Stand Back and Stand By

Our Revolution Has Already Begun

Fascism is terrifying by design.

These machines kill fascists.

This administration came out so hard and so fast, in our immediate shock it took us some time to first accept the harrowing state of play and then begin thinking clearly about how to retake the country. Now that we have seen the judiciary, the media, law firms, academia, Congress and corporate leaders all capitulate, only one group remains to fight back against our fascist administration: the people.

In recent days a growing chorus of concerned citizens has grown to a crescendo across the ideological spectrum, with even the most measured and mainstream of public figures accepting and expressing the need for unprecedented demonstrations of people power. An epic anti-Trump protest movement has quickly become inevitable; indeed it has already begun.

Our ability to clearly envision a pro-democracy path forward has been crucially seeded by the vindicated return of Bernie Sanders and his Fight Oligarchy tour sweeping the nation. Along with labor leader Shawn Fain, Congressional star Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and others, Bernie has organized large gatherings of patriotic Americans with the shared goals of stopping corruption and helping each other eke out a decent life.

Our culture is so irrevocably election-pilled (present company included) that Bernie’s and AOC’s electrifying appearances have been largely cast through the prism of partisan politics and the prospects for progressive gains in 2026 and 2028. But the real story here is the sheer human spectacle, the show of great power we all too easily forget we possess.

There are tens of millions of us.

Bernie’s rallies cultivate more than a popular opposition to the goals and tactics of the MAGA/liberal ruling class—they directly disprove the disenfranchising lie at the heart of the oligarchy’s bipartisan playbook. While the current reign of terror wrought by MAGA Republicans and complicit Democrats feeds on decades of systematic isolation, desensitization, economic dislocation, and manufactured fear, Bernie and company’s big energetic celebrations of collective action and shared humanity provide the antidote to each of these ills.

The distance between organized, orderly populist rallies and spontaneous, organic anti-oligarchy protest is incredibly short. Campaign events channel the unified will of thousands of people into a partisan project: vote, volunteer, donate, hang a lawn sign. But there is no current electoral outlet for the riled-up masses to sink our enthusiasm and our anger. We are a matter of weeks—if not days—from this groundswell of democratic urgency spilling out of the arenas and into the streets, merging with and fueling previously small protest movements.

And not a moment too soon. People power is the only thing that can save us from this nightmare: only the people can force Congress to impeach the president, only the people can pressure the courts to exert their authority and preserve what’s left of the constitution. Bernie and his team of rag-tag progressive champions have reminded us all what people power actually looks like. But people power is more than a premise, it’s a very real tool that can and must be deployed to achieve very specific, discrete outcomes.

On Democracy Now,

Elie Mystal

says, “the people have to lead because the courts will not do it, the courts cannot do it. You want to free [Mahmoud] Khalil? We need to go to Jena and free Khalil, like, that’s what it takes.”

Mob rule is only scary until that mob swoops in to save your life; until that mob is rescuing you from extraordinary rendition in an ICE detention center, saving social security, protecting FEMA and the Department of Education. Mob rule is just another name for popular will asserting its authority in the face of a defiant ruling class.

But if that term makes you queasy, just think of it instead as energetic civil disobedience. While this movement most prominently features traditional, familiar solidarity tactics like marches, strikes, boycotts and rallies, its unique crisis-laden context will give rise to unprecedented expressions of civil disobedience: proactive physical injunctions against Trump’s illegal acts.

Habeas corpus is only dead if we let it die. PEPFAR and the countless lives it saves will only go away if we allow it. The separation of powers dissolves if we, the people, are more comfortable with its dissolution than with the fight to preserve it. If we don’t step in to physically retake control of the Social Security Administration, we’re all complicit in the greatest heist in American history.

When the American gestapo come to kidnap your neighbor, will your neighborhood watch step in to stop the abduction? Or will you stand back and stand by?

When terrorists seized control of Flight 93 on September 11, Americans threw their bodies into the gears of destruction and prevented a far worse outcome. There was no hesitation, no question of how to act in that moment of truth. Yet at this very moment, the US Institute of Peace is under siege by a terrorist organization named DOGE. Who will storm the cockpit?

People power is more than a premise, it’s a tool that can and must be deployed to achieve very specific, discrete outcomes. Habeas corpus is only dead if we let it die. If we don’t step in to physically retake control of the Social Security Administration, we’re all complicit in the greatest heist in American history.

This movement will coalesce slowly, then all at once. We must gather en masse to feel the exhilaration of being together in this thing called life, then draw courage from our collective humanity to forcefully reclaim the things—and the people—that have already been taken. For nearly every harm Trump has visited upon the American people, there is a brute force solution available if we are brave enough to use it.

There are tens of millions of us. Bernie, AOC, and the protest movements of our day have already paved the way. We’ve reached a tipping point now, and when we come together and tap into our full power we will take our country back. It’s only a matter of time.

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