In her February 1st newsletter, Heather Cox Richardson identified the three factions currently at work in the Trump administration.
- Trump and his minions who want revenge
- The Project 25 crew who want to establish a theocracy
- The tech bros, led by Elon Musk, who want a monarchy in which the oligarchs rule
That's where Timothy Snyder, author of "On Tyranny" steps in with a specific warning about the tech bros (emphasis mine).
For them, there is no such thing as an America, or Americans, or democracy, or citizens, and they act accordingly. Now that the oligarchs and their clients are inside the federal government, they are moving, illegally and unconstitutionally, to take over its institutions.
The parts of the government that work to implement laws have been maligned for decades. Americans have been told that the people who provide them with services are conspirators within a “deep state.” We have been instructed that the billionaires are the heroes.
All of this work was preparatory to the coup that is going on now. The federal government has immense capacity and control over trillions of dollars. That power was a cocreation of the American people. It belongs to them. The oligarchs around Trump are working now to take it for themselves.
Theirs is a logic of destruction. It is very hard to create a large, legitimate, functioning government. The oligarchs have no plan to govern. They will take what they can, and disable the rest. The destruction is the point. They don’t want to control the existing order. They want disorder in which their relative power will grow.
It's true folks, there is a coup going on...as we speak.
Snyder notes that, while Trump is merely a tool the oligarchs are using, Vice President J.D. Vance has been in on the plot all along.
Back in 2018, Adam Sewer rightly pointed out that cruelty was the point. When it comes to the president himself, that is still true. But since Musk bought him off, the oligarchs are now in control and the central charge is all about destruction.
It is imperative that we all understand that this is what's going on. It can feel like the whole world is topsy-turvy and that none of what's going on makes any sense. In one way it doesn't. But as the walls of our democracy begin to crumble around us, we need to understand that destruction is the point. Once that sinks in, we are better prepared to develop the guerrilla tactics that are necessary for the kind of asymmetrical confrontation we're facing. Snyder has some ideas on that. So I recommend that you read his whole piece.
Again, great stuff, thanks.
ReplyDeleteFor folks wanting to know more about what "guerilla tactics" might look like, and they theory behind them, Gene Sharp's work on the methods of nonviolent action (he identified, from history, 198 different kinds...and that was without the internet) still holds up.
So does Saul Alinsky's "Rules for Radicals", though it's dated (1972) and written to a very different audience. I'll just highlight one of those rules because I think it's sorely needed in the current situation: "a good tactic is one your people enjoy".
There's a great need right now for leaders and organizers who will, by whatever means necessary, work through their fear and anxiety and panic so that they can creatively think together about tactics and strategies that have an element of fun, and even humor. Finding ways to ridicule and embarrass Trump, Musk, and company while simultaneously providing ways for rank-and-file pro-democracy supporters to participate is a high order of business now...and for the foreseeable future.