The Moment Is Now
Join a protest this weekend. While you still can.
In the surreal months since Trump took office in January, it’s been hard to know how to behave. As the outrages pile up, I’ve found myself wondering over and over again: is this the moment when we drop everything to defend our democracy? Or is it okay to keep carrying on as normal for a little while longer?
There have been many moments that seemed like the moment. Many absurdities. Many cruelties. Many rubicons. A cruel and lawless regime has become progressively crueler and more lawless. Arresting people at their legally-required immigration appointment hearings and at their children’s graduations. Separating families. Banning admittance to the U.S. for entire nationalities. Refusing to abide by judges’ orders. Sabotaging science, medicine and intellectual inquiry. Cutting essential services in order to further enrich the richest people on earth. Arresting a judge, a mayor, a member of Congress, a union leader, and threatening to arrest California Governor Gavin Newsom.
Today, the department of Homeland Security posted a graphic on X that was developed by white supremicists and asks citizens to report “foreign invaders” to ICE. This is not about arresting bad guys, it’s about sweeping up anybody who doesn’t look white, which is why people have been protesting this week in Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, New York, and elsewhere.
In response, Trump took the nakedly authoritarian step of sending in the National Guard and the U.S. Marines to crush lawful protest against these proto-fascist round-ups. As Jennifer Rubin explains in The Contrarion, the imposition of a police state may start in California, but it won’t end there:
After staging violent raids and arresting a member of Congress, Newark’s mayor, and a state Wisconsin judge on frivolous charges, Trump has gone a step further in declaring the power to deploy military forces anywhere in the United States—even in the absence of any rebellion or invasion. When he insisted that he can send military forces “where protests … are occurring or are likely to occur based on current threat assessments and planned operations,” he included the power to deploy forces against peaceful protests and did not limit deployments to locations where any incident has occurred.
I had other things I planned to write about this week, but they can wait. I want to keep this short. The one thing that might possibly save our democracy is collective action in the form of peaceful mass demonstrations. When experts at the Brennan Center for Justice gamed out this exact scenario in the months before Trump’s election, massive protests were a surprisingly potent weapon against the move to full authoritarianism:
Democratic self-defense may rest, in the end, on the demonstrated will of the American people — expressed, if necessary, in persistent, large-scale protest — to reject authoritarian rule. Agents provocateurs and deepfake videos will attempt to discredit orderly and lawful expressions of dissent, and peaceful protest might be met with authoritarian violence. Americans have overcome that before and might have to again.
This is why we need everyone out in the streets this Saturday, June 14, for No Kings Day. Bring your American flags, your clever signs, and as many of your friends and family members as you can muster. It doesn’t matter if this is your first or your five hundredth protest. It doesn’t matter if you’re an introvert or an extrovert, or if it feels corny, or pointless, or if you had other, better plans for your Saturday. It doesn’t matter whether you agree with every position held by every person who will be marching with you, or whether you wish the protests in Los Angeles had been more orderly. We need the normies and the weirdos and the moderates and the conservatives and the liberals and the leftists. We need every single American who believes in democracy to show, in numbers too big to ignore, that we will not tolerate autocracy.
Find a demonstration near you here.
Join a mass call on Thursday at 8:00 pm ET / 5:00 pm PT to learn about messaging, de-escalation tactics, and strategy here.
We can do this. We must do this. The time is now, and will continue being now for the forseeable future.
With a sigh,
Dashka
Agreed that this is the moment. We are hurtling towards martial law. I just read that Texas governor is sending out 5000 National Guard troops on Saturday! The one thing I would say is that using the word “peaceful” has been discussed as inappropriate in this context and can be racist. The violence comes from the State not the people. People are responding as is necessary. A word that may be more appropriate and that I have heard used is “disciplined”.
For context:
some ways the term "peaceful" might be used in a way that is perceived as racist:
Dismissal of legitimate grievances: Demanding or focusing excessively on "peacefulness" during protests against racial injustice can sometimes be seen as a way to control or discredit the movement, implying that the protests are not valid unless they remain entirely free of disruption, even if some of the disruption is a direct result of the injustice being protested. Some argue that emphasizing "peaceful" protests can inadvertently minimize the anger and frustration felt by those experiencing systemic racism.
Contrasting peaceful protests with imagined violence: Highlighting peaceful aspects of a protest while simultaneously implying that "looters" or "roving bands" (often coded language with racist connotations) are a threat can be seen as a way to create a false narrative and reinforce negative stereotypes.
Policing protests: The emphasis on "peacefulness" can sometimes feel like an order to remain passive and compliant, particularly for marginalized groups who are already subject to excessive policing.
Dismissing acts of resistance: Sometimes, the term "peaceful" is used in a way that implies that only quiet, non-disruptive forms of protest are acceptable, thus delegitimizing more assertive or even confrontational forms of protest that may be necessary to challenge ingrained injustices.