Organizing Blueprint to Kill MAGA (Step 3)
Support Democracy's Fighters
This is Step 3 in my six-part series on how to kill the MAGA movement. You can read the earlier articles here:
Donald Trump’s MAGA movement is a dangerous all-out assault on American democracy. It feeds on fear, lies, and the spinelessness of those who refuse to confront it head-on. Progressives can’t afford to sit idly by or be polite anymore. If we are serious about crushing this authoritarian wave, we need to defend where we must and attack where we can.
Some in the paid pundit-class, like James Carville (who even knew he was still alive, much less giving out “advice”), recommend that Democrats sit on their hands and let the GOP self-destruct:
“So the question is, how should Democratic politicians respond to this? And what I think they should do is what we call in rural America play possum. Just let it go,” Carville told Ari Melber on MSNBC.
“Don’t get in the way of it. Or as we like to say, don’t just stand there, do nothing. Let this germinate. We don’t need to get in front of it. This freight train is moving. Let’s just get out of the way. And then we’re going to have time. In the immortal words of Dalton in ‘Roadhouse,’ ‘Be nice until it’s time not to be nice.’ And that time is coming shortly.”
This is terrible advice. He wants us to sit on our asses waiting for the GOP to destroy themselves, while they forge ahead destroying America. Trump and Musk are solidifying their authoritarian control over the American government. It is not like the damage stops occurring just because the damage is also hurting MAGA voters and all we need to do is wait them out.
No. What progressives need now are fighters. We need politicians, leaders, and pundits who are bringing gasoline to this fire and pouring it on. We want the flames of the GOP’s internal chaos to burn as hot and as fast as possible.
Many Democratic politicians do not seem to be getting the message. Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer advises us to just wait. “Trump will screw up,” he told Semafor in an interview.
“We’re not going to fall for the Bannon ‘flood the zone,’” Schumer said in the article, referring to Trump ally Steve Bannon’s call for the President to blitz Democrats with orders and executive-branch maneuvers.
Do not fall for it, Chuck. Why should we let them get away with any of their plots? Who is going to pick and choose? Every single thing Trump and Musk does hurts someone in real life, in the real world.
It is unacceptable. It is immoral.
We need to fight, and fight hard, with every dissident weapon we have, and with absolutely no mercy.
It is too bad that some old-school Democrats have not gotten the message that the world has changed and the voters have changed. Progressives desperately want leaders who are fighters now because fighting tooth and nail against the coup is what works.
Do Progressives Really Want a Fight?
Do not take my word for it. Take note of what goes viral (hint: it is not the condescending platitudes of Chuck Schumer or James Carville). Here is a telling example: my Substack that you are reading right now is pretty small. Three weeks ago, I had only about 150 subscribers.
Then I came across a selfie video that Sen. Mark Kelly (Dem, AZ) had posted on X in which he said that he just took his last drive to work in his Tesla. He told us that he was selling it because “Elon Musk kind of turned out to be an asshole.”
I reposted that video on Substack Notes, because it is exactly the kind of message patriotic Americans need to send to the traitor Elon Musk. If you want to sabotage our democracy and blow up the Constitution, it is going to cost you.
That 72-second video really hit home. People loved a U.S. Senator saying out loud, in a calm, measured voice what we are all thinking: Yeah, Elon Musk IS an asshole. That video Note caused my Substack to blow up over the next week or so as thousands of people liked it and re-stacked it.
As you can see from the stats screenshot above, I gained 945 new subscribers from this video alone.1 But this is not about me or my subscriber numbers. The response to this viral video is indicative of what Progressives are desperately yearning for. People want leaders who will call out the hypocrisy and douchebaggery of Trump, Musk and all the rest of the oligarch billionaires who are ripping America off under the guise of fighting “waste fraud and abuse.”
The Bare Minimum
It is time for a new generation of American progressive leadership. At a minimum, here are three key principles that we should look for in our future leaders:
1. Do not submit preemptively
In Yale Professor Timothy Snyder’s words, “Do not obey in advance.”
Trump and Musk rely on people yielding to their influence before resistance can emerge. They issue threats of retribution and assert their dominance, anticipating that others, both Democrats and more moderate Republicans, will retreat or moderate their positions.
Trump uses Executive Orders in unprecedented ways to cow opponents into submission. Look at how many Democratic law firms have caved under his illegal EO’s blocking them from entering federal buildings, including courthouses, which makes it impossible for them to represent their clients. His illegal orders mean the firms stand to lose a lot of money so they acquiesce and cut a deal. It is shameful, but not wholly surprising. People have to eat.
Defiance in the face of this onslaught is imperative. Expose MAGA’s falsehoods, resist Trump’s and Musk’s coercion, and refuse to legitimize their assaults on the federal government, the integrity of the U.S. military, on voting rights, judicial integrity, free expression and a free press, and everything else that he is attacking.
Every concession that we grant now strengthens MAGA’s position later—do not offer it. Force them to take it from us, because at the very least, that exposes their true agenda and their lawlessness, even if the ignorant MAGA chuds applaud and do not realize that their own rights are also being stolen.
Likewise, call out the cowards on all sides that cut and run without fighting. We need to know who has America’s back and who does not.
2. Now is not the moment for indecision.
Ambiguity or appeals to nuance might appear thoughtful or measured but those are luxuries we no longer have. Trump clearly is not interested in discourse. His sole goal is unlimited domination over the nation and more importantly over our finances and tax dollars so that he can loot us to make himself and his billionaire pals even richer.
Progressive leaders who do not unequivocally denounce Trump’s unconstitutional or illegal actions or Musk’s disinformation are not merely cautious, they are enablers. If clarity on the threat we face is absent, participation in the struggle is absent as well.
Nevertheless, we can respect the political reality of elections. Politicians in red or purple states and congressional districts cannot be as vociferous or as direct as those in solid blue areas. We cannot let anyone completely off the hook, however. At the very least, every vote a Democrat casts must be on the side that protects and strengthens Democracy.
Look at how many Democratic Senators voted to confirm incompetent Trump appointees. That has to stop. Let your politicians know where you stand and what you expect from them.
3. Abandon notions of bipartisanship and “common ground”
Trump has no interest in collaboration. His goal is authoritarian supremacy. Extending goodwill to those who supported an insurrection, who endorse the ongoing coup is not virtuous, it is capitulation. We should only support leaders who discard the false illusions of harmony with would-be dictators and are solely focused on America’s enemies’ defeat instead.
These three principles are the bare minimum that we should demand from our leaders to continue receiving progressive voter and financial support. Think of these as the foundation upon which everything else is built.
We need courageous progressive leaders who will engage aggressively and strategically. I talked more about what elected Democrats can do in How to Fight and Defeat MAGA (Part 2). Please take a look and then hold your elected officials accountable.
What You Can Do Now
Support leaders who understand the urgency, who will rise up, speak plainly, and fight relentlessly for all Americans. Pay attention to which leaders are speaking out and which are silent or even tacitly complicit. Support primary opponents in the 2026 midterms who show the courage that today’s moment in history demands.
Be vocal and be loud. Go to Congressional town halls and local council or school board meetings. Go to #HandsOff demonstrations. Identify progressive fighters and amplify their message through your social networks.
Trump, Musk and the rest of the MAGA coup-plotters assume that our capitulation is inevitable and imminent. They are wrong.
We absolutely will not “play possum” and breathlessly hope that the GOP voters will eventually eat their own faces.
We will fight them with every fiber of our beings. We must and we will persist until all of MAGA is defeated.
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☮️ Peace ☮️
The Note actually got 10 more “Likes” just in the couple of minutes it took me to write the paragraphs in between the video and the screenshot. PEOPLE WANT FIGHTERS!
"We need to fight, and fight hard, with every dissident weapon we have..."
Yes. And the "we" means us. No mention of the two most effective weapons we, the people, have and should have been using several years ago: our labor and our dollar.
This is our government and it is incumbent on us to take our country back. The Dems sold us out decades ago. They are the controlled opposition. They are NOT coming to save us.
Democracy is not - and never has been - a spectator sport.
#GeneralStrikeNOW and #Boycott all major brand companies and their subsidiaries, all major social media platforms and shopping sites.