The Trump protests will fail - unless people organize
I've been to a lot of protests.
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Each one of them failed to move the needle. Why? Because there wasn't any organization behind them. The people protesting weren't united, everyone with a sign had a different idea.
David Sirota's piece on TheLever spells it out.
Evelyn Quartz
"The question is what will rise in its place. The task is not just to protest the collapse, but to recognize what’s real and what’s performative. To see through the rituals — and step into the void with something more serious, more grounded.
"If the liberal class clings to the symbols of democracy, the left must fight for its substance. That means organizing where power lives, demanding what solidarity requires, and building something that doesn’t keep us trapped in the center’s endless cycle of “least bad” candidates — but instead begins to redistribute power — economic, political, and moral — back to the people.
"Because when all is said and done, when the slogans fade and the cameras turn off, protest is not a brand. It’s a threat".
The June 14 No Kings Day protest will go nowhere without organizing principles behind the protest. People need to not only protest, but state succinctly what they're out to accomplish. Because as the ignominious Jeff Bezos said, "Complaining is not a strategy".
We're not going to post or protest our way out of this.
In her piece titled Every Election Is Now Existential, Anne Applebaum has the prescription for turning back Trump and his authoritarian, nihilistic gang of thugs.
“Small numbers of voters swinging one way or the next will decide the nature of the state, the future of democracy, the independence of the courts”.
Town Hall Citizen organizes IRL town hall meetings where Democratic congressional representatives are summoned by their constituents to answer questions and are held accountable.
We're starting in Colorado. The goal of the town hall meetings is to cause people to organize and form a citizens group so powerful that Democrats work for us, instead of their donor class.
We want to help mobilize a relatively small group of citizens, i.e. "small numbers of voters" to organize and take control of the Democratic Party, much like The Tea Party did. The idea isn't unique - we're literally taking a page from The Party playbook. Ralph Nader has been a strong advocate of citizens groups for years now.
Now the only question is, will anyone listen?
tty next time,
