Not only can we win this. Organizers are training us how to do it.

So we had a really big protest and Trump is still in power. It’s hard to see how the No Kings protests — or even bigger ones — can topple this tyrant.

And, although they are a crucial component to our success, protests alone will never topple a tyrant. But in the context of a known, demonstrated and proven strategy, No Kings is the first step to ending fascism in America.

Why Civil Resistance Works

I attended the No Kings virtual meeting on Zoom yesterday. I watched with joy as they did everything right. They even began teaching why civil resistance works. Which it does.

Ask Hosni Mubarak, Slobodan Milošević, Ferdinand Marcos or Nicolae Ceaușescu.

Yes ordinary people depose their oppressors all the time. But to do so, they need to know how and they must care enough to do the work. It doesn’t require everybody. In fact, it typically only requires about 3.5% of the population to do it.

By some estimates, the number of protesters at the No Kings protests exceeded that number. If that’s true, we already have the number of people we need to get this done. Just to be safe, let’s make the next series of protests even bigger.

The No Kings call showed me what I’d suspected all along: organizers at Indivisible and Fifty Fifty One and other partners in the movement know what they are doing. They know how to win.

How I Stumbled Into This

As it turns out, I’d been reading and thinking about and studying movements and how they work (or fail) for some time. I was aware that I was ignorant in this area, and wanted to help end the climate crisis.

To be sure, even after this dictator is removed, we will still need to find a way to stabilize the climate — and our biosphere has been permanently damaged. We won’t fix it, but we can and must stop destroying it and fix whatever we can. I will never abandon this cause, but it’s clear to me that we must remove the tyrant to even start dealing with the climate.

I read a lot. Gandhi and King. Reading about movements in South Africa, Liberia, Serbia, Romania, The Philippines…everywhere! And I read books by activists and by academics.

Among those books was a rather dry volume called “Why Civil Resistance Works.” A slide of this book was put on the screen during the No Kings Zoom. This confirmed what I suspected. Organizers of this movement know how to win.

Which means that we have enough people and we are learning how to win and WE CAN WIN.

The Cliff Notes of Peaceful Revolution

You could study this forever and not understand it all. Believe me, I’ve been studying this for about two years and there’s always more to know. But we can win this by simply knowing enough.

No sensible action is too small to matter. But when more people do more, we win faster and more completely.

The core idea is this: Protests build the movement, showing everyone that there are a lot of us, that you are not alone, and that we are ready to act. This grows the resistance in size and motivates people to act.

Courage creates more courage. And our adversaries are liars and cowards because even they know that what they are doing is wrong and unpopular.

Indeed, one of the reasons why civil resistance works is that people are attracted to nonviolence and repulsed by violence. That’s why ICE terrorists are given large bonuses — they need to be bribed so they can ignore their consciences and tell themselves that the money is simply taking care of themselves and their families.

But they are betraying their families and their consciences. Nobody wants to be the bad guy. They must lie to themselves and to each other.

Truth sets us free. Truth builds big joyful crowds.

Our task is simple in theory but a bit tricky in practice. We need to weaken or remove the pillars of support that keeps the tyrant in power. This is often illustrated by a diagram of an old Greek edifice with a series of pillars labeled Business, Military, Universities, Courts, etc.

Whatever institutions or forces are required to keep a despot in power can be weakened. Important supporters can be weened away and this sets an example, and a trend.

One day, the slow-witted weak old fool who has been exercising power doesn’t have enough support. And he’s revealed to be a powerless old fool and he flees by helicopter — if he can.

Peaceful revolution is largely about relationships, positive relationships. Reach out to people who are part of the despot’s pillars of support (or potentially so.)

For example, I always talk to police. Now, in my city most police seem to be better than, say, the LA police (or at least the reputation of the LA police). But these are individual people, and when we reach out to police, or military, or even DHS or ICE (carefully!), we can weaken those pillars.

We must not attack police. It’s much better to bring coffee and donuts to their station and make friends. Friends don’t shoot friends.

We do need to interfere (again carefully) when the regime exercises brutality. For example, we must demand IDs and warrants from ICE when they try to kidnap people. As you might have noticed, we are doing a very impressive job of this. We must continue.

Don’t imagine this is futile. This DOES work. Not on every person every time. But more than enough to make the difference between freedom and tyranny.

Despots fall because, at first, a few supporters in various critically important institutions decide to side with The People. And then more follow, people who never liked the dictators but didn’t care enough to rock the boat. Eventually, those left still supporting the dictator aren’t enough.

Don’t imagine this is exceedingly difficult or impossible. Yes, it isn’t easy but it is very, very. doable. It happens all the time.

We have the numbers. We have the strategy. We have the passion. Let’s get to work. We have a tyrant to get rid of and a beautiful new civilization to build.

Visit: https://www.nokings.org/next