CRITICAL SASS – Resistance and the 3.5% Engagement Rule

Here we are at a critical juncture in the history of our Democracy, where the dire threat to our cherished way of life cannot be denied. And we know exactly what and who we’re up against. 

It’s an aggressively insecure, temperament-of-a-two-year-old, wannabe dictator, enabled by an ignorant, vengeful constituency and a cadre of suck-ups in Congress. Together, they’re throwing a tantrum that’s brought our country to its knees. 

ILLUSTRATION: Violet de Torres

How do we stand up to such outrage? Stop this monster from cheating and intimidating his way to total fascist control.

By now we know very well the Crimbecile’s M.O. Among 
his tactics—drilled into him by his ruthless father and other mentors in megalomania—is, whenever challenged, you “double down.” Accuse others of the crime you’re about to commit. Counter criticism with twice the criticism; one lawsuit with two; threats of justice with promises of ruin.

It’s easy and, I guess, entirely human for rational people to 
respond to such aggressiveness defensively. It’s like someone’s broken into our home and is headed for our kids’ bedroom. Not the time for a measured response; not the time for reason. 

So, folks, we take the offensive. Fight fire with fire. And here’s how we do it: we launch our own doubling-down assault. 

        What does “engaging” that many 
        people look like?

THREE-POINT-FIVE TO TURN THE TIDE
For those of us not savvy to the workings of political influence, lacking the resources to purchase the ear of our Congressperson, and not comfortable with door knocking, the best way to go after a tyrant is to simply show up with our voices and placards in a good old-fashioned street protest.

PHOTO: Madison Badger Herald – Lizzy Larson

But protests don’t even start worrying corrupt politicians until they reach a critical mass. And what is that threshold? Research by the Carr Center's Erica Chenoweth posits that “No government can withstand a challenge of 3.5% of its population without either accommodating the movement or (in extreme cases) disintegrating.” *

So…three questions. First: what is 3.5% of the US population? A bit more than 12,000,000 of us.

Second: What does “engaging” that many people look like? I know of no better way than persuading them to take it to the streets.

Third: What will it take to reach that pivotal threshold? Every single one of us bearing witness to what our eyes and ears—and history—warn us is a full-on rush to fascism by the Trump regime. Each and every American who values freedom responding to the alarm. 

The good news is that we’re well on our way! 

  Imagine being part of the absolutely stupefying 
  crowds taking to the streets that day.

WE’RE GONNA NEED A BIGGER VOTE
The nationwide No Kings protests on June 14, 2025 saw somewhere between 4,000,000 and 6,000,000 Americans taking to the streets in 2,100 cities and towns coast to coast.

As impressive as it was to be among the multitude of protesters in St. Paul that day, I recall my clear-as-day reaction when I turned around and got my first good look at the size of the crowd: We’re going to have to at least double this…and maybe double it again.

So that’s the vision I’m promoting. At least 8,000,000 Americans showing up Saturday, October 18 to defy the goose-stepping thugs gutting our democratic institutions. A loud, clear, unified rejection of Trump’s reckless push to consolidate power.

What can each of us do to make October 18, 2025 the date history will come to recognize as the turning point in America’s rejection of fascism? First of all, we must simply imagine it, imagine being part of the absolutely stupefying crowds taking to the streets that day.

The we must talk it up, promote it on social media, make signs, include appeals in our email signatures, bring friends and neighbors with us to the event…and anything else we can think of to make our vision real.

For my own part, I take inspiration from the courage of that iconic—yet still-unidentified—Chinese man who stood up to a column of tanks in Tiananmen Square in 1989. We can do this!

PHOTO: New York Times

* From a BBC.com article by David Robson – 13 May, 2019

STAND BY – The War Between Trump’s Enablers and Moral Rebels

There’s an interesting and timely article in the current Amherst College alumni magazine. Psychology professor Catherine Sanderson explains the science of bystander inaction—why otherwise nice people fail to act when they witness something that, in other, clearer-headed circumstances, they might not allow.

Of course, the author cites last May’s police killing of George Floyd as an example. But it strikes me how this bystander-inaction science might also apply on a broader, societal level, accounting for the political debacle that's played out over the past four years.

Specifically, how millions of Americans have stood by and not lifted a finger as the leader they chose, and who represents them, allows thousands and thousands of their countrymen to die of COVID-19 while he's Twitter-twiddled his little thumbs. Not to mention as he's systematically trashed our democratic institutions and norms of civility.

 

 

The hands are those of a great nation, drowning while Trumpublicans turn away.

             Are there enough of them to
             bring down the massive, gaudy
             dam that’s been holding back
             America’s incredible potential
             for the past four years?

MORAL REBELS
Sanderson calls those who do step forward and act to thwart cruelty “moral rebels.” These, her study suggests, tend to be people with a more accurate sense of what others around them are thinking. And who, in many cases, grew up free of heavy-handed, authoritarian parental control.

So, who have the moral rebels been who've broken from the lock-step Trumpublican ranks to act with integrity and courage? Certainly not the likes of the McConnells, the Grahams, the Barrs, who are ultimately going down with the ship. And not those who've scrambled like rats to abandon ship at the last minute.

Nor those, like John Bolton or Michael Cohen, who've only shown up when they no longer had anything to lose.

No, the moral rebels were those folks, like Mitt Romney, John McCain or Christine Whitman, who did have something to lose and acted with decency anyway. We’ve witnessed, over the past year or so, more and more of these genuine American heroes, standing up to defend our time-honored values against an angry, vengeful bully.

There are many other pre-Trump Republicans who have consistently spoken out: Colin Powell, John Kasich, hundreds of former Justice Department officials, the former Republican strategists behind the Lincoln Project and many more.

We’ve witnessed more and more of these genuine American heroes, standing up to defend our time-honored values against a tyrant. An angry, vengeful bully who, literally since birth, has had nothing on his feeble little mind but feeding his insatiable ego.

LEAKS IN THE DAMN DAM
I wonder, on this, Election Day 2020: Have there been, among political leaders and the ranks of erstwhile Trump supporters, enough moral rebels who, like pinprick leaks in the massive, gaudy dam that’s been holding back America’s incredible potential for the past four years, have grown and joined and brought that dam down? We shall see…

 

SAVE OUR SHIP! – An Urgent Appeal to Select Members of Congress

This is a draft of the letter I intend to send to those Republican members of Congress still able 
to think and act in the best interests of this great nation. 

My goal—and yours, I fervently hope—is to rid our government of the pretender president, Donald Trump, and staunch, as quickly as possible, the hemorrhaging of this great nation's lifesblood: our uniquely-American values—generosity, optimism, vision, creativity, brotherhood ...and just simple decency—for which so many of our country-men and -women have fought 
and died.

Feel free to copy/paste any or all of this content. Maybe you prefer to pull a few quotes and build your own case around them. It's all good. All I ask is that, if you use something, please share the link to this page with as many of your like-minded friends and family members, through as many media, as you can. 

                                                  ~ // ~        ~ // ~       ~ // ~

Dear SENATORS: John McCain (AZ), Rand Paul (KY), Lindsey Graham (SC), Susan Collins (ME), Ben Sasse (NE), Jeff Flake (AZ)

Dear REPRESENTATIVES: Charlie Dent (PA), Walter Jones (NC), Speaker Paul Ryan (WI), Justin Amash (MI), Barbara Comstock (VA)
(These are some of the Congresspeople The Hill, The Washington Post and other media have identified as willing to confront Trump on at least some issues. You may know of other Republicans—perhaps those representing your state—you'd like to implore to reason.)

W ith the election of Donald Trump and his subsequent rush to consolidate power,  
a great tragedy is playing out on our national political stage. And you are in a unique position to thwart it.

I’m accused by friends who support Trump of simply poor sportsmanship—sour grapes, they say—for not just shutting up and taking it as they claim they had to do when Barack Obama was elected.

But this man is different. He has proven amply, through his well-documented comments and actions, that he is a bigot, a misogynist, a pathological liar and a boor. More importantly, he shows, every day, that he lacks the qualifications, knowledge, temperament and judgement to even approximate fulfilling the duties of the most powerful office in the world.

           He has lived and prospered by lawsuit, 
           and promises to govern the same way.

Even his one and only claim to competence, his success as a businessman, is a sham, given the roil of bankruptcies, lawsuits and, ultimately, cheated customers, suppliers and investors he leaves in his wake. He has lived and prospered by lawsuit, and promises to govern the same way—a distraction, to say the least, from the awesome responsibilities of this office.

Perhaps most perilous for the country, this brash pretender clearly shows every single clinical marker of a serious mental condition (narcissistic personality disorder). This utterly self-centered, thin-skinned, impulsive, aggressively insecure, delusional profile is typical of some of the most destructive despots in human history—men who throw not just their rivals, but their own countries and their own people under the bus to feed their insatiable need for attention.

Though elected with a significant minority of the popular vote, Trump already, in just the first few weeks of his presidency, has undermined most of my beloved homeland’s hard-won national values—qualities I’ve cherished and served to defend—like generosity, a just and prudent welcome to immigrants, celebrating diversity at home, an indomitable optimism, a can-do spirit of cooperation, a quiet strength, and a skillful exertion of our example and leadership around the world.

             trump has torn the still-gleaming crown from 
             Lady Liberty's head and stepped on it.

Trump’s insensitive, knee-jerk insults to other countries—including cherished allies—are already undermining our diplomatic and trade relationships with those nations, and threatening the delicate balance of world peace. And his avowed admiration for several of the world’s other despots—including Russia’s own narcissist, Vladimir Putin—sends a truly frightening signal of the president’s intentions.

We used to be a country roundly admired around the world—the much-coveted ideal of democracy. While this reputation has seen its share of tarnish in recent decades, Trump has torn the still-gleaming crown from Lady Liberty’s head and stepped on it. Apparently he favors a mantel of fear and hatred of our nation over one of respect.

Trump and his brazenly-stacked, titans-of-industry cabinet seem determined to simply turn off every moderating constraint on their greed. It is a corporate power play unique in American history. And Trump himself refuses either to divest of his personal business interests or to release his complete tax returns and prove his intention to put this country’s interests ahead of his own and those of his cronies.

           This will require the very best of you.

If not the most frightening implication of Trump’s incompetence, certainly the saddest for me is this: I pray that my grandchildren will not grow up wanting to emulate anything about this man.

Senator/Representative_________, you are in a unique position to literally save our great nation from a despot, one who, in stunning similarity to North Korean boy-dictator Kim Jong-un, has the emotional maturity of a five-year-old.

By continuing to call him out for his lies and excesses, by making the case for impeachment to any fellow Republicans still willing to face reality, by building a coalition of conscience, by communicating your concerns to your constituents and the American people, perhaps you can help turn the tide.

This will require the very best of you—your conviction, your eloquence, your courage, perhaps every dime of your political capital, and, most certainly, your heart and soul.

Please do not let this very small man go one step further in dragging this great nation down to his size!

Sincerely,