General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsNonviolence is tactical
I am thrilled to see so much support for calling out the emerging fascist system in our midst (threats to the press, brown-skinned children in concentration camps, disenfranchising labor unions). Keep shouting and protesting LOUDLY.
But also be tactical.
That means get out the vote like it may be the last one we have and DO NOT GIVE TRUMP WHAT HE IS ANTAGONIZING US FOR: a violent event he can point to that will justify martial law. He's playing by every dictator's handbook. A token violent incident is all he needs to trigger a phase shift.
Shout, but don't hit: Ghandi threw off the Brits and Mandela eradicated apartheid by NOT playing into that standard dictator's gambit. MLK lead a civil rights movement with deep, but firm, love. Nonviolent resistance is not necessarily polite, but it does two things:
1) It does not invite martial law and full-on fascism.
2) It wins over the majority of citizens who have no stomach for violence of either the fascist or rebel kind.
Let us yell loud and hard brothers and sisters. Let us call the disgusting fascists what they are: the people we defeated in WWII. But let's beat them through greater strategy, and that is what nonviolent resistance is all about.
I know some have "had enough", but don't forget what advantage we actually have:
A) Reality is on our side.
B) Muellar is doing an incredible, thorough job and has all of Cohen's tapes and papers and even pieced together his shredded documents. He's flipped several insiders and recently hired more prosecutors.
C) A growing MAJORITY is sick of Trump and his crime family.
D) A blue wave is growing despite Trump's oily lies to the contrary.
E) The press is getting smarter and now calling out the lies and fascism and even Fox has rumblings of disgust with this presidency. (Yes, I've held my nose and checked in on it).
F) An unprecedented number of Republicans have come out against their own party.
Let us leverage all of the above into the biggest vote drive this country has ever seen. But we must buck up, citizens. We're on a roll. Violence is neither necessary nor tactical. It's not good either and would take away our moral advantage in a heartbeat not to mention justify martial law and the institututionalization of fascism.
AND WATCH FOR RUSSIAN BS: Be vigilant and watch out for Russian trolls who would be fanning the flames of violence (actual violence, not the occasional pitchfork imagery).
Nonviolent action is massively effective. We must not succumb ro Trump's taunts and give him a chance to pull the trigger.
haele
(12,705 posts)Non-violent protests can be loud and uncouth as well as silent and poignant; what makes them non-violent is that all action is within the letter of the law and there is an avoidance of breaking windows and limbs while making one's point.
Haele
DemocracyMouse
(2,275 posts)unblock
(52,519 posts)We have had protests with more than a million people and the media gives equal time or more to a phony gathering of congressional staffers pretending to be ordinary people.
Hopefully the media is finally ready to go into "tear him down after building him up" mode, but I am wary....
H2O Man
(73,715 posts)Thank you so much for this. I was telling a DU friend two days ago that Trump, Miller, and Bannon are seeking to create a "national emergency" -- which does not mean a nation-wide emergency, in terms of suspending rights. In fact, I was going to post an essay here on just that, and how non-violence -- including militant non-violence -- is the key tactic for us today. But you have done so, and better than I could have.