Checking Donald Trump’s drive toward authoritarian control of the US Government depends ultimately on Democrats winning a majority of seats in the House of Representatives in the November 2026 election, and then actually seating that majority in January 2027, a year from now.
These are two separate things, and in 2020 Trump focused on disrupting the latter, the actual transfer of power. He appears to be focused on the same strategy for 2026/27, with more time and resources to set up pretexts.
A Democratic majority in the Senate as well would be fantastic, but more difficult to achieve. Nevertheless, it should be pursued since seats gained in 2026 improve the odds of achieving a majority in 2028.
Trump understands the stakes, and is pursuing his agenda at full speed, looking for ways to corrupt and discredit the November election, purging career Federal employees in favor of loyalists, standing up a violent domestic paramilitary force answering to him rather than the Constitution, and demanding control of elections, contra the Constitution.
For anyone who fears that Trump could break American democracy entirely, betting everything on Democrats gaining control of the House of Representatives next January is a very risky strategy. However, it has proven difficult to crystallize a separate strategy to blunt the effects of Trump’s rampage in the interim and reduce the risk that he will successfully prevent the swearing-in of a Democratic majority in the next Congress.
Currently, the go-to firewall appears to be lawsuits, in an environment where Trump has appointed over 30% (and rising) of all Federal judges, including a third of the Supreme Court, and has utterly corrupted the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security. Moreover, he has often shown contempt for court rulings and failed to comply with those he doesn’t like. The courts have no effective recourse when this happens.
Public marches and demonstrations have also been remarkably large, but thus far have not slowed Trump’s progress toward authoritarian control.
So what else can be done?
Start with this question: what might persuade a handful of Republicans in the House to join Democrats to impeach several of Trump’s most execrable underlings? Pam Bondi, Kash Patel, Stephen Miller, JD Vance, Marco Rubio, Kristi Noem and Tulsi Gabbard all may have committed high crimes and misdemeanors in office, and they are even more unpopular than Trump himself.
If such impeachments were achieved in the House, what might persuade enough Republican Senators to either vote to convict or at least abstain from voting? Conviction requires two-thirds of those who actually vote, so Republicans who can’t quite bring themselves to vote for conviction could still help the cause by abstaining.
If, for example, 15 Republican Senators did not vote, it would take 2/3 of 85 to convict, which is 57. There are 47 Democratic and Dem-adjacent Senators, so it would take just 10 Republicans to actually vote with them to convict. 15 not voting plus 10 voting to convict is less than half of the current number of Republican Senators.
At present, of course, this scenario is a fantasy. Yes, there appear to be cracks showing in Trump’s iron control of Congressional Republicans, but the cracks so far are short and shallow. What would it take to move enough Republican Representatives and Senators to make such an impeachment scenario realistic?
Drawing 5 million people into the streets for No Kings marches, as remarkable as these marches are, hasn’t been enough. Substack pundit Robert Hubbell suggests that 50 million Americans in the streets would probably drive a lot of Republicans to jump ship. That seems plausible, but 50 million is a very tall order, a bit over one seventh of the total US population, equal to the entire population of South Korea or Spain.
There’s a meme going around that turning out 3.5% of the population for a cause is a kind of tipping point. In the US, that would mean turning out about 12 million people, roughly double the last No Kings march. Indivisible, a key organization behind those marches, warns that the 3.5% magic number doesn’t refer to how many people can be turned out for a few hours once every few months, but how many people are working in a committed and ongoing way to achieve change. Let’s all turn out on March 28th and try to create the largest turnout in American history, but don’t expect it to work miracles.
Perhaps, though, it wouldn’t be necessary to turn out people at that level everywhere at once. How about a march on Washington DC that dwarfs the great marches of the civil rights and Vietnam War eras? What if enough people were willing to come from all over the country to overwhelm the District of Columbia while Congress was in session? What if the crowd stuck around to keep the pressure on Congress day after day, week after week?
Such a crowd would make it impossible for Senators and Representatives to travel between home and work without squeezing past thousands of citizens from their home states and districts, looking them in the eye, and demanding that, say, Kristi Noem, Stephen Miller and Pam Bondi be impeached for the sins of ICE and the coverups of those sins? Hell, even John Roberts might notice. To keep the pressure on would require generating rolling waves of replacement demonstrators, so that the crowds would remain giant for weeks, and Congressional “business as usual” would be impossible.
The District’s population is about 700,000, in a metro area of about 6.4 million. Bringing, say, a million or more people into the city and keeping them there for a month would have a pretty dramatic impact. For reference, King’s famous speech in 1963 drew about 250,000, and the Women’s March in 2017 drew an estimated 470,000. Those were one day events: what I am proposing could last for a month, more like a non-violent version of the EuroMaidan protest in Kviv, which waxed and waned for roughly three months in 2013-14.
That one, of course, resulted in pitched battles, barricades, the deaths of dozens of protesters, and the eventual downfall of the pro-Russian Yanukovych government. Could we do it without the bloodshed?
This too sounds like a fantasy, but ICE might be making it possible. People probably won’t fill the streets of DC for a month or two to save Greenland and Venezuela from Trump, or to protect the Chair of the Federal Reserve, or to improve health care, to argue for affordability, or even to shake loose the Epstein files.
But they just might turn out in response to ICE’s massive and accelerating display of brutality aimed at anyone opposing Trump. The administration seems committed to ramping up with a huge budget, a frantic recruitment campaign aimed at bottom feeders, and maximalist defense of the worst ICE behavior by Trump, Vance, Bondi, Noem, Miller, et al.
Pulling this off would be a massive logistical challenge, but I don’t think it would be beyond the reach of an organization such as Indivisible, if founders (and DC residents) Ezra Levin and Leah Greenberg embraced the concept. It could not be branded as a Democratic Party action (Dems are even less popular than Trump) and would need to draw a crowd that really reflected mainstream voting America, not just a collection of performatively left-ish factions.
It would require figuring out how to provide food, shelter, safety, mobility and sanitary facilities on an unprecedented scale, probably outside the District of Columbia in the relatively blue states of Maryland and Virginia. Imagine tent cities, soup kitchens, shuttle buses, infirmaries, concerts, and even churches.
Imagine Woodstock and Burning Man, but sensibly clothed. Imagine Martin Luther King’s I Have a Dream speech in 1963, and Marion Anderson singing My Country ‘Tis of Thee at the Lincoln Memorial on Easter Sunday, 1939. Imagine echoes of past greatness and historical importance. This would be riveting video, to say the least.
All of this would force Republicans to choose between impeaching three of the most disliked people in America… or embracing and defending them in an election year, while crowds of implacable constituents surrounded their homes and offices.
Even if a gathering like this did not immediately force Bondi, Miller, and Noem from their jobs and then make it impossible for Trump to replace them with equivalent toadies, it might make a Blue Tsunami in November more likely, and make Republican Senators and Representatives more willing to break with Trump from then until November, thereby at least slowing his shambolic march to the dark side.
I think something like this might be a better use of the skills developed and resources collected by Indivisible than simply continuing the string of decentralized demonstrations, as good as those are. Indivisible was founded to support hyperlocal activism, so this would be a shift in focus, but the breadth of their local efforts to date would be a strong foundation for a national gathering. Indivisible isn’t the only option, but it has proven adept at bringing other groups along, and it has been disciplined at not becoming just another of the progressive groups—it focuses on broad appeal.
Timing is critical. Congress takes an August recess starting in July and returning in September, after which is too late. The weather in the winter is a major impediment, and in any case there’s not enough time to organize anything this big and long-lasting for February or March.
That leaves a window from, say, mid-April to mid-June. Since Congress breaks for July 4th and is often gone a lot after that, scheduling this gathering too close to late June risks letting them escape out of town early. Late May and early June are typically periods devoted to getting a lot done before the recess, so maybe the event could be scheduled for mid-April to mid-May (and longer if needed), with intent to dominate the Congressional agenda and force decisions. Prying Bondi, Miller, and Noem out of their spider holes by Independence Day has a certain appeal.
This strategy depends on these seven assumptions being true:
- It’s critically important to check Trump’s power sooner than January 2027 when a Democratically controlled House of Representatives could be sworn in.
- ICE and CPB, by the brutality of its agents, is creating an opportunity to motivate many more citizens to take substantial action, and DOJ is adding fuel to the fire by its corrupt protection of ICE’s violent and illegal actions.
- Organizations such as Indivisible can actually organize and execute something this and complex on a very tight timetable, despite a hostile federal administration that is entirely willing to break the law.
- Targeting Bondi, Miller & Noem for impeachment would be an easier lift for Congress than targeting Trump himself.
- A massive and ongoing assembly of citizens in Washington DC could persuade enough Republicans to break with Trump to make such impeachments of noxious underlings possible.
- The fundamentally peaceful nature of the event could be sustained, despite the likelihood that the Trump administration will try to force it to become violent.
- Even if this project fell short of impeachment, conviction and removal, it might scare/shame Republicans into breaking with Trump more often and more substantially from May until the November election and January swearing-in, thereby reducing the risk that Trump will successfully subvert the election.
What do you think, Post Alley readers? How plausible are each of the assumptions? Does such a massive gathering seem achievable? How likely is it to succeed in producing impeachments and convictions? How likely is it to influence Republicans to break more with Trump even if impeachments are not achieved? Would there be a better goal than impeaching these odious underlings?
Does Indivisible seem like a good choice to take the lead? What other organizations might be capable of it? Would this be the best use of the very considerable resources it would require? What else would be better? Where would the money come from to pay for all this on a tight timeline?
What are the biggest risks of trying something like this? Would Trump bring thousands of ICE stormtroopers into the city to turn a peaceful protest into something which looks like a riot on TV? How about bringing in the MAGA faithful as he did in 2020, when he unleashed them on Congress? How would that play to the public outside of DC and to elected officials, specifically Republicans? Would DOJ attempt to arrest and prosecute organizers, donors, etc? Would it attract too many people eager to turn it un-peaceful? What other risks are there?
The Arab Spring (remember Cairo’s Tahrir Square?) was consequential, but in the end did not create a string of liberal democracies across the Middle East and North Africa. Some of the Color Revolutions in Central Europe succeeded, some did not. The goal of an ongoing EuroMaidan-style gathering in Washington would not be to overthrow our government, but to restore our democracy. Could it work? Anybody have a better idea?
Comments encouraged.
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I’m in! I think Indivisible is a logical starting point. While Noem et al. might be more feasible targets, inspiring the masses could require a larger goal, such as another Trump impeachment. Aim high, and then some of the underlings might be offered on a sacrificial platter.
Agreed, Americans are going to need to get off their butts, not just complain on-line. Trying to reason with King George did not work, nor with Jefferson Davis, nor with the Axis powers.
‘There is no longer a Democrat Party. It is now an unapologetically neo-socialist Jacobin movement.’ — Victor Davis Hanson
‘Chaos strategy’ is the radical Left’s mainstay now — Democrats, with nefarious intent, seek to take our republic down.
https://amgreatness.com/2025/11/06/does-the-democrats-chaos-strategy-work/
All
Bot alert! Inoperative link with virus warning from Norton.
“Beware of bots posting defective and nefarious crud.”
— Archangelo P. Spumoni
There never was a Democratic party – that’s GOPSpeak for the Democratic party.
Thanks for this, Tom. It calls to mind what I thought was your very good proposal for an open primary process for the Dem’s in summer of 2024. Would that it had happened!
As to a month long spring event . . . I personally have no idea if Indivisible has this kind of capacity/ leadership. I would be more interested in the focus being insuring the legitimacy of the 2026 elections, but not sure how to translate to that end. It would be essential, but difficult, to keep such a demonstration peaceful. My thoughts.
Thanks Tony. I wish the Dems had done that too! I read today in Wired a report on the frantic effort by the GSA to rent office space for ICE/CBP in hundreds of locations all across the country, in addition to the warehouses they’re renting for detention centers. Perhaps this will energize more local responses such as happened in Minnesota.
Who said, “You can’t arrest all the people all the time”?
Must be in front of Congress. The fault is theirs. Until Trump we pretty much functioned by gentleman’s agreement. We thought norms were laws. Trump disabused us of that provincial notion. It is our Congresses responsibility to get real. Bondi should be held in contempt of Congress. Resistance must begin locally as it did in Minneapolis. There was a big win there. Congress must, like the people of Minneapolis, take a stand.
Agree Michael, Congress is the focus. Specifically a relatively small number of Republican Representatives and Senators. Whether a “Maidan” like this is the best way or not, the real critical problem to be solved is how to peel away enough Rs in Congress. Heather Cox Richardson calculates that 16 would do it, across both Houses.
Something like this needs to happen – making a compelling case here.
There might be some wishful thinking on what it will take, though. As bad as the ICE thing is, I suspect it doesn’t upset that many people, that much – they’re willing to say they disapprove, but dropping everything and going to DC to live in tents for a month, they aren’t there yet. America has been through lots of elections, you know, we’ll be OK don’t worry.
There needs a good story that puts it all together, for everyone to see so that everyone really gets it. But honestly … I doubt it can be done. People are going to have to see it, to believe it. From there, it will be ugly, but it’s like the substance abuse story, some people may be able to dodge the bullet, but too many have to hit the bottom first. When we get there, we’ll find out what Americans are made of.
I just don’t or can’t see a pretty resolution to this….so many demons have been released from the bag you cant ask them politely to get back in…..theres too many of the wee fuckers….unless…
750,000 turn out for a Seahawks parade. 50,000 for the last No Kings. Just sayin’.
Thanks Spider. Maybe a sports-themed mass demonstration?
Trump
Could shut down the Dc airports because of “terror” threats, slow down TSA check-ins, close roads last minute, etc. One centralized location is much easier to defend. Regionalized or local actins are much harder to defend. 1) we should have a nationwide read-in of the constitution on 6/4abd focus on being American/following the law. 2) A week without credit cards can disrupt the financial industry and show immediate power. 3) think of how to reach those who don’t read newspapers . Billboards, music radio stations, soap operas, reality tv. 4) Stop focusing on concepts and focus on the concrete. 5) Focus on rural parts of the country with closing of hospitals, food benefits, inflation, using Christian terminology like “Charity” “family” etc. 6) Focus on the impact of decisions (benefits not features) Not suspension of habeus corpus, by your neighbors are being locked up and held in secret prisons. 7) Go Home. Visit the towns where you were raised. Talk to those people. Call the senators/reps in your own districts. Even consider living there for months and changing your voter registration.
Stop thinking of what makes US feel powerful. Focus on the rest of the country. Focus words on those that impact those who have yet to join us.
A huge immediate value of big marches is that they supply the feckless politicians in Washington DC with the backbone to oppose Trump. This applies to both Democrats and Republicans. Democrats are not intrinsically nobler and braver than Republicans. They have simply been under less pressure. The threat of being primaried from the right has forced recalcitrant Republicans to conform to the Trump line. Massive protests help assure them that the MAGA wall is beginning to cave.
For their part, Senate Democrats have been disturbingly opportunistic and accommodating in previous budget deadline showdowns, resisting Trump initially but caving under persistent pressure. But in the current ICE standoff some of the weakest have suddenly become quite militant. Why? They see that the opinion polling is now strongly on their side. Large protests would further buttress their courage.
The deeper and more difficult problem might actually be upgrading the quality of the entrenched Democratic political class. If people come to despise Trump, that doesn’t automatically mean that they now suddenly love the Democrats. Nor should they. The elected Democrats in Washington DC are mostly warmed over bureaucratic bean counters. They may well be decent souls, but they are overwhelmingly a cautious and uninspiring lot. They are saying all the right things now because the right things currently poll well. But when the polling shifts back, so will they. It is in their DNA. Many need to be replaced, and the revulsion against Trump likely will provide a rare opportunity to get that done.
Here’s another idea in the category of “what can we do beyond ‘No Kings'”, from Scott Galloway: selectively stop using services from certain tech giants whose stocks make up a huge share of the S&P 500, and whose CEOs have slavishly courted Trump. A relatively small hit to their growth rate can trigger a big Wall Street reaction, and Trump historically is sensitive to that.
https://medium.com/@profgalloway/resist-and-unsubscribe-aa322e4ff0db
Probably not coincidentally, the EU is pushing a breakup with US tech and finance. A lot of this is about business software that most of us don’t use. The only name I really recognize among the speculated alternatives is LibreOffice.
The finance breakup is another parallel – they’re concerned about what could happen if EU or members were cut off from e.g. Visa, as I understand Russia was, so they’re working on ways to do commerce without. Here? A big card boycott would probably be noticed.
Meanwhile in Georgia (the country, not the state), daily marches continue in the capital against Putin’s efforts to pull Georgia entirely back into Russian control.
https://substack.com/@reallyamerican/note/c-214620371?r=4x9gc
Overall Goal: Assure Massive Democratic Blue Wave in Nov. 2026 Midterms & Seating of Democrats in January 2027
Strategies:
– Weaken Business Support for Trump Regime and Republicans
— Resist and Unsubscribe from Big Tech per Scott Galloway (see above)
— Spending Strike – till Big Business renounces Trump (buy local, Costco …)
— Focused Strike (e.g. Apple Inc. till they fire CEO Tim Cook for enabling Trump, others?). Apple CEO Tim Cook has enabled Trump with millions in donations and oversaw millions in Apple donations for destruction of the People’s East Wing of the White House. Tim Cook’s groveling before this corrupt, lawless Trump is reputational damage to Apple’s global customer base and workforce.
-Shift Neutral & Passive Defenders of Democracy to Active Defenders of Democracy
— Support Movement Voter Project, Common Power, Environmental Voter Project … to organize and mobilize in key battleground states
— Social Media, Post Card & Phone Bank Campaigns Targeting Non-Voters / Independent Voters.
— Wear Paperclips with Targeted Messaging. https://www.communitiesrising.us/paperclip-resistance
I appreciate the thoughtful responses here. Thank you all!
I support and sympathize with your vision of an Occupation of Washington by citizens astutely opposed to the rampages of Trump and his Maga minions. It is an ambitious proposal that should be seriously considered by all who want to counter the authoritarian excesses of this most despicable administration.
Recall the Poor People’s Campaign initiated by Martin Luther King in 1968. That righteous effort was thwarted from the start by his hideous assassination on April 4th of that year. MLK’s vision was to bring the impoverished pilgrims who ventured to the country’s Capitol together with the burgeoning Peace movement of that time. In unity they would create a presence and stay put until the Congress would end that malicious and wasteful war and turn the nation’s attention and resources to addressing the gross social and economic problems afflicting the country. With the loss of MLK and the challenges and daily work required to maintain Resurrection City–the tent city that was the residence of the many poor folks who had flocked to D.C. to support the campaign–the admirable effort came to an end.
Revitalizing such a campaign today is worth serious consideration. Reverend William Barber and the New Poor Peoples Campaign have picked up the banner felled decades ago and have been at work during recent years to reinvigorate such a vision. It would seem that any conscientious program to harness the widespread discontent against Trump and Maga would do well to partner with Barber and others with him who have been trying to ignite such a coordinated movement.
I have no illusions about the challenges and difficulties that abound in getting more citizens involved and active. Educating, organizing, and especially sustaining ongoing conscientious and effective political action is not something easily or casually achieved. However it would seem that the outright, and even murderous, brutality displayed by paramilitary members of ICE and CPB have caught the attention and concern of citizens who have been otherwise politically obtuse or indifferent. It is important to bring them into the Resistance.
While future strategies are pondered and thoughtfully planned, it is important that we make the No Kings March next month bigger than the last two. Those of us who cherish freedom and democracy must continue reaching out to family, friends, acquaintances, and anyone willing to engage on the exigent issues facing our communities and our nation.
One thing to consider: Every Friday for two hours starting at 11:30am, some of us have been gathering to demonstrate peacefully in front of the Federal Building. We sing, wave signs, hear speakers, and stand in solidarity with old friends and new. Many drivers in the cars headed south on Second Avenue honk their horns and wave in support and appreciation for our presence on the street. All are welcome to join us.
Thanks Tom, for your commitment and insights. Carry on!
Mass demonstrators are sprinters, not distance runners because they have real lives. Organizers of a million people for even a one-day event have the Herculean task of convincing people to carve out a couple of days from their jobs, from their daily lives, from supporting their families to travel, stay, and take part in the event.
The arguments here for what’s needed are compelling, but there’s simply no way to achieve and sustain the collective action required.
It doesn’t have to be the same people day after day. It could be like a river where the water is different every minute, but the river endures. Consider the color revolutions which featured ongoing huge crowds in the national capitols of post Soviet republics. In Georgia right now, large daily marches against Russian corruption of their government have been going on for about 450 days
Modern information technology can be used to, in effect, create a new flash mob every day, indistinguishable from one group staying many days. I honestly don’t know if this is achievable, but wanted to get responses to the idea, which is happening!
Invent the mob. AI to the rescue. Intro with that George Will rap that was AI generated with a follow-up mass protest. Put MAGAns on the back foot.