There are a lot of people who are very upset by Trump’s election, and honestly believe they can hear the jackboots of fascism outside in the streets.
Well, we’re not there yet. Not by a long shot.
Someone close to me was near tears as they expressed their concern that Trump and the new Republican majoritarians are going to eliminate her health insurance and Medicare. “This is terrorism,” she said.
“No,” I replied, “when they start knocking down doors at three in the morning and dragging people away, and they’re never heard from again — that’s terrorism.”
Now, this does not mean that I believe Trump and the Republican majoritarians do not have the knives out for health insurance, Medicare, Social Security, and other social programs. I am not sure about Trump — who said during the campaign he wanted to preserve Social Security — but I definitely believe the Republican majoritarians, such as House Speaker Paul Ryan, have every intent of gutting what’s left of the social safety net in America.
In fact, what I’m most worried about is the deal Trump will make with the Republican majoritarians to preserve Social Security and perhaps a few other things: in exchange for the Republican majoritarians backing away from Social Security, I can see Trump giving them GLBT people and abortions rights as blood sacrifices instead. Paul Ryan is forced to cage his blood lust against old people, and in exchange, Mike Pence and the christianist jihadists get to do whatever they want about GLBT rights and abortion.
THAT scenario is what I think might lead to an American version of kristallnacht.
Last night, Ian Welsh wrote:
If you think Trump is a Nazi, I sincerely encourage you to set up markers of Nazi (or Fascism) dom, so you can track the success of your prediction.
And I sincerely suggest you make one of them the red line where you flee the goddamn country. As a friend of mine wrote the other day, his grandmother, when she fled Hitler in the 30s, was mocked by her relatives. Every single one of them died under Hitler.
I don’t think Trump is Hitler, though he’s got some damn unpleasant people in his administration.
But if he is, you’d better know when you’re going to cut and run, or, alternatively, pick up a gun.
I note, also, that if he isn’t, all the people screaming are doing everyone a great disservice, because when the real thing comes, having been falsely warned before, they won’t believe it.
(Emphasis mine).
My own suggestion is that you should remain calm and watch carefully as events unfold. There is only one thing I think you should do, if you are really, truly convinced Trump is about to impose some sort of tyranny: now is the time to immerse yourself in reading history. This has two purposes.
First, knowing history allows you to better gauge just how bad things are getting, and, most importantly, when the time has come for active resistance. For example, I think the thousands of people who have already taken to the streets to protest Trump’s election are wasting their time. What is there to protest? The man has not even been sworn into office yet. What I am reminded of is the way Confederate elites reacted to the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860: they started declaring secession before Lincoln had even become President. Is that really a good historical example to follow?
Moreover, we have yet to see how much damage will be inflicted on our federal system of checks and balance by Republican majoritarian rule. There remain a lot of political options for fighting back and resisting. Some are obvious or have been thought of already, and I have no doubt other options will be conceived by people responding to situations and events as they arise. Moreover, I think it is likely that Trump and his band of deviants will screw things up so badly and so quickly, causing such public alarm and anger, that the 2018 midterm elections could sweep in Democratic control of the Senate, and maybe even the House.
Second, if you are serious about resisting, you should be reading every book you can get your hands on about the Underground Railroad before the Civil War, or the French Resistance during World War Two, or the resistance to Communist rule in Eastern Europe during the Soviet era. You can also read about the Algerian resistance to French colonial rule, or about the Vietnamese resistance to the French and Americans in the 1950s through 1970.
The purpose of this reading is to learn all you can about the tactics and techniques that give a resistance movement a chance to survive the inevitable police state repression. You need to learn how to communicate secretly with other members of the resistance, so you need to devise and learn codes and ciphers. You need to learn how to disguise yourself and others in order to pass security checkpoints and gain access to restricted areas. You need to learn how to obtain or forge false identification papers. You need to learn how to identify, locate, equip, and staff safe houses. You need to learn how to recruit. You need to learn how to resist and deceive interrogators who will probably resort to beatings and even torture. You need to learn how to manage and organize your every day life and affairs to provide cover and time for your secret life as a resistance fighter. You need to learn how to listen and observe carefully, how to identify information that is important in furthering the cause of resistance, and how to communicate that information quickly and accurately to the people who can act on it. You need to learn how to detect that you are being followed or listened to. (Actually, given the capabilities of the USA surveillance state — which Obama did nothing to limit, restrict, or restrain — you really ought to proceed from this minute onward accepting that the NSA or even local police can intercept and read or hear everything you say or write.) You need to learn how to conduct surveillance yourself.
None of the above involves violence. At some point, perhaps, you will need to learn how to operate firearms and handle explosives. I say perhaps, because, we are a long way from that point. Again, if you study history, you will be better able to determine for yourself when that time arrives — if ever. Anyone who is advocating violence right now is either a fool or a provocateur. (Speaking of provocateurs, I am reminded of this incredible diary by leftvet from January 2007: History You Never Knew: How I Caused Nixon's Resignation. It is a really entertaining read, describing how leftvet and a handful of other Vietnam Veterans planning to provide security for an anti-war protest were offered hand grenades by an FBI informant, then hauled into court even though they rejected the offer. And, yes, he really does explain how this misadventure led to the Watergate break-in, and, eventually, Nixon’s resignation. Some of the stuff you find here on Dailykos is truly amazing.)
But, of course, you don’t need to bother with any of this if you are really not serious about resisting Trump, but are only making your wails of pain and discomfort as loudly public. as possible. If, however, you are serious about resisting Trump, I would suggest that you keep a low profile while you take a self taught cram course on the tactics and techniques of resistance.
Below are some books I believe will be instructive. This is by no mean a comprehensive list. I encourage people to make suggestions in the comments.
Colonel Maurice James Buckmaster OBE, was commander of the French section of Britain’s Special Operations Executive, during World War Two, including the first members of the French Resistance to be trained by SOE and parachuted into France. He has written two memoirs: They Fought Alone: The True Story of SOE's Agents in Wartime France and Specially Employed: The Story of British Aid to French Patriots of the Resistance.
Georges Loustaunau-Lacau, first leader of the French Resistance network "Alliance.” Loustaunau-Lacau was captured three times, and escaped twice. Memoires d'un Francais rebelle, 1914-1948 (French Edition), 1994.
Antonio J. Mendez, served as the CIA’s Chief of Disguise and then as Chief of the Graphics and Authentication Division. The Master of Disguise: My Secret Life in the CIA.
- Charlotte Delbo, Convoy to Auschwitz: Women of the French Resistance, Northeastern (May 22, 1997), ISBN 978-1-55553-313-7
- Charlotte Delbo, Auschwitz and After, Yale University Press (1995), ISBN 978-0-300-07057-6
- Claire Chevrillon, Code Name Christiane Clouet, TAMU Press; 1st edition (April 1, 1995), ISBN 978-0-89096-629-7
- Virginia d'Albert-Lake, An American Heroine in the French Resistance: The Diary and Memoir of Virginia d'Albert-Lake, Fordham University Press; 3rd edition (March 14, 2008), ISBN 978-0-8232-2582-8
- Marthe Cohn, Behind Enemy Lines: The True Story of a French Jewish Spy in Nazi Germany, Three Rivers Press (March 28, 2006), ISBN 978-0-307-33590-6
- Lucie Aubrac, Outwitting the Gestapo, University of Nebraska Press (November 1, 1994), ISBN 978-0-8032-5923-2
- Agnès Humbert, Résistance: A Frenchwoman's Journal of the War, Bloomsbury USA; 1st edition (September 2, 2008), ISBN 1-59691-559-5
- Andrée Peel (née Virot) autobiography, Miracles Existent!,[4] translated by Evelyn Scott Brown and published in English as Miracles Do Happen, Loebertas; 1st Edition (Nov. 1999), ISBN 978-1874316374
- Marie-Madeleine Fourcade O.B.E., Noah's Ark, E.P. Dutton and Co., New York, 1974. Fourcade was leader of the French Resistance network "Alliance.”