Revolutionary Logistics
Preface: Thoughtful Inertia and Crazy Action
I feel like I've noticed a striking pattern recently.
- "Respectable" people (who in all the cases below I do, truly, respect) are earnestly, accurately, and objectively describing the terrible things that are happening. Some examples:
- But it's the "crazy" people who are getting into real detail about what to actually do about them.
It is true that David Brooks (for whom in general I have much less respect) is calling for an "uprising." But as a "respectable" person, he doesn't really make it clear what this uprising is supposed to do, apart from "Stop Trump." "Confront" him. And then – something. The most powerful, most vengeful, and least controllable man on the planet will – give up? This is not a goal. It is barely a finished thought.
In other words, I feel like I'm getting more operational clarity from @bigdaddyromance with 16 likes than I am from public figures who receive thousands of engagements for every message, and whose opinions are sent to hundreds of millions of subscribers every single week.
But I am also forced to admit that even I find the presentation of these plans – Crazy. The four different font sizes. The box, for some reason. The post that appears to have been cut and pasted from someone else's post. Which is heartbreaking, because - I agree with bigdaddyromance's approach, 100%. (Though unfortunately, it is not legally treason to pardon people, even when they are themselves guilty of treason – the Confederates were pardoned after the Civil War, and judges since have been quite clear on this.)
This observation leads me to do two things. One, attempt to provide the thoughtful presentation and sober logic that characterize respectable dialog, to the crazy ideas that I think are vital right now. And two, add the degree of necessary operational detail to make what we're doing not just a post, but a Plan.
Step 1: What
This is our goal. We may argue over what it should be, but if we do not have one, then we do not have even a hope of succeeding. This is What we are doing.
I believe our goal must be to remove the President from power. Not to "stop" him, not to "speak truth" to him, not to "resist" him, but to remove him. Because literally nothing else will stop him, or his followers, or the people he has placed around him, from destroying what we once thought of as America.
If this feels extreme – which I say because it feels extreme to say, even to me, even if I know I mean it intellectually – then I encourage you to re-read even just the headlines from the last single week of Americans newspapers. You will remember that, and why, you also know this is the only answer.
There was the El Salvador gulag, the ax through the car window of the man waiting for his lawyer, and the war crime photo-ops. The impacts of the tariffs. Harvard, more federal workers, RFK channeling Josef Mengele, detaining American citizens, the now two Signal threads of war plans... this is all days ago, and it barely scratches the surface. We are not even on day 100. There is no harm reduction scenario here. The entire administration must be removed. And we start with the President.
Step 2: Why
The "why" is the reason we give to justify our "what." It's true that every action above would permanently disgrace any other President in history, but when we are blown from each one to its successor in the course of an afternoon, they all become inconsequential. To build the simple volume of force that we need to remove an American President, we need focus. And if we must focus, we can only afford to focus on the single most fundamentally damning act.
The rationale we must use is Treason.
For an abundance of legal caution and clarity, I will say that Donald Trump has not been convicted of treason. But neither has he been tried for treason, so he has not been acquitted of it, either – and it is not illegal to accuse someone of a crime, especially when all of the available evidence points overwhelming in its direction. Assembling men to attack the United States Capitol, with the express goal of overthrowing the American government, is treason. And that act took place on national television. In a court of law, there may be legal quibbling about whether or not the intent was truly the overthrow – but no sane person would see what happened, and conclude anything but the obvious.
I will expand on all of these in the detail they deserve in their own posts, but I want to call out now that I think this Step is most important to support. Luckily, it is also one of the easiest.
But before this idea can become our engine, it has to spread beyond the language of the Crazy people, and into the vocabulary of the Respectable.
Step 3: How
We have set out to remove the American President, because he has committed what any objective observer would conclude is treason. But how are we going to remove him?
Not with violence. They are the side that specializes in violence. We cannot change the game to one that favors them, and that we have neither the heart nor the experience to win.
But also not with "protests." Protests, on their own, are simply a request that we expect to be denied. We have to force a negotiation. Either the President goes – 0r – we continue to strike. Unless we have that "or," and unless that "or" is powerful enough to dislodge an entire administration, they simply won't care.
The Step for which I have the fewest details. A strike is an easy thing to propose, and a powerful starting point, but when we're talking about everyone in the country, details make all the difference. What needs to be disrupted? What needs to be boycotted? Where would a strike make the biggest impact? Are the people in those positions aligned with us? I don't know. And I don't know who does know. But someone needs to, and I intend to find out.
Step 4: When
With all deliberate speed.
Or to be more specific, not when we eventually get 3.5% of the population to submit their email addresses, because that is a catastrophic misreading of the science. But I'll explain why next time.
Next Steps
Be respectable enough that people listen to what you have to say. Then, talk about Treason. Remember that our goal is to remove the American President, through peaceful, strategic, mass action. And that the faster we do it, the greater the portion of our country that will still be standing when we are done.
If we make it to Thursday, I'll see you Thursday.
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