Thank you! You have made the complicated clear. And you have confirmed why I feel that our consistent weekly protests in our village, no matter how small, are worth our time. This column should help reenergize citizens who are feeling attacked on all sides.
Professor Erica Chenoweth and Overconfidence in Elections
The following is an excerpt.
“People tend to think the way we create change is through elections, and the result is an overconfidence in elections,” she says. “During election cycles, people divert their energies away from community organization and mobilization in a way that makes it hard to sustain a mode of extra-institutional struggle.”
“One challenge to organization, especially in the Western world, Chenoweth says, is that progressive movements full of freethinkers tend to be fragmented and often internally contentious.
Participants in right-wing movements, meanwhile, are easier to organize because they tend to be more ideologically oriented to following authority.
“In emergencies, people in left-leaning or progressive movements can agree on the problem, so progressive movements tend to rally around a key moment or an emergency,” she says. “But this means they are often reacting to crises rather than taking the initiative or proposing a consensus-based solution to the problem.”
Complicating things further, she says, there is often less agreement in democracies about what exactly constitutes a crisis, and the energy around mobilization for change gets pushed into election cycles.”
Erica Chenoweth illuminates the value of nonviolent resistance in societal conflicts | Harvard Kennedy School
From The Peaceful Solution:
The above comments spell out the problem the resistance in the U.S. is facing right now. Most of the people in the country are unaware, and do not regard the fascist takeover as an emergency or a crisis. They think that whatever is wrong, the midterm elections will put things right.
The midterm election
Will it be free and fair? It won’t be. Will it occur at all? His Royal Heinous has already said that if we’re at war there’ll be no election. Guess what? If it’s looking bad for him, we’ll be at war to try to stop the election. His numerous ongoing nefarious attempts to subvert the election are well known.
The election is important to him because having the majority in the legislature gives the fascist regime the look of legitimacy and the Republicans in Congress will continue rolling over, allowing HRH to do whatever he wants.
People are putting too much faith in what the midterms will do. They may have a beneficial psychological effect but in reality the outcome will have little or no practical effect, unless the Dems can get 2/3 majority in the house and senate, which they won’t. They will not be able to undo anything HRH has done or pass new legislation, because of his veto power.
If the Dems win the House, they will impeach HRH, but we’ve seen that movie twice before. Convicted in the senate and removed from office? We can only hope, but hope is not a strategy.
What can we do?
We, the people, still have the power of the purse. No one can control our spending, or lack of spending. The other peaceful options are failing. Time is of the essence. We must go on a spending strike until the business community stops supporting His Royal Heinous and the politicians who enable him.
Stop participating. Nearly 70% of the U.S. economy is driven by consumer spending. You and me. Hobble the economy and the stock market.
Economic warfare is the only thing the oligarchs, the business community will understand and act on. Call it a Surreptitious General Strike (Quiet Quitting). Go to work, do as little as possible. Stop spending money except on essentials. Quit feeding the corporate beast that supports HRH.
This is how we can stop the fascist takeover.
Thanks for Restacking and Sharing, helping to Spread the Word!
Armitage deleted the following from his post of the following day.
Trump Knows: Midterms Won’t Matter
From Axios, August 2, 2026
“President Trump doesn't much care if Republicans lose the House and/or the Senate in the midterms this fall.
• Yes, he'd prefer a big win, but he seems indifferent to the election and the possibility of endless Democratic investigations of his family, wealth and policies, his closest advisers tell us.
• A big reason: Trump knows he'll emerge just as strong, or even stronger, heading into his final two years, at least among Republicans.
Why it matters: Trump will enjoy a more pro-Trump Republican Congress, win or lose; gleefully play '28 kingmaker and further test the boundaries of presidential power beyond legislating, his preferred method anyway. He'll use pardons to protect his people, the advisers say.”
Three dramas to watch post-November:
1. Trump will flirt with running again in '28 until the bitter end, but it's all about PR and keeping Vance and Rubio in their place.
2. As potential outside-the-walls competition in '28, the White House is watching Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Sen. Ted Cruz (Texas) and Sen. Josh Hawley (Mo.).
Most importantly: A constitutional clash over congressional oversight, among the last and most vital powers lawmakers hold dear. What happens if Trump orders his entire administration, family and friends to just ignore Congress?”
From The Peaceful Solution:
The Midterms Will Not Solve the Problem
Most Americans disapprove of His Royal Heinous, but they are looking for an easy solution. One that will not require even a small sacrifice on their part, or any disruption to their life.
They are putting too much faith in what the midterms will do. The midterms may have a beneficial psychologic effect but in reality the outcome will have little or no practical effect, unless the Dems can get 2/3 majority in the house and senate, which they won’t. They will not be able to undo anything His Royal Heinous has done or pass new legislation, because of his veto power.
There will be investigations if the Dems take the House, but to what end. HRH will pardon all perpetrators, and they know it.
They will impeach HRH, but we’ve seen that movie twice before. Convicted in the senate and removed from office? Please.
He will continue to rule by “National Emergency“ and Executive Orders .
The greatest danger in all this is that it will appear that something beneficial is happening. The majority of people will believe the system is working. After about a year they will realize that nothing is changing. Then they will think, Oh well, he’ll be gone after the election next year.
Or will he? It took the Hungarians 16 years to get rid of Orban, and the Project 2025 people will certainly not make the same mistakes that Orban did.
What can we do?
We, the people, still have the power of the purse. No one can control our spending, or lack of spending. The other peaceful options are failing. Time is of the essence. The longer the fascist takeover goes on, the more difficult it will be to undo.
We must go on a spending strike until the business community stops supporting His Royal Heinous and the politicians who enable him.
Nearly 70% of the U.S. economy is driven by consumer spending. You and me. Hobble the economy and the stock market.
Economic warfare is the only thing the oligarchs, the business community, will understand and act on. Call it a Surreptitious General Strike (Quiet Quitting). Go to work, do as little as possible. Stop spending money except on essentials. Quit feeding the corporate beast that supports HRH.
Please: Resist. Stop cooperating. Stop spending. Stop the fascist takeover.
Thank you for restacking, and sharing, to help Spread the Word!
This is one of your most important essays yet, IMHO.
"The framework sorts the postures into tiers and shows how they can be concurrently applied, so that a governor in California and a district attorney in Philadelphia and a sheriff in Vermont can all represent influential pressure points against the same autocratic problem."
We've already seen how effective this can be when the fascists deployed it against us. Remember how many "constitutional sheriffs", corrupt election officials, lawyers, pro-fascist state and local officials, and traitorous/indoctrinated regular citizens tried everything possible to overthrow the 2020 election and end American democracy?
They showed us the roadmap and proved its effectiveness.... for evil. We just need to flip the script...
And yet, "flipping the script" is more likely to be "flipping the coin" if a blue power base becomes the organizer of these identifiable tiers and dynamics. That third influence, outside the status quo, must be the organizer.
Quite the conundrum, the tyranny of the elite or the tyranny of the proletariat.
Well we know how that works out, as there is never a tyranny of the proletarian, just the emergence of a privileged New Class, the title of a book written by Milovan Djilas Theorist and former Deputy Prime Minister of Yugoslavia
All that the Bolshevik Revolution did was to replace one set of privileged and oppressive Overlords with another set of privileged and oppressive overlords
Which, incidentally, is why the tradesman, the merchant, the farmer of Virginia was not enthusiastic about the revolution of 1775/ They did not want to expend blood and treasure to replace British overlords with home grown overlords.
Thus the tidewater aristocracy, created Committees of Public Safety, to monitor behaviors and opinions and punish loyalists.. that was not enough so they imported literate from the printing press of Ben Franklin and Rittenhouse of Philadelphia, like Thomas Pains, The Rights of Man and Common Sense.
The propaganda effort worked, but too well, for the newly freed from British rule, were not about to have an American version of that which they had left, and from that a constitution, which still gave "wise" men the rule, wise being men who owned property, for at the outset only property owning men could vote, that changed in 1792 in New Hampshire and soon all states would follow to enfranchise all men/
There were property owning blackmen in Pennsylvania and New Jersey that could and did vote, and even women in NJ, until disenfranchised by Stare law in 1807
Authoritarian regimes collapse from within when the people inside them calculate that loyalty has become more costly than defection.That's the human truth underneath the political science.
The tools exist. The numbers are nearly there. The frameworks are now legible. What remains is the oldest question in collective action: how many people, in how many different ways, at how many different levels, decide that this is the moment requiring them? History moves when a critical mass stops waiting for someone else to go first.
I’m very concerned about the durability of this regime. I keep thinking that endless expensive war making will be its downfall. It has to happen or we won’t have an infrastructure to hold us together.
Those who study how authoritarian regimes die noted that the more women who are opposing a regime, the more effective that opposition is. When the Trump regime under his AG Todd Blanche uses the Comstock Act to make it illegal to mail abortion pills even to states where the procedure remains legal, I hope and pray the women of this country rise up and end this vile nonsense once and for all. Sex strikes and work strikes. Make men handle it themselves, care for their children, clean their homes, look after their elderly parents and, oh yes, work that second job for the extra income. When that happens, maybe men will get off their butts and support women's right to bodily self-determination. You know, the right men have solely because they are male.
Helene Hanfstaengl saved Hitler’s life. She supported his rise of evil. However she began to realize the fanaticism, paranoia, the lies, the abuse of innocent people, losing her husband to divorce before coming back to America.
Women NEED to hear and see the truth about Trump. His abuse of girls, his abuse of women, his abuse of each and every person that speaks the truth. He is a
Mentally incapacitated person but he attracts the same type of people. Why do
You think the hiding of the complete Epstein files is so dire to him? People would finally know the truth about who he really is or maybe isn't.
You are correct women need to speak up and realize that their bodies belong to them.
So we must do we can to expose the real reason Trump continues to lie to people!
You are correct. I remember a video of an older woman taking her top off and revealed her breasts stating she’d “do him” embarrassing that this adult woman lowered herself for Trump. Wonder how she feels now knowing he preferred little girls?!
I appreciate your articles so very much. Have you considered doing a podcast or short video on substack? If you already have one, please send it to me so I can listen to you explain things.
The Gaily Show, "Unpack This For Me: States' Power to Fight the Trump Admin" (aired April 2, 2026 on AM950-KTNF Minneapolis, WCPT 820 Chicago, NewsTalk WHMP, KKNW Seattle)
I read down to where you say Republican presidents have unlimited authority while Democrats face every procedural and judicial obstacle the system can manufacture
AndI see a problem, and that is describing the situation in terms of team competition, in which Democrats and Republicans are liilte more than two opposing teams.
You know, I know, we all know that it is more than that, That within the Democratic party (which claims it is a big tent) are people who share the values and funding sources as the Republican party, basically Demopubs. there were, at one time, Republicrats but they are as extinct as the brontosaurus.
Now on to how competitive autocracies failing.. Economic linkage. That is Trumps’s strong suit, Trump’s trump card. His superpower is American consumption, public and private, America is an insatiable consumer, and our consumption enables Trump to dictate to the world, and dictate he does, tariff’s are just one example, military contracts’ another.
The result is the spectacle of august humiliation, as nations leaders debase themselves crawling on hands and knees to kiss the ring of Trump, that he won’t cancel contracts or impose tariff’s.
His propaganda is that tariff’s ar imposed to protect American production, but there is very little American production, and it would take more years than he has to built factories, and supply lines.
No tariff’s are a tool by which to control nations. The best example is how he is using tariff’s to control Canada. As tough as PM Carney talks, Trump keeps him on the back foot: Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said yesterday that the trade negotiations with the United States were “tough,” following Trump’s speech in Las Vegas calling Canada “nasty.” Trump told the audience, “I love the people, but they’re nasty. Nasty leadership.”
Carney is at the mercy of voters, and voters aren’t too happy when they lose jobs and income.
Hungary, Orban and the Fidesz and Tisza parties. What is not discussed in the politically correct American press and blogosphere, is why Orban one in the first place, and in fact why right wing extremism is on the rise in not only in Europe, but why it captured America.
The central plank of the Fidesz, was immigration, and that is the key issue in all of Europe’s neo fascist parties, from the National Rally party in France to the PISS (PiS) party in Poland.
FYIl. Orban one because he pomised to solve the immigration problem and he did by building a fence and remigrating the Muslims, mostly Syrians and Afghans. Magyar has not changed that policy, nor did he promse to. Margyars campaign and rule hence has been economic and downplayed he culture war, permitting again Pride parades.
Immigration is a problem in South Africa, but there it is economic and crime, because the hosts and the immigrants are both black.
The immigration problem in Europe is cultural, religious, not that the Europeans are religious, well Poland is Roman Catholic and much of Eastern Europe is Orthodox Catholic.
The problem is the Islamicization of Europe, western culture and Islamic culture are I ncompatible, they are oil and water. For a Muslim to assimilate into western culture he or she has to leave Islam. forsake Sharia law for Anglo Roman law or Napoleonic law.
When you are a guest in someone else’s home, you do not abandon your beliefs, your values, your standards, you sublimate them, until you can’t take it anymore.
In732 CE, Frank forces under the command of Charles, whom they call Martel (the hammer) defeated the forces of Islam at the battle of Poitiers, and hus saved Europe form Islamicization,
Flying Hussars under the command of King John Sobieski did that same when they descended on the encampment of Ottoman Turks at the gates of Vienna in 1683, now there is a new threat, a peaceful one, immigrants disembarking by boat or through immigrant overland routes, flooding into Europe, threatening cultural collapse through cultural war, and the result is the rise of Fascism in Europe, from Meloni in Italy, LePen in France, to Brexit, the AfD and PiS.
And we in the west create a problem when we call it racism, it isn’t racism it is cultural conflict.
We project, the immigration problem in America is racist, not cultural, because Ironically the Hispanic immigrants are by and large ultra conservative Christians, misogynistic, homophobic, patriarchal Catholics, Evangelicals and Pentecostal. Who once they are naturalized wind up voting for American conservatism, just as they did in the last election.
Of all the states, Texas has the only identifiable Latino Communities and they voted for Trump and vote the Republican ticket, because it is conservative, meaning patriarchal, misogynistic, homophobic.
In fact Mayra Flores, rep from Texas 34,, is herself naturalize illegal immigrant and is also a rabid Right Winger,
What I am saying is that you can’t solve a problem, unless you correctly identify the problem but to date we limit our ability to identify the problem, because of ideology and political correctness.
This post is excellent, along with some others online today. The truth of the moment is bleeding and screaming truth for its life. "I can't breath" is a theme in expression of todays common man. Not just the black, or the critical thinking, or the foreign speaking, but the bottom 98%.
Why we are divided is part of the reason for the division, greed and monopoly using fear and hate as allies.
"Wake the Flock up" a song by the decades old songwrighter singer James Lee Stanley. Listen to it, share it, he is very happy for anyone doing that.
Greg, greed and monopoly are that which drives those that divide us. but we are divided because of things we believe and identify with, with things we want,things we need, things we fear.
Fears by and large are inculcated, learned and taught
Fears are based on the misunderstood or unknown, propaganda creates the misunderstood, and lies displace truth that illuminate. Keeping people uneducated keeps them ignorant to the light of truth. Monopolies create unbridled power and greed applies this power via lies and propaganda. This is how the monopoly divides US.
As others have said, change will only happen when the cost of loyalty/support for the Trump regime exceeds the cost of abandoning Trump. One of the simplest tools available to average Americans is to refuse to buy goods from corporate supporters of the regime. I am doing this as one person but would love to join a group doing this together, Chris. Do you participate in boycotts? Whose is leading in this?
Donald Trump has clung to power because of the unwavering loyalty of his base and their faith in the promises he made on the campaign trail. Millions of Americans who were frustrated with the political establishment bought into his message, believing that he would fight for working families and bring real change. The Republican Party has remained firmly behind him, not out of principle, but out of fear—fear that challenging Trump's grip on his coalition would cost them their own power and political futures.
Nearly two years later, those promises lie in ruins. The coalition that once seemed unstoppable is beginning to crack as more and more supporters realize that Trump's agenda has served primarily himself and his wealthy allies while ordinary Americans continue to struggle with rising costs, economic uncertainty, and shrinking opportunities. The working men and women who were promised prosperity have instead been handed excuses, distractions, and empty slogans.
For years, Republican leaders enabled Trump's excesses because they believed it would keep them in power. Now, voters are beginning to see the truth: the promises were never meant for them. As frustration grows and the coalition fractures, both Trump and the Republican Party may soon be forced to answer for the gap between what they promised and what they delivered when voters head to the polls in November.
Agree with you. But this assumes the midterms vote isn't rigged - as 2024 seems to have been (by Musk). Meanwhile taking action like Chris advocates guarantees success
i think that is our biggest problem with trumps constant bullshit about the electins being rigged. I am also afraid of his use of the Proud Boys and Oath keepings again.
There may have been a coalition, but the core of Trump's power is a cult, The cult is about 35% of the population and it is united behind one thing, not his personality, but owning the libs, That is why Trump and Hegseth have been laser focused on anti DEI and immigration.
I harken back to Chenoweiths 3.5% his cult is 35%
I don't think that Chenowith's 3.5.% takes into account, the immovable force of 35%.
What we are faced with is a violent civil war, the only reason we don't see more violence, is because they have surrogates ICE, FBI, acting in their stead. if the other 65% gets too rowdy, well not the full 65%, as most Americans are not moved, until they have no choice, we are looking at a mixed war, a war of the government against the people. in fact we are already there, LA, Minneapolis were command and control exercises.
In military speak, An exercise is training, primarily command and control, but also to iron out tactics, identify weak spots.
An operation is real world. I've been in and helped plan but exercises and operations,
I think that if trump and his bunch try to take over our election we may be at point where we will have to do more than go to court, but respond the way they have used the proud boys and the oath keepers. Not that I want to use violence, but masses out in the streets in real numbers may be necessary
Thank you! You have made the complicated clear. And you have confirmed why I feel that our consistent weekly protests in our village, no matter how small, are worth our time. This column should help reenergize citizens who are feeling attacked on all sides.
Professor Erica Chenoweth and Overconfidence in Elections
The following is an excerpt.
“People tend to think the way we create change is through elections, and the result is an overconfidence in elections,” she says. “During election cycles, people divert their energies away from community organization and mobilization in a way that makes it hard to sustain a mode of extra-institutional struggle.”
“One challenge to organization, especially in the Western world, Chenoweth says, is that progressive movements full of freethinkers tend to be fragmented and often internally contentious.
Participants in right-wing movements, meanwhile, are easier to organize because they tend to be more ideologically oriented to following authority.
“In emergencies, people in left-leaning or progressive movements can agree on the problem, so progressive movements tend to rally around a key moment or an emergency,” she says. “But this means they are often reacting to crises rather than taking the initiative or proposing a consensus-based solution to the problem.”
Complicating things further, she says, there is often less agreement in democracies about what exactly constitutes a crisis, and the energy around mobilization for change gets pushed into election cycles.”
Erica Chenoweth illuminates the value of nonviolent resistance in societal conflicts | Harvard Kennedy School
From The Peaceful Solution:
The above comments spell out the problem the resistance in the U.S. is facing right now. Most of the people in the country are unaware, and do not regard the fascist takeover as an emergency or a crisis. They think that whatever is wrong, the midterm elections will put things right.
The midterm election
Will it be free and fair? It won’t be. Will it occur at all? His Royal Heinous has already said that if we’re at war there’ll be no election. Guess what? If it’s looking bad for him, we’ll be at war to try to stop the election. His numerous ongoing nefarious attempts to subvert the election are well known.
The election is important to him because having the majority in the legislature gives the fascist regime the look of legitimacy and the Republicans in Congress will continue rolling over, allowing HRH to do whatever he wants.
People are putting too much faith in what the midterms will do. They may have a beneficial psychological effect but in reality the outcome will have little or no practical effect, unless the Dems can get 2/3 majority in the house and senate, which they won’t. They will not be able to undo anything HRH has done or pass new legislation, because of his veto power.
If the Dems win the House, they will impeach HRH, but we’ve seen that movie twice before. Convicted in the senate and removed from office? We can only hope, but hope is not a strategy.
What can we do?
We, the people, still have the power of the purse. No one can control our spending, or lack of spending. The other peaceful options are failing. Time is of the essence. We must go on a spending strike until the business community stops supporting His Royal Heinous and the politicians who enable him.
Stop participating. Nearly 70% of the U.S. economy is driven by consumer spending. You and me. Hobble the economy and the stock market.
Economic warfare is the only thing the oligarchs, the business community will understand and act on. Call it a Surreptitious General Strike (Quiet Quitting). Go to work, do as little as possible. Stop spending money except on essentials. Quit feeding the corporate beast that supports HRH.
This is how we can stop the fascist takeover.
Thanks for Restacking and Sharing, helping to Spread the Word!
Dem majorites in the House mean Dem lead committees can launch investigations...
Armitage deleted the following from his post of the following day.
Trump Knows: Midterms Won’t Matter
From Axios, August 2, 2026
“President Trump doesn't much care if Republicans lose the House and/or the Senate in the midterms this fall.
• Yes, he'd prefer a big win, but he seems indifferent to the election and the possibility of endless Democratic investigations of his family, wealth and policies, his closest advisers tell us.
• A big reason: Trump knows he'll emerge just as strong, or even stronger, heading into his final two years, at least among Republicans.
Why it matters: Trump will enjoy a more pro-Trump Republican Congress, win or lose; gleefully play '28 kingmaker and further test the boundaries of presidential power beyond legislating, his preferred method anyway. He'll use pardons to protect his people, the advisers say.”
Three dramas to watch post-November:
1. Trump will flirt with running again in '28 until the bitter end, but it's all about PR and keeping Vance and Rubio in their place.
2. As potential outside-the-walls competition in '28, the White House is watching Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Sen. Ted Cruz (Texas) and Sen. Josh Hawley (Mo.).
Most importantly: A constitutional clash over congressional oversight, among the last and most vital powers lawmakers hold dear. What happens if Trump orders his entire administration, family and friends to just ignore Congress?”
From The Peaceful Solution:
The Midterms Will Not Solve the Problem
Most Americans disapprove of His Royal Heinous, but they are looking for an easy solution. One that will not require even a small sacrifice on their part, or any disruption to their life.
They are putting too much faith in what the midterms will do. The midterms may have a beneficial psychologic effect but in reality the outcome will have little or no practical effect, unless the Dems can get 2/3 majority in the house and senate, which they won’t. They will not be able to undo anything His Royal Heinous has done or pass new legislation, because of his veto power.
There will be investigations if the Dems take the House, but to what end. HRH will pardon all perpetrators, and they know it.
They will impeach HRH, but we’ve seen that movie twice before. Convicted in the senate and removed from office? Please.
He will continue to rule by “National Emergency“ and Executive Orders .
The greatest danger in all this is that it will appear that something beneficial is happening. The majority of people will believe the system is working. After about a year they will realize that nothing is changing. Then they will think, Oh well, he’ll be gone after the election next year.
Or will he? It took the Hungarians 16 years to get rid of Orban, and the Project 2025 people will certainly not make the same mistakes that Orban did.
What can we do?
We, the people, still have the power of the purse. No one can control our spending, or lack of spending. The other peaceful options are failing. Time is of the essence. The longer the fascist takeover goes on, the more difficult it will be to undo.
We must go on a spending strike until the business community stops supporting His Royal Heinous and the politicians who enable him.
Nearly 70% of the U.S. economy is driven by consumer spending. You and me. Hobble the economy and the stock market.
Economic warfare is the only thing the oligarchs, the business community, will understand and act on. Call it a Surreptitious General Strike (Quiet Quitting). Go to work, do as little as possible. Stop spending money except on essentials. Quit feeding the corporate beast that supports HRH.
Please: Resist. Stop cooperating. Stop spending. Stop the fascist takeover.
Thank you for restacking, and sharing, to help Spread the Word!
This is one of your most important essays yet, IMHO.
"The framework sorts the postures into tiers and shows how they can be concurrently applied, so that a governor in California and a district attorney in Philadelphia and a sheriff in Vermont can all represent influential pressure points against the same autocratic problem."
We've already seen how effective this can be when the fascists deployed it against us. Remember how many "constitutional sheriffs", corrupt election officials, lawyers, pro-fascist state and local officials, and traitorous/indoctrinated regular citizens tried everything possible to overthrow the 2020 election and end American democracy?
They showed us the roadmap and proved its effectiveness.... for evil. We just need to flip the script...
And yet, "flipping the script" is more likely to be "flipping the coin" if a blue power base becomes the organizer of these identifiable tiers and dynamics. That third influence, outside the status quo, must be the organizer.
Quite the conundrum, the tyranny of the elite or the tyranny of the proletariat.
Well we know how that works out, as there is never a tyranny of the proletarian, just the emergence of a privileged New Class, the title of a book written by Milovan Djilas Theorist and former Deputy Prime Minister of Yugoslavia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milovan_Djilas
All that the Bolshevik Revolution did was to replace one set of privileged and oppressive Overlords with another set of privileged and oppressive overlords
Which, incidentally, is why the tradesman, the merchant, the farmer of Virginia was not enthusiastic about the revolution of 1775/ They did not want to expend blood and treasure to replace British overlords with home grown overlords.
Thus the tidewater aristocracy, created Committees of Public Safety, to monitor behaviors and opinions and punish loyalists.. that was not enough so they imported literate from the printing press of Ben Franklin and Rittenhouse of Philadelphia, like Thomas Pains, The Rights of Man and Common Sense.
The propaganda effort worked, but too well, for the newly freed from British rule, were not about to have an American version of that which they had left, and from that a constitution, which still gave "wise" men the rule, wise being men who owned property, for at the outset only property owning men could vote, that changed in 1792 in New Hampshire and soon all states would follow to enfranchise all men/
There were property owning blackmen in Pennsylvania and New Jersey that could and did vote, and even women in NJ, until disenfranchised by Stare law in 1807
Excellent article Chris.
Really nice and very scholarly piece of work. Let’s see if there is a way to get more people in power to not only read it but heed it.
Authoritarian regimes collapse from within when the people inside them calculate that loyalty has become more costly than defection.That's the human truth underneath the political science.
The tools exist. The numbers are nearly there. The frameworks are now legible. What remains is the oldest question in collective action: how many people, in how many different ways, at how many different levels, decide that this is the moment requiring them? History moves when a critical mass stops waiting for someone else to go first.
You are doing great work. Thank you.
I’m very concerned about the durability of this regime. I keep thinking that endless expensive war making will be its downfall. It has to happen or we won’t have an infrastructure to hold us together.
Those who study how authoritarian regimes die noted that the more women who are opposing a regime, the more effective that opposition is. When the Trump regime under his AG Todd Blanche uses the Comstock Act to make it illegal to mail abortion pills even to states where the procedure remains legal, I hope and pray the women of this country rise up and end this vile nonsense once and for all. Sex strikes and work strikes. Make men handle it themselves, care for their children, clean their homes, look after their elderly parents and, oh yes, work that second job for the extra income. When that happens, maybe men will get off their butts and support women's right to bodily self-determination. You know, the right men have solely because they are male.
Helene Hanfstaengl saved Hitler’s life. She supported his rise of evil. However she began to realize the fanaticism, paranoia, the lies, the abuse of innocent people, losing her husband to divorce before coming back to America.
Women NEED to hear and see the truth about Trump. His abuse of girls, his abuse of women, his abuse of each and every person that speaks the truth. He is a
Mentally incapacitated person but he attracts the same type of people. Why do
You think the hiding of the complete Epstein files is so dire to him? People would finally know the truth about who he really is or maybe isn't.
You are correct women need to speak up and realize that their bodies belong to them.
So we must do we can to expose the real reason Trump continues to lie to people!
Every army throughout history has had it's camp followers,as has every political movement or ideology
Trump is buoyed up and maintained by women, who have gambled that their bread is better buttered by joining MAGA.
You can find via google, images of women wearing TShirts with Trump can grab me by and then an arrow pointing to their crotch.
It was a woman, Phyliss Schafly, whose Eagle Foundation killed the Equal Rights Admendment, which can still pass if Congress will extend he deadline.
You are correct. I remember a video of an older woman taking her top off and revealed her breasts stating she’d “do him” embarrassing that this adult woman lowered herself for Trump. Wonder how she feels now knowing he preferred little girls?!
You assume these people think - or feel :)
I appreciate your articles so very much. Have you considered doing a podcast or short video on substack? If you already have one, please send it to me so I can listen to you explain things.
VIDEO
Laura Flanders & Friends, "Outmaneuvering MAGA: Soft Secession" (Feb 2026, also aired on PBS World Channel and 300+ public stations)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jcjGUao9SKs
Full uncut version: https://lauraflanders.simplecast.com/episodes/outmaneuvering-maga-christopher-armitage-sumathy-kumar-on-soft-secession-full-uncut-conversation
Transcript: https://lauraflanders.org/christopher-armitage-sumathy-kumar-soft-secession/
Pacific Time Podcast, "Go Soft on Soft Secession?" (Jan 2026)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lG5Etm9loA
Indivisible Charlotte, "In the Know Live" Ep. 02: Power and Resistance (Dec 2025)
https://indivisibleclt.org/thelatest/2025/12/iclts-podcast-ep02
Audio: https://open.spotify.com/episode/25uJDvbOeuXtYVx3lcaWKM
Talkin' Politics & Religion Without Killin' Each Other (Nov 2025)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nNWGOHUQsQ
Episode page with timestamps: https://www.politicsandreligion.us/e/christopherarmitage/
WCPT 820, interview with Edwin Eisendrath (Oct 2025)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLGK2amRyK8
RADIO
The Gaily Show, "Unpack This For Me: States' Power to Fight the Trump Admin" (aired April 2, 2026 on AM950-KTNF Minneapolis, WCPT 820 Chicago, NewsTalk WHMP, KKNW Seattle)
https://podcastaddict.com/podcast/the-gaily-show/5626105
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-gaily-show/id1719142480
The Hartmann Report, "How Extrajudicial Killing Became Legal" (Jan 12, 2026)
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/how-extrajudicial-killing-became-legal/id1265276064?i=1000744896900
The Hartmann Report, "The Existentialist Republic" (Mar 12, 2026)
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-existentialist-republic/id1265276064?i=1000754918005
The Hartmann Report, "Blue States Need to Learn About Soft Power"
https://open.spotify.com/episode/4SmuPBSonptKUUknZjbEX2
The Hartmann Report, "No President is Ever Above the Law" (RICO)
https://art19.com/shows/the-hartmann-report/episodes/22548e14-6ae2-4019-aa87-1dd405a887ee
Joan Esposito: Live, Local & Progressive, WCPT (April 8, 2026, alongside Rep. Bill Foster). Available through the show archive at heartlandsignal.com/programs/live-local-progressive
LIVE VIDEO CONVERSATIONS
Live with Thom Hartmann (Jan 4, 2026)
https://cmarmitage.substack.com/p/live-with-thom-hartmann-and-christopher
Sandi Ault and Chris Armitage Live (Jan 30, 2026)
https://sandiault.substack.com/p/sandi-ault-and-chris-armitage-live
Live with Christopher Armitage (Mar 21, 2026)
https://cmarmitage.substack.com/p/live-with-christopher-armitage-785
Thanks Christopher. Ill share this as much as I can. Keep writing!
Appreciate it, Doug!
Excellent informative article Chris! Should be taught in all High Schools and Colleges. Sharing widely! Thank you!
I love Chris. He’s fucking amazing.
This pulls it together for all of us-we can all do something.
I read down to where you say Republican presidents have unlimited authority while Democrats face every procedural and judicial obstacle the system can manufacture
AndI see a problem, and that is describing the situation in terms of team competition, in which Democrats and Republicans are liilte more than two opposing teams.
You know, I know, we all know that it is more than that, That within the Democratic party (which claims it is a big tent) are people who share the values and funding sources as the Republican party, basically Demopubs. there were, at one time, Republicrats but they are as extinct as the brontosaurus.
Now on to how competitive autocracies failing.. Economic linkage. That is Trumps’s strong suit, Trump’s trump card. His superpower is American consumption, public and private, America is an insatiable consumer, and our consumption enables Trump to dictate to the world, and dictate he does, tariff’s are just one example, military contracts’ another.
The result is the spectacle of august humiliation, as nations leaders debase themselves crawling on hands and knees to kiss the ring of Trump, that he won’t cancel contracts or impose tariff’s.
His propaganda is that tariff’s ar imposed to protect American production, but there is very little American production, and it would take more years than he has to built factories, and supply lines.
No tariff’s are a tool by which to control nations. The best example is how he is using tariff’s to control Canada. As tough as PM Carney talks, Trump keeps him on the back foot: Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said yesterday that the trade negotiations with the United States were “tough,” following Trump’s speech in Las Vegas calling Canada “nasty.” Trump told the audience, “I love the people, but they’re nasty. Nasty leadership.”
Carney is at the mercy of voters, and voters aren’t too happy when they lose jobs and income.
Hungary, Orban and the Fidesz and Tisza parties. What is not discussed in the politically correct American press and blogosphere, is why Orban one in the first place, and in fact why right wing extremism is on the rise in not only in Europe, but why it captured America.
The central plank of the Fidesz, was immigration, and that is the key issue in all of Europe’s neo fascist parties, from the National Rally party in France to the PISS (PiS) party in Poland.
FYIl. Orban one because he pomised to solve the immigration problem and he did by building a fence and remigrating the Muslims, mostly Syrians and Afghans. Magyar has not changed that policy, nor did he promse to. Margyars campaign and rule hence has been economic and downplayed he culture war, permitting again Pride parades.
Immigration is a problem in South Africa, but there it is economic and crime, because the hosts and the immigrants are both black.
The immigration problem in Europe is cultural, religious, not that the Europeans are religious, well Poland is Roman Catholic and much of Eastern Europe is Orthodox Catholic.
The problem is the Islamicization of Europe, western culture and Islamic culture are I ncompatible, they are oil and water. For a Muslim to assimilate into western culture he or she has to leave Islam. forsake Sharia law for Anglo Roman law or Napoleonic law.
When you are a guest in someone else’s home, you do not abandon your beliefs, your values, your standards, you sublimate them, until you can’t take it anymore.
In732 CE, Frank forces under the command of Charles, whom they call Martel (the hammer) defeated the forces of Islam at the battle of Poitiers, and hus saved Europe form Islamicization,
Flying Hussars under the command of King John Sobieski did that same when they descended on the encampment of Ottoman Turks at the gates of Vienna in 1683, now there is a new threat, a peaceful one, immigrants disembarking by boat or through immigrant overland routes, flooding into Europe, threatening cultural collapse through cultural war, and the result is the rise of Fascism in Europe, from Meloni in Italy, LePen in France, to Brexit, the AfD and PiS.
And we in the west create a problem when we call it racism, it isn’t racism it is cultural conflict.
We project, the immigration problem in America is racist, not cultural, because Ironically the Hispanic immigrants are by and large ultra conservative Christians, misogynistic, homophobic, patriarchal Catholics, Evangelicals and Pentecostal. Who once they are naturalized wind up voting for American conservatism, just as they did in the last election.
Of all the states, Texas has the only identifiable Latino Communities and they voted for Trump and vote the Republican ticket, because it is conservative, meaning patriarchal, misogynistic, homophobic.
In fact Mayra Flores, rep from Texas 34,, is herself naturalize illegal immigrant and is also a rabid Right Winger,
What I am saying is that you can’t solve a problem, unless you correctly identify the problem but to date we limit our ability to identify the problem, because of ideology and political correctness.
This post is excellent, along with some others online today. The truth of the moment is bleeding and screaming truth for its life. "I can't breath" is a theme in expression of todays common man. Not just the black, or the critical thinking, or the foreign speaking, but the bottom 98%.
Why we are divided is part of the reason for the division, greed and monopoly using fear and hate as allies.
"Wake the Flock up" a song by the decades old songwrighter singer James Lee Stanley. Listen to it, share it, he is very happy for anyone doing that.
Greg, greed and monopoly are that which drives those that divide us. but we are divided because of things we believe and identify with, with things we want,things we need, things we fear.
Fears by and large are inculcated, learned and taught
Fears are based on the misunderstood or unknown, propaganda creates the misunderstood, and lies displace truth that illuminate. Keeping people uneducated keeps them ignorant to the light of truth. Monopolies create unbridled power and greed applies this power via lies and propaganda. This is how the monopoly divides US.
As others have said, change will only happen when the cost of loyalty/support for the Trump regime exceeds the cost of abandoning Trump. One of the simplest tools available to average Americans is to refuse to buy goods from corporate supporters of the regime. I am doing this as one person but would love to join a group doing this together, Chris. Do you participate in boycotts? Whose is leading in this?
Donald Trump has clung to power because of the unwavering loyalty of his base and their faith in the promises he made on the campaign trail. Millions of Americans who were frustrated with the political establishment bought into his message, believing that he would fight for working families and bring real change. The Republican Party has remained firmly behind him, not out of principle, but out of fear—fear that challenging Trump's grip on his coalition would cost them their own power and political futures.
Nearly two years later, those promises lie in ruins. The coalition that once seemed unstoppable is beginning to crack as more and more supporters realize that Trump's agenda has served primarily himself and his wealthy allies while ordinary Americans continue to struggle with rising costs, economic uncertainty, and shrinking opportunities. The working men and women who were promised prosperity have instead been handed excuses, distractions, and empty slogans.
For years, Republican leaders enabled Trump's excesses because they believed it would keep them in power. Now, voters are beginning to see the truth: the promises were never meant for them. As frustration grows and the coalition fractures, both Trump and the Republican Party may soon be forced to answer for the gap between what they promised and what they delivered when voters head to the polls in November.
Agree with you. But this assumes the midterms vote isn't rigged - as 2024 seems to have been (by Musk). Meanwhile taking action like Chris advocates guarantees success
i think that is our biggest problem with trumps constant bullshit about the electins being rigged. I am also afraid of his use of the Proud Boys and Oath keepings again.
There may have been a coalition, but the core of Trump's power is a cult, The cult is about 35% of the population and it is united behind one thing, not his personality, but owning the libs, That is why Trump and Hegseth have been laser focused on anti DEI and immigration.
I harken back to Chenoweiths 3.5% his cult is 35%
I don't think that Chenowith's 3.5.% takes into account, the immovable force of 35%.
What we are faced with is a violent civil war, the only reason we don't see more violence, is because they have surrogates ICE, FBI, acting in their stead. if the other 65% gets too rowdy, well not the full 65%, as most Americans are not moved, until they have no choice, we are looking at a mixed war, a war of the government against the people. in fact we are already there, LA, Minneapolis were command and control exercises.
In military speak, An exercise is training, primarily command and control, but also to iron out tactics, identify weak spots.
An operation is real world. I've been in and helped plan but exercises and operations,
I think that if trump and his bunch try to take over our election we may be at point where we will have to do more than go to court, but respond the way they have used the proud boys and the oath keepers. Not that I want to use violence, but masses out in the streets in real numbers may be necessary