Robert MacNeil Christie, Author

Political power disintegrates when the people withdraw their obedience and support.

~ Gene Sharp

The Musk’s hyper-tech-bro ruffians storm-trooping through the federal government has moved as fast as phantom fairy dust from the Wicked Witch of the West. The initial response of widespread protest has moved fast too, but not nearly fast enough to have a significant impact, other than by increasing awareness on the part of so many Americans who had imagined that It Can’t Happen Here. Sinclair Lewis had it right. Although the language of his 1935 novel now seems outdated, even awkward, the message is right on target.

However, that is no longer the question. Now, the question is a much bigger one: now that the autocratic attempt is well underway, how can a deeply divided (or so we are told) nation come together to rise up and resist the would be king to be president for life of the shambles he is creating? How do we resist and overcome a narcissistic politicized sociopath and a deranged super-rich techno-theocratic “richest man in the world,” who imagines himself and his cronies escaping to Mars once he has completed his ‘cost-cutting’ demolition of the government that made him so many of his billions? Well, one thing we know for sure, we can’t do it alone. The people have spoken through Tesla’s 71% decline in profits, but that is not enough.

Illusions and Facts About the Nature of Political Power.

Conventional political theory talks about the power of the state residing in its monopoly of force, its control of most of the means of violence, from the least ranked soldier to the most powerful nuclear bomb. Well, that is only partially and not always true.

It has long been recognized that the use of violence is the most inefficient way to exercise power. That, of course, does not mean that it will not be used by those who prefer it or by those who have lost all other means of exercising power. Gene Sharp has spent most of his life studying the use of violent and non-violent means of exercising or resisting political power, and also overcoming it. He has studied the theorists and practitioners of exercising control over others throughout history. Not everything you read in the political science journals, if you do, or in the newspapers, is true.

In many situations throughout history, under particular conditions, maintaining or overcoming power, especially when power is abused or exceeds the tolerance of the target of the exercise of power. Some of the nation’s biggest and most prestigious universities have already folded under threats from Trump to take away their non-profit status as well as numerous contracts and grants.

Harvard, the most prestigious and oldest, and with the largest endowment and therefore ability to stand up to the pressure, refused to be cowed. Its president rejected the outrageous demands, which amounted to being required to submit to Trump’s oversight of everything from faculty hiring and student admissions to curriculum (by a man who hides his academic failures), to restricting freedom of speech in an institution dedicated to open discussion of everything.

What Is To Be Done?

That always seems to be the question. Where should we go from here? We face multiple converging catastrophic crises and we have so little time and we control so few resources to take corrective actions. That is why we need a clear picture of how all these severe situations relate to one another in order to set priorities and form strategies. There are many single crises, each of which deserve our full attention, but we must consider how they fit into the Big Picture, or all is lost.

We face interconnected crises, but despite the urgent importance of each one, some, if unresolved, will prevent or defeat progress on others. First and foremost, if the autocratic attempt is allowed to continue, then most efforts to mitigate the accelerating climate/ecological destabilization of the Earth System, will be stifled and the opportunity to stave off environmental tipping points to widespread chaos and collapse will fail.

Not only that, as if it were not enough, efforts to improve the dwindling store of human compassion and to form a more just society, which are already being crushed, will fail. The dismantling of government agencies and programs meant to achieve some measure of diversity, equity, and inclusion of all—elements of any good society—is well on its way. These values have been denigrated as week attributes of cultural “losers” by the racist narratives of the white nationalists disguised as purveyors of “efficiency.”

The direct flaunting of the perverse oppressive and anti-constitutional actions of the American neo-fascists in control of the executive branch, has become a badge of honor to those who prefer to dominate instead of cooperate. The hatred of the many who are defined as ‘subhuman’ and not “real Americans,” by these barbarians drives their nihilist obsession with power over everything no matter its value.

Under these circumstances, the question of how to resist becomes paramount. History has some lessons for us. However, these are very different times. The debate between those who would promote violent resistance to oppose the violent autocrats and those who argue for non-violent action to resist the move toward autocracy continues in the abstract, while the fascist band plays on. What must be considered from a practical perspective is what forms of resistance can actually work, and what gestures are self-defeating.

Clearly, despite the fact that there are about two guns for every person in America, that most gun owners hold several guns and many Americans have none, and further that a large minority of gun owners lean toward an authoritarian form of government, the current dismemberment of the federal complex of institutions and programs that support citizens is hitting the right wingers just as hard as it is disrupting the lives of everyone else. Nevertheless, armed resistance to the current Trump coup seems beyond imagination.

Never mind that the MAGA’s are far more well armed than the majority. Trump has fired most of the core generals including the Chief of Staff, leaving the general officer corps far from clear as to its commitment to the Constitution versus commitment to an authoritarian imagination. We just don’t know yet whether we will be able to count on the military hierarchy to defend the Constitution and democracy as strongly as General Mark Millie did toward the end of Trump 1.0.

What Do History and Collective Behavior Tell Us?

Societal crises have evolved in multiple ways in history. The crises that were ‘resolved’ via armed violence resulted in collapse far more often than those resolved by nonviolent means of taking power from tyrants. At the same time ultra-billionaires are planning fortified cities of refuse from the world they have created, in their delusions of end-times fascism. As Ollie North once referred to someone during his testimony at the Watergate hearings, these are “loose cannons on the quarterdeck” of the ship of state. By applying complexity science to hundreds of societies in history, Peter Turchin found that more often than not, societies in which leaders and people transformed their institutions and practices in response to catastrophic crises, came out ahead on the other side and those whose crises devolved into violence collapsed as a result.

As the Nazis discovered during their occupation of Russia and Ukraine, it is very difficult to exercise control of a society without at least passive compliance, no less cooperation of most of the population. If active resistance is widespread, the control of political power is all but lost. It is noteworthy in this regard that the first issue of a Norwegian illegal resistance newspaper under the Nazi occupation, stated that, “…a system which builds on hate, injustice and oppression never can last.” (Sharp, 1980: 47)

The underlying principle here and in all situations involving the control of political power, especially under conditions of dictatorial abuse, oppression, and violence, is that political power is not something the ruler possesses; it is a relationship between the ruler and those ruled. That relationship has many elements, all of which vary from one situation to the next. There is no simple rule to apply. We must assess the situation and determine, as always with complex systems, the best point of intervention in the complex system of political hierarchy and power.

In considering the ongoing MAGA coup today, it is clear that some form of mass civil action is necessary now. It must include especially persons in positions of societal or cultural authority—such as the president of Harvard who has stepped up as a righteous defender of the constitution and the ideals of education who lead local school districts, etc. Others, such as the partners in major law firms, who have so far mostly cut deals with the man known best for throwing partners under the bus when he has gotten what he wants from them, must step up and enable the less brave to follow a path of resistance. With sufficient uprisings and passive refusals, and other tactics writ large, the bullies—who are all cowards at heart—may be forced to retreat. Powerful social movements have often begun with a few and snowballed into the many, and that is where the power to control political power lies.

These comments, of course, barely scratch the surface. We need to get down in the weeds to work out many integrated paths of resistance to the autocratic overthrow of the Constitution and establishment of another dictatorship modeled on Trump’s idols, the ruthless dictators around the world.