but it should not run its own candidates until we have ranked choice voting (which we should push aggressively for). If it runs its own candidates today, it kills the other party that it's closest to. Remember Nader and Gore - well-meaning, but it set back a response to climate change for decades. But now, what I'll call the "Swing Vote Party," should organize, develop a platform, host debates and town halls across the nation, and throw its weight behind primary candidates in both parties and general election candidates who most closely represent its platform.
Milk carton idea is brilliant. Jamie Raskin is one of my favorites in Congress. His interviews are always interesting, informative and inspiring.
He is also very humble, compassionate and kind.
I like him too and love the milk carton altho warm jello might have more descriptive.
😅
https://www.thebulwark.com/p/how-to-think-and-act-like-a-dissident-in-trumps-america
The Democratic party has more to learn from Alexei Navalny or the protesters in Serbia than it does from Chuck Schumer or strategists obsessing over message-testing crosstabs. This battle is half mass mobilization and half asymmetric warfare. Over the next year those tactics will matter more than traditional political messaging as it has been practiced here in living memory.
Once you accept that reality, our next steps become clear.
Join now
The rough roadmap for how to proceed goes like this:
Demonstrate popular power in the provinces through large-scale rallies.
Use these events to organize the resistance into a mass movement that can be called into action.
Direct the mass movement into targeted political strikes: Getting blowout wins in special elections; boycotts of Tesla; etc.
Politicize everything: Attack the authoritarians for every bad thing that happens, anywhere in the world. Flood the zone.
Elevate the corruption/graft in a way that pits the billionaire insiders against the “forgotten man.”
When the moment is right, bring this movement to the Capital for a show of strength.
Use this demonstration as a slingshot to take back legislative power in the 2026 elections.
More importantly, use it to send a message to the institutional actors that people will have their back if they show courage.¹
Share
2. The Near Term
Winning in 2026 will not be sufficient to stop the authoritarian push; but it is necessary.
And the only way to win is people power. That’s it. No institutions are going to save us. The courts won’t stop the authoritarians. Corporate interests won’t stop them. The Democratic party won’t stop them, either. If the authoritarians can be stopped then the Democratic party will be the vehicle through which people wield power. But the Democratic party, as an institution, is too weak and desiccated to stage a real fight against Trumpism. It will have to be pushed into fighting by a mass popular movement.
AOC’s public events over the last week have been exactly what the opposition needs.
She is making herself a rally point and telling everyone who wants to resist that they have a place to go. She should do these rallies, over and over, across the country. But not in Washington or New York. Not yet.
When you look at the history of dissident movements, they almost always begin in the outer provinces.
The autocrats’ power is greatest near the literal center of the government they control. The further you get from their power center, the weaker their hold and the more risks they have to take if they want to put down demonstrations.
AOC went to Denver and Phoenix last week. She needs to go to Nashua and Nashville. Houston and Chicago. Oakland and Oklahoma City.
The bigger these rallies get, the better. Make them ongoing events.
She will need an infrastructure. It’s not enough to get 30,000 people in the streets. You need to get them organized. People in the pro-democracy space will need to help figure out how to do that—how to turn live attendance into lists that can be activated.
And when I say “activated” I do NOT mean for fundraising. Keep Act Blue away from this project: These lists should never be used for ginning up donations. They should be used to direct people into actions. Getting them registered to vote. Getting them to turn out for elections. Getting them to show up at the next rally; to organize their friends.
This will require a sophisticated data operation. AOC will need help. It would be great if Mark Cuban or Scott Galloway could step in here. The dissident movement will need its own platform.²
It will also need its own media. Because believe me, the New York Times is never going to be explicitly anti-authoritarian.
Join now
And don’t forget Bernie Sanders! He may be too old to run for President, but he ain’t over the hill for creating good trouble. April 19, 2025 is the 250th anniversary of the first shots of the American Revolution at Lexington and Concord. We, the people, should turn out in droves to signal our revolution against tRUMP and muskRAT!
I haven't forgotten Bernie, good ole Bernie Although he is absolutely correct, the problem, all of it narrows down to a class war, like Warren Buffet said, "there is a class war and my class is winning", Well it won.
Bernie's problem was that he could not communicate that to people who needed to hear it. minorities.
Racial discrimination, inequities are a subset of the class warfare. But people who have had to endure the effects of racial discrimination, don't want to hear that, in their mind racial discrimination is THE problem, and to hell with class warfare
It is myopia, and we all suffer from it to some degree
Bernie is not an educator, and that is what we needed, an educator that is handy with bumper sticker statements. Like the Republicans are.
Towards the end of his life, Martin Luther King said that the problem is class and that racial discrimination is a technique the ruling class uses to divide the working class.
Perhaps you're underestimating people who have had to endure the effects of racial discrimination.
THANK YOU! WE are here! Call us to action! Show us how to line up! WE ARE here!
Perfect!
I’m jumping line here but here is the link to Hands Off to help people find a protest near them for April 5th. Let’s start some good trouble!
https://handsoff2025.com/
And, please pass the link along. Add it to your posts for the next 2 weeks and on social media.
ditto on the milk carton
Jamie Raskin, again steps into the cauldron to keep our democracy alive and thriving. He just say what he believes and knows, which are atop the shining hill, IMHO! THE TIDE IS ROLLING!!
trump was 'saved' from a bullet,raskin from cancer- maybe he is 'the right man at the right time'
Glad Raskin is bringing sanity and needed leadership. I'm thankful for him, and I'm not leaning to name one person as "the one".. AOC, Bernie, Kinzinger and so many more on on the starting team...judges, Governors...all together we'll build a way through ...
if some people start listening to sanity
Williamsburg James City County Indivisible organized one yesterday for Rob "Runaway" Wittman; it was great! Almost 300 people showed up (which is a good turnout for our town), and the best part was that almost a third of those attending had never been to political rally/demonstration before.
Woo hoo! 🥳 Way to go!!!
Traitor
Racist
Unlawful
Misogynist
Preditor
And that’s just a start!
True that, Martha!
Pred a tor. Good acronym!
We've started planning our empty chair Spineless Clineless Town Hall in red Shenandoah County VA. April 10, 7-9 pm at Edinburg's Charterhouse School, all residents of VA6 are welcomed.
Linda A - When/if you are going please ask whoever shows up (hopefully a democrat to take their place) how, and why, the government is using the app Signal to send classified information about targets in Yemen and other such activities. How damn irresponsible it is of Hegseth and his people to use a hackable app that includes information about our military operations. Not to mention the emails and websites that they use that are not safe. Granted it was also used by select people in the Biden administration but at no time was it used to disseminate classified information. If they are as lax about that then you can be sure that they should never have our private information - or give it to doge. Also, what plans do they have to make sure that our adversaries don’t poach a few disgruntled/desperate former workers who were unjustly fired and are willing to give up inside information to how our government works.
Just read about both of those stories in the AP News and I was reminded just how bad our government is. I am hoping that someone has answers.
Our planned structure is NOT to provide answers, but to allow constituents to express their worries and rage and build community. I write messaging for the Shenandoah County Democrats (ShenandoahDemsVA) on FB. Every day before 6 am, I post a simple call script for our 1400 followers, so that even when Cline ignores us, his staffers have to listen to us. Tomorrow's post is a script about the Hegspeth debacle. I've also posted numerous times already today (Mon), and I've pre-posted several items for the upcoming week. FB is not the only way we get our messaging out, but it's got the best engagement of all our platforms (206,000 last month!).
Yay! 🤩
"We will fight shoulder to shoulder, every day, and we will win in the end. The truth will prevail. Love will prevail over hate. Democracy will prevail over fascism."
Meidas Mighty = Truth, Facts, Empathy, Compassion, Strength, Sanity, Inclusiveness, Resilience, Diversity, Understanding, Intelligence, Morals, Values, Support, Determination, Equality, Patriotism, Community. TRUTH TO POWER.
These town hall meetings could be a most effective means to renew democracy and to promote candidates who stand for the Will of the People, not propaganda from the surly clownish thugs. I admire Rep. Raskin for his stolid support of democracy, his command of the law, and for his willingness to confront the very real threats to the integrity of this country.
Yes!! And perhaps a renewed interest and involvement in the government will keep growing!!
The carton of milk was past its expiration date, stinky and rotten. That's why they had to put MIA on the milk, some people thought that Andy Harris was there.
Snap!
Elon said the same (large) group of (paid) attendees at the Bernie AOC rallies were moved around from Colorado to Tucson. There were 30,000+ people in Colorado (must be costing the Democrats tons of money). Town halls and rallies are excellent ways for protests to register. Politicians holding these rallies and the absent politicians = media coverage. Keep stepping up, Democrats. It's working. Voices are being heard. Minds are being opened. Handful or huge crowds--fight to win back this country.
Not to mention being paid by George Soros to attend. My response: "Where's my check! Where's my check!"
Tony - The people who signed musk’s petitions for the last election are asking the same question. Most still haven’t been paid. ;)
Rep. Raskin is the kind of representative and/or senator we need to clone. I was incredibly impressed by his audiobook "Unthinkable: Trauma, Truth, and the Trials of American Democracy," and I'm so grateful for his leadership and candor.
All we do is talk, talk, talk. When will we see some arrests? If I did any of the stuff trump is pulling, I'd be awaiting arraignment. Let's DO and move beyond DISCUSS. This is infuriating .
Take action April 5! There will be large demonstrations all over the country. Showing up is key to taking action and making your voice heard!
I know...I hope, hope, hope there are plans being laid to take those actions & they will be taken soon. I heard one discussion that said whenvtge Supreme Court is defied, that will be the line not to crossed 🤔
"Why Republicans plan to impeach judges who haven't done anything wrong."
"Republicans in the House and Senate were quick to follow Donald Trump's March 18 orders to impeach federal judges who ruled against his illegal actions.
But when pressed about which high crimes and misdemeanors the judges committed to warrant such an extreme measure, Republicans had no good answer.
Instead, the only "crime" they came up with was that the judges didn't let the lawless president trample over the Constitution to do whatever he wants, whether that be deporting immigrants without due process; letting co-President Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency bros access sensitive government systems, shut down federal agencies, and chaotically fire federal employees; or remove health data from government websites because it was tangentially related to “gender identity.” (Daily Kos)......
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/3/23/2311519/-Why-Republicans-plan-to-impeach-judges-who-haven-t-done-anything-wrong?detail=emaildkre
Nope, since there is no real answer, just Blind Followers Syndrome Speakese!!
Barbara - Republicans screamed when we discussed making changes to the SC but now they are calling for impeachment of judges who are doing their jobs. They cried about endless wars but their rhetoric about our allies are possibly creating a new one. They were behind helping Ukraine, especially when they lasted longer than most people expected, but now they would rather cuddle with Russia. They claim to be for the working people but they fire them. They claim to be about protecting children but once they are out of the womb they are on their own. They are “horrified” by school shootings but won’t do anything about common sense gun control and only offer prayers. They claim to want a strong military but they erase anything that is not white or male because it offends their sensibilities. They blame others for when things don’t go right. The list goes on and on and they can’t make up their minds about what they want.
I loved the milk carton thing. So brill!
What these Republicans who cry about 'outside Democrats being bussed' in to attend 'Republican' town halls seem to forget is that these Congresscritters, even though they have an 'R' after their names, represent everyone in their district, Republican, Democrat, Independent or whatever. Democrats have just as much right to attend these town halls as do Republicans.
As a former anti-Vietnam war activist, I thought I'd heard the end of that 'outside agitator' nonsense. I guess not.
Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont is encouraging progressives to run as independents instead of as Democrats, like he does.
In an interview, Sanders said he hopes more people will get involved in politics and run outside the Democratic Party to help defeat Trump and limit the power of billionaires.
He shared this message before traveling with Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to speak at rallies across the Western U.S.
Sanders, who is 83, has been an independent for most of his career but has worked with Democrats when it benefited him, including when he ran for president in 2016 and 2020.
He has often criticized the Democratic Party, saying it needs to include more working-class leaders.
His idea might not be a bad one—running as an independent means less control from the Democratic Party and its often predictable, uninspiring leaders.
It could give candidates more freedom to push for real change without party politics getting in the way.
The only problem? Democrats have a history of suing independent and third-party candidates to get them off the ballot, making it harder for them to compete.
If Democrats don’t open up to new voices, Sanders believes more people will start running as independents across the country—whether the party likes it or not.
https://thediversityparty.com
Yes, we need a third political party, but it should not run its own candidates until we have ranked choice voting (which we should push aggressively for). If it runs its own candidates today, it kills the other party that it's closest to. Remember Nader and Gore - well-meaning, but it set back a response to climate change for decades. But now, what I'll call the "Swing Vote Party," should organize, develop a platform, host debates and town halls across the nation, and throw its weight behind primary candidates in both parties and general election candidates who most closely represent its platform.
I love Jamie Raskin!
Watch: "Star Senator gives SPEECH OF THE YEAR", on YouTube. (Brian Tyler Cohen)......
https://youtube.com/shorts/6_YPtnou5ak?si=VKp4lWPcw29Xgwtm
I love Sen. Ossoff! And Sen. Warnock. Georgia, you are lucky to have two fantastic Dem senators! 💙