What Does Resistance to Trump Look Like? A Few Ideas
Until proven otherwise, we have to work from the assumption that the situation with Trump really is as dangerous and over the top outrageous as it appears to be. Obviously we don’t want violence. It wouldn’t work anyways. I really think that our best bet is to essentially make the country ungovernable. Clog up and overwhelm the system at every turn. It’s essentially what Trump did – he just created such a steady stream of outrageous behavior and scandal that it overwhelmed the system and it essentially ceased to function. (Not that it was all that functional to begin with.)
But I’m sure that we have plenty of lawyers with more student loans than clients in this country. If every lawyer who made less than $100k a year found an excuse to file a challenge or complaint against the Trump administration per month, it would completely overwhelm the system and force a crisis that needs to be dealt with. If the way it gets dealt with doesn’t suit our liking, we find new ways to make the system unworkable or disrupt it whenever possible.
If every time Trump went everywhere, police were forced to drag away thousands of protesters just to let traffic pass, that would get old and expensive really quick. We have a lot of jails in this country, but not that many. And if every single protester fought any charges, that too would clog the court system enough to make it unworkable. I mean, the whole things’ already a mess. And the more everyday people hear from their friends and neighbors how they were treated by police and how dysfunctional the system is, the more believable that there’s a problem that needs fixing.
We can be more bold about drawing people into situations which need to be addressed. People do respond to peer pressure and if you see something wrong happening – some sort of abuse or bullying – don’t just confront it.Rally a few onlookers to help you step in and confront the situation. If it involves a cop, ask several people to stop and video tape it. Discuss whether you can intervene safely. Get trained in non-violent resistance. There are training sessions being put on all over the country. Look it up.
We need to be creative. Think Hogan’s Heros style mischief making. Disruptive rather than destructive. And we need to be committed. If GOP legislators could refuse to do their job and cooperate with Obama for 8 years without breaking, we the people should be able to refuse to cooperate with some shit we didn’t even agree to.
