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We have been warning Americans about Donald Trump for a decade now. Again and again, we pointed out the dictatorial ambitions that he has expressed in word and deed. 

We have detailed his corruption, both moral and otherwise. 

We have shown how he displays the signs of a hodgepodge of mental disorders. 

We demonstrated the threat to democracy he poses and predicted his coup attempt. 

Then, we explained that he would get much worse in a second term, and, just two weeks ago, we told you that Trump was about to accelerate the pace with which he was turning the country into an autocracy. 

All of it turned out to be right. All of it came to pass.

We are not telling you this to pat ourselves on the back. After all, it’s not as though the signs were difficult to see. In fact, they were difficult to miss. 

Trump kept saying and doing things that only a budding dictator would say and do. 

And it’s not as though we were the only ones. Far from it. There was an entire chorus of voices urging Americans to pay attention.

But many of them still haven’t. 

Granted, there is a sizable chunk of voters — those who want to take the country in a direction that is incompatible with the Constitution and the ideals upon which the nation was founded — who would be perfectly happy to see US democracy replaced with a right-wing authoritarian government.

These people are willing to let Trump get away with (just about) anything as long as their ideology prevails (or, in some cases, as long as their pockets are lined with the profits of cronyism). 

We estimate that these pro-authoritarian people constitute about one-third of the population in general. Unfortunately, on the Supreme Court, that number skyrockets to two-thirds (but that’s another story for another day). 

Another third of Americans firmly reject what Trump and his Republicans are doing. However, since this “resistance” is disjointed and Democrats, the putative opposition party, lack capable leaders, this opposition lacks effectiveness. We would certainly like to see these folks get better organized. While that, too, is another story for another day, we pointed out earlier this month that this begins with choosing Democrats who actually want to fight. 

We believe that a huge swath of this bloc of pro-democracy Americans want to take action but simply don’t know how to.

Unfortunately for liberals who spend much of their lives online, simply posting angry comments in their echo chambers won’t do the trick. In fact, as we saw in the aftermath of Charlie Kirk’s assassination, venting on social media is often counterproductive because a few misguided comments can be used as a reason to crack down on the anti-Trump movement.

That being said, we do understand their frustration. 

The threat this administration poses is painfully apparent, but what can any individual do about it? 

In that sense, it is very much like climate change. Many people know it’s an existential problem for humanity, but anything they can do on their own is a tiny drop in a huge bucket. 

To stop this administration from achieving its authoritarian goals, the resisters must show up in huge numbers… but somebody has to tell them where, when, and how. 

We saw this play out when hundreds of thousands of people rallied behind the cause of free speech and, by threatening consumer boycotts of Disney-owned companies, forced the media conglomerate to reinstate talk show host Jimmy Kimmel this week. 

It’s a great example of Americans coming together to effect change by using their collective marketplace power.

On a much greater scale, this is also what it would take to pressure Trump. If millions of liberals simply withdrew their dollars from certain products and services and let companies know why they have stopped spending money, there would be a massive reaction from the economy, the markets, and US businesses. 

We will have more to say on this topic in the future as well. 

But for now, we have to address that other third of Americans who either don’t understand what is happening or who simply don’t care.

To these tens of millions of currently apathetic people, our message is: “What more does it take?” 

The past two weeks have shown an unprecedented acceleration of Trump’s march toward authoritarianism.

On the one hand, that’s very troubling. On the other hand, it provides an opportunity to rouse untold millions of people to join the resistance. 

Let us explain. 

Leaders with dictatorial ambitions have always used major events for propaganda purposes, to unify their movement and to expand and cement their authority.

As our loyal readers will know, the Nazis, for example, used the murder of one of their own to create a martyr behind whom they rallied, long before a newly installed Chancellor Adolf Hitler exploited the fire at the Reichstag (where the Weimar Republic’s parliament met) to grant himself emergency powers.

Kirk’s assassination afforded such an opportunity to Trump by providing the justification he needed to crack down on his opposition in a more meaningful way.

And he is certainly going for it.

Since then, we have seen an unprecedented attack on the First Amendment and an evisceration of the independent judiciary in the United States.

Those are all really bad things. 

As is Trump’s intended use of the military within the US. 

Just read this presidential proclamation with an open mind, and try to envision how you would feel about it if this happened in another country or if any other American leader had said it. 

At the request of Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, I am directing Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, to provide all necessary Troops to protect War ravaged Portland [Oregon], and any of our ICE Facilities under siege from attack by Antifa, and other domestic terrorists. I am also authorizing Full Force, if necessary.

In fact, imagine that you are a time traveler who was vaulted to present-day America from, let’s say, January 7, 2021. 

It would be fair for such a person to have some questions, such as: “How is Trump president again?” “Pete Hegseth, the talk show host, Secretary of War?” and “The Battle of Portland?”

It’s madness. 

However, there is also an opportunity in Trump’s insanity and his dictatorial ambitions.

Most importantly, he is really unpopular, and Americans don’t like how he is handling the issues most important to them.

First and foremost, that means the economy. By many measures (although not according to the president’s counter-factual declarations that everything is going great), the economy is not doing well. If it weren’t for continued consumer spending, it would be in massive trouble (and it may well be already). This, by the way, is where Americans could have a major impact if they simply reduced their spending. 

People also don’t like paying more for things because of tariffs (especially not if they have not been hoodwinked by Trump’s lies into believing that foreign governments are paying for them). 

And poll after poll shows that Americans don’t like blatant violations of the First Amendment. They don’t like the idea of armed soldiers patrolling American streets, and they don’t like people, often their neighbors and fellow workers, getting roughed up by masked thugs.

Those things are all deeply un-American. 

That is the opportunity. 

Right now, top administration officials from Trump on down seem drunk on power because they are not encountering impactful pushback and can be virtually assured of the lapdog Supreme Court backing them up.

Which means that they have been overplaying their hands. 

Trump is overtly using the judicial system to go after his critics, Vice President JD Vance and White House enabler Stephen Miller are talking about weaponizing the government to go after their political opposition, Attorney General Pam Bondi vowed to crack down on constitutionally protected speech, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr sounded like a mobster when trying to coerce ABC into silencing a government critic, and Pete Hegseth is summoning all top military leaders for a fever-dream pep rally.

None of these are things that leaders in a democracy would do. 

And we hope that even the most apathetic Americans will finally take note, because, while we will keep sounding the alarm, at some point in the not-so-distant future, it will be too late to save our 237-year old experiment in constitutional democracy.