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Picket Signs vs. Fear of Violence; Who Do You Think Wins? [1]
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Date: 2025-02-20
Tyranny requires your fear and your silence and your compliance. Democracy requires your courage. – Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker
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This week I saw a post on Facebook of a group of people smiling, holding their signs at an anti-Trump rally they attended in some Podunk town nobody ever heard of. That’s a good thing they did. I don’t want to minimize their effort or sincerity.
But it was a complete waste of time and energy. It’ll make no difference. It’ll change nothing.
Hey, I used to do the emails to my representatives. The calls to their offices. I couldn’t have wasted my time more if I tried. There was a time when these standard displays of disagreement with our elected officials might have made a difference, but not today. And the sooner we realize that the better.
And if you look at a recent article from Vanity Fair you’d understand why. It’s title: “‘They’re Scared Shitless’: The Threat of Political Violence Informing Trump’s Grip on Congress”
It’s subtitle: “With the president smashing norm after norm, even lawmakers within his party have feared for their personal safety, and at least one has told confidants that it has swayed his decision-making.”
What do you think is going to hold more sway over a politician’s decision-making process: A 70-year-old grandmother walking with a picket sign outside one of his state offices, or the thought of a guy hiding behind his garage, waiting for him and his family to return home from a night out.
You know the answer.
So, what’s the answer for Democrats? At this point, the call here isn’t for threats and violence. It’s for something bigger and more imaginative than what we’re seeing, from leadership that needs to do more than offer fiery rhetoric without a concrete plan of action.
It won’t be easy. It won’t be without sacrifice. Remember we’re dealing with a president in four-time indicted, twice impeached, sexual assaulter, tax fraudster, insurrection inspirer, wannabe fascist dictator, convicted felon Donald Trump who recently posted on social media, “He who saves his Country does not violate any Law.”
Like I said it won’t be easy. Let’s see what we can do.
The weakest spot in Trump’s armor are Republican members of Congress by nature of their long-proven cowardice. They’re also the key to stopping what we’re seeing going on in our country and around the world as far as this administration is concerned.
Some of them are true-believers in the Trump cult. The rest are kept in line by the fear that the president will produce an opponent to primary them in their next election and that co-president Elon Musk will bankroll that effort.
But Vanity Fair reports that “this is not the whole story of Republican subservience to the president. In private, Republicans talk about their fear that Trump might incite his MAGA followers to commit political violence against them if they don’t rubber-stamp his actions.”
“They’re scared shitless about death threats and Gestapo-like stuff,” a former member of Trump’s first administration said.
A source told Vanity Fair that North Carolina senator Thom Tillis told people that the FBI warned him about “credible death threats” when he was considering voting against Pete Hegseth’s nomination for defense secretary. Tillis ultimately provided the critical 50th vote for his conformation.
Peter Meijer was a member of the House of Representatives when Trump-inspired insurrectionists attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2020, to try to prevent the certification of Joe Biden’s election victory. In a story in the Atlantic, he said one colleague seemed to nearly have a nervous breakdown over fear of being harmed by MAGA supporters if he were to vote to certify the results, Vanity Fair reported.
“Remember, this wasn’t a hypothetical. You were casting that vote after seeing with your own two eyes what some of these people are capable of,” Meijer said. “If they’re willing to come after you inside the U.S. Capitol, what will they do when you’re at home with your kids?”
Good question. It’s understandably scary, even terrifying, for someone who thinks that could happen. The counter is you were elected to do your job, and if for any reason you can’t you should step down instead of holding on to a position in which you’re badly compromised.
Trump has injected the specter of violence into his campaigns and presidencies from the beginning. His mass pardon of the Jan. 6 insurrectionists showed he’ll favor those who do violence on his behalf over their victims.
The president now has a group of militia armies, like the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, at his disposal, and they know he’ll pardon them if they break any laws doing his bidding. Add that to the fact that the corrupt Supreme Court has ruled that a president can’t be charged for any acts classified as his “official duties,” and you’ll see the rule of law doesn’t apply to Trump or anyone on his team.
So, if we aren’t going to threaten members of Congress with harm or death, what do we do? Well, we have to make their lives very difficult. Preferably a living hell.
We don’t do that by simply walking around carrying signs. We do that with things like civil disobedience and non-violence public disruptions. We need to do things that come back to them. That bring their contribution to what’s going on in our country into focus and question.
We amass with enough force to do things like shut down Washington or other major cities. We disrupt things that directly affect companies and, hopefully, their bottom lines. We swarm into the neighborhoods of GOP officials, upsetting not just them but their neighbors, maybe even their whole towns. It goes without saying that anything that messes with Musk is on the table.
We constantly attack them with every print and video mainstream, non-traditional, and social media asset we can.
I admit, I don’t have a lot of specific answers. I’m not an expert in this area, but there are people who are. They need to step forward to get the ball rolling.
And as important anything, we need national leadership. A national voice to rally dissenters. To make and announce plans. Right now, we have this going on here and that going on there. That’s too disjoined. Too inefficient.
An estimated 250,000 people attended Martin Luther King Jr.’s March on Washington in 1963. More than 450,000 took part in the Women’s March in that same city in 2017. These kinds of numbers need national leadership, national planning, national coordination. Who’s going to step forward? Who’s going to lead?
The natural answer is Democrats – the opposition party with no real power because the GOP controls the White House and both chambers of Congress. That’s why speeches and soundbites are nice, but they can’t change anything.
And to be honest with you, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senator Minority Leader Chuck Schumer don’t seem to have what it takes to lead this effort. It’s going to have to come from some others, like maybe Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland.
When you don’t have the votes, you have to go in another direction. You can’t keep playing by the rules when the other side doesn’t. Well, I guess you could, and maybe that’ll allow you to feel good about yourself.
That’s small consolation when your democracy, rule of law, and constitution are being shredded to pieces.
***
Thank you for reading my post. You can see my other writings on my blog: Musings of a Nobody. Please share and subscribe for free via email on its home page.
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