How Trump Lost His Grip on a Nation
a run-through
T-shirts available for purchase from the National Archives store.
Dear Readers,
Sometimes it helps me to think things through. This letter is my attempt to think through what victory might look like.
But please share YOUR own ideas of how it might go down—in the comments, in an email, or really with anybody on our side.
Love,
Emily
First, Republican politicians are pressured to get real.
Follow me here: If the courts’ current firmness combined with public coaxing campaigns inspire non-brain-dead Republicans in the Congress to push back on the Trump administration’s lane swerves, then the bad guys will be left with only verbal ugliness and lies and the power to use military and ICE physical power illegitimately, which will lead to terrible injustices and the terrible optics that come with that injustice. The military overreach will lead more and more Americans to wake up and start to fear for their own liberty.
Here are some letters I’ve written to Republicans in the past. Note the dulcet tone. And some more letters and postcards I’ve sent to Republicans.
Full list of House GOP, with links to bios and contact info.
Article on anti-Trump Republicans.
Then creative public messaging circumvents media bubbles …
We project giant videos of ICE misconduct, attacks on innocents in Gaza, and Putin and Musk being disgusting onto the sides of skyscrapers and digital billboards across the country.
If everyone made sure to always be wearing the U.S. Constitution on their clothing at all times, the optics of ICE misconduct would be even worse. I just wish this dress were a little less downtrodden, a little more tailored.
A few good men say “nope.”
At the same time, more and more mid-level military leaders are emboldened to speak out, risking demotion and expulsion. Their bravery makes it even more clear to more people that the Trump administration is out of bounds.
We form security details for timid politicians.
(This is Marshall’s idea.) Thousands of Democrats, just citizens, offer to serve as bodyguards for frightened Republicans like Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska).
“Go to sleep, Lisa,” they say soothingly. “We will make sure nobody throws a Molotov cocktail through your bedroom window. Now just promise to vote the way you really want to vote tomorrow.”
Loss of profit matters.
Meanwhile, massive strikes and boycotts cut deeply into corporate profits and confidence, thus weakening the billionaires’ support for Trump. People realize they can go for months without buying anything but food. They realize they can borrow power drills and rakes from their neighbors. People organize civilian protection forces that act as security details for immigrants and others they think may be the focus of unconstitutional arrest.
Finally, after the Republican Congress’s defection widens and the public awareness sharpens, there will be the political momentum to launch an impeachment.
Impeachment, baby.
The impeachment trial is led by Republicans and is plainspoken and solemn. They pretend to have been on the side of law and the constitution the whole time. Democrats allow this, knowing it’s the price they pay for the Republicans’ cooperation.
He is impeached and his entire cabinet is implicated in the crimes. Vance becomes president but then himself is immediately impeached.
Mike Johnson, Speaker of the House, ascends to the presidency, but curtailed by the close scrutiny of Congress, the press, and the American people.
Democrats sweep the house and senate in the next election.
Gobs of $$$
The ultra rich don’t pay enough taxes, proportionally. Wouldn’t it be good if very high taxies were levied against the largest monopolies and richest billionaires? (NYC mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani is campaigning on this idea.) And, similarly, if the tax code were revised to be less regressive and hardest on the poor and middle class? And then, with those additional funds, the American public school system could be reformed in a way that every American child was really and truly taught the fundamental tenets of our democracy, what makes it work? (Like, they will be tested on this and held back until they get it.)
Then What?
We will all look back on this year with a shudder. How close we came to losing our country! And how much we doubted ourselves and forgot, for a moment, who the hell we are. But then, thank God, we got a grip. We stood up straight. We focused. We flexed all our superior creativity, intelligence, logic, and heart and, in the end, we prevailed.
Thanks Emily!