Trump Gets Worse, But the Blowback Intensifies

The authoritarian pushback is growing.

Dogged litigation and tenacious federal court judges have heroically slowed Donald Trump’s rampage through democracy. But the most critical pushback against authoritarianism and biggest opportunity to rescue democracy is taking place elsewhere.

Historian Thomas Zimmer wrote that “being lawless, immoral, and violent does not make the Trumpists omnipotent…. There remains a vast gulf between Trump’s authoritarian aspirations on the one hand and the realities of a complex modern state and society on the other.”

A protester holds a sign that reads “No Kings in America — Since 1776” at a No Kings Day rally in Concord, MA, on Oct. 18. (Victor Grigas via Wikimedia Commons)

He pointed to instances in which in the face of public blowback the Trump regime flinched, including in the aftermath of Charlie Kirk’s murder “when the Trumpists laid the pseudo-legal groundwork for a sweeping criminalization of all political and societal opposition — but then didn’t actually implement the type of comprehensive oppression the Right has been clamoring for.”

And that blowback seems to be unfolding in Minneapolis, where Trump’s minions, such as Deputy Attorney General and Epstein cover-up actor Todd Blanche and the heinous Stephen Miller, have raised the specter of the Insurrection Act, but Trump has said it is not necessary “now.”

What is happening? Historian Ruth Ben Ghiat sees the United States as joining a worldwide protest movement against autocratic regimes in defense of “dignity, bodily autonomy, the ability to earn a living wage, and basic human rights.” She explained:

Other protests take place in countries where democracy has been severely damaged due to autocratic power grabs that shred constitutional rights, engage in blatant corruption and human rights abuses, and may also militarize civil society by deploying state security forces and allied gangs as enforcers. The United States is now among these examples.

She posited that authoritarian regimes are inherently brittle and unstable, in large part because they “are not built to navigate a future in which survival of climate-change, disasters, resource scarcity, a shrinking labor force, and armed conflict will require fact-based communications, community, care, altruism, and other things such states work hard to suppress.”

When tragedy strikes, an insulated and tone-deaf regime can falter, and its unnuanced propaganda machine only highlights rather than conceals the leader’s lies. The public then comes to see the regime as the “enemy of the people,” to borrow a phrase. People turn to one another in solidarity, creating mutual aid networks, mocking the regime, and emboldening one another through mass, peaceful protest.

It would be a terrible mistake to suggest Trump’s regime will crumble under the weight of its own stupidity, incompetence, and overreach. Likewise, pro-democracy advocates err in expecting the legacy media to rouse itself to fully engage the regime (e.g., denying it the legitimacy of an ordinary administration, ceasing to sane-wash Trump, cornering and confronting Republicans on their complicity). And though certain elected Democratic leaders have shown mettle, the legislative and legal tools at their disposal are limited in ways the public’s toolkit is not.

That said, Zimmer and Ben Ghiat underscore the power of anti-regime blowback to destabilize and ultimately lay low Trump’s authoritarian project. We should maintain hope as we watch three successful techniques keep the regime off balance and on defense.

First and most important, we have seen entire cities (Chicago and Minneapolis) organize to aid immigrants, document abuses, and warn neighbors. Misunderstanding American cities as dystopian hell holes, Trump may have erred in targeting large cities where high concentrations of people can assemble and network.

In this effort, no one should underestimate the power of the Christian churches and interfaith groups in urging their flocks to action and exposing the regime’s immorality. From Presbyterian Rev. David Black (shot in the head with pepper bullets while praying in Chicago) to Pope Leo (who recently denounced Trump’s imperialism: “The principle established after the Second World War, which prohibited nations from using force to violate the borders of others, has been completely undermined”), we have seen religious leaders rise to the occasion — just as some did at critical junctures during the civil rights movement (in contrast to the bulk of white Southern evangelicals).

Episcopal Bishop Rob Hirschfeld in New Hampshire, as NPR reported, is among the most outspoken:

Hirschfeld called out the “cruelty, the injustice and the horror … unleashed in Minneapolis,” and warned his clergy to prepare for “a new era of martyrdom.”

“I’ve asked them to get their affairs in order to make sure they have their wills written,” he said, “because it may be that now is no longer the time for statements, but for us with our bodies to stand between the powers of this world and the most vulnerable.”

When resistance becomes a moral and religious crusade, the amoral, vicious, and Trump-idolaters are flummoxed.

Second, the role of mockery, humor, and outright contempt for fascist leaders can be a potent, if under-appreciated, weapon. There is a reason why Trump so ludicrously overreacts to comedians; they expose his madness and hence his lack of omnipotence.

But the technique of cutting Trump down to size can be wielded by anyone — from the marchers’ carrying ever-more-creative signs and carrying Trump-baby balloons to politicians willing to declare that the emperor has no clothes, as Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) did recently during an interview with Anderson Cooper:

GALLEGO: He is a madman. He is insane. He’s only thinking about himself. Everything you’re hearing —

COOPER: And you know that he’s insane?

GALLEGO: Yes, I’m sorry where are we at this moment where we don’t understand what’s happening in this country? The man is threatening war against a NATO ally. We all think this is rational, right? Let’s accept what’s happening here. He is not rational right now. He is destroying our world reputation or potentially our economic opportunity or economic mighty power around the world because he is being petty. None of this is rational. Everyone needs to stop pretending this is rational.

It is a wonder why every Democrat does not talk this way (and tragic that media hosts feel compelled to express surprise when they do).

Third, mass organization has continued to build, reducing Trump and his cohort to either insulting/defaming or struggling to minimize their impact. After No Kings 2 in October, the Center for American Progress’s Michael Sozan wrote that “movements gain power when they sustain public participation across diverse groups that refuse to allow the government to scare or divide them.” Pointing to Erica Chenoweth’s research on the threshold of 3.5% of the population’s mass mobilization participation, Sozan explained that organization on such a scale “indicates deeper underlying societal support from nonprotesters and a sense of inevitability, which can help accelerate defections from key pro-government pillars, including leaders from the business, political, cultural, and media sectors.”

Interestingly he added that these efforts are most effective when they can “spur defections from security and military forces who refuse illegal government orders.” (Hence, the Trump regime’s freakout when Democratic lawmakers called on the military to disregard illegal orders.)

In short, Trump is getting loonier, more dangerous, and more violent, underscoring Republican paralysis and cowardice. But as he decomposes, he winds up emboldening the public backlash, which, in the end, is what will stand between Trump and totalitarian control.

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