When people, mostly who are not from here, talk about how “America is over” because this fat little orange man with advanced dementia has gained temporary power, I just laugh. Those people are really saying two things:
They have absolutely no concept of history.
They don’t know us very well.
This weekend’s No Kings protests are exactly what I expected of us, exactly who I knew we were. Americans are the last people on Earth to sit down and let some asshole take over our country. The reason we have a country in the first place is because a small group of people with no money, no training, and no food decided to take on the greatest empire of the age with a barefoot, starving army and won. Every single right that every person in this country has was won after a long, hard battle and if you think about it that’s a lot of rights for just 249 years.
And in all of that time we have never missed an election, never not had a peaceful transfer of power, never not had an inauguration. A few years ago a bunch of Iowa 3s tried to take over the Capitol building and we still confirmed an election that night. So, yeah, when someone says American democracy is over because some senile asshat who can’t stay awake for his own birthday parade has temporarily taken hold of the White House, I laugh and remind them that midterms are in 16 months.
But here is the other reason I think it’s hilarious- we are well beyond 3.5%.
I talk about Erica Chenoweth and Maria J. Stephan’s book Why Civil Resistance Works nonstop. I have probably written about it multiple times in this substack. My good friends Erica and Maria who absolutely do not know me have shown that to overturn an authoritarian regime it only takes 3.5% of a population. So let’s do the math. America’s population is 340 million people, 258 million of whom are adults. So, 3.5% of 258 million is 6.4 million people. Somewhere between 5-11 million people showed up to the protests yesterday depending on the source. And if you think about all of the people like me who could not protest because they were on zoom for a board meeting literally all weekend, that’s easily another few million. Plus, you know, the 75 million people who voted for Kamala and millions who are wishing they had.
What I’m saying is, it’s not even close.
There is absolutely no doubt that we will have midterms in 16 months, we will have a Presidential election in 3.5 years, and we will not only win our country back but we will take all of this destruction and chaos and the hard lessons we are learning and we will use them to build a better, more equitable, more open, more progressive country that we ever have.
If Germany, Portugal, Japan, Korea, *insert the very very long list of countries that have dealt with fascism and recovered brilliantly here* have all come back to life after everything they went through, how could anyone possibly doubt the future of the United States?
They must not know us.
This week I was thrilled to accept a position on the board of directors of Amnesty International so now is a great time for you to join AIUSA! Not just because of little ‘ol me but also because of all of the fighting fascism and defending human rights and stuff.
Choose the Bear
Many years ago I read Tilar J. Mazzeo’s wonderful book The Widow Clicquot and I found a new hero. She was one of the first people I thought of when I knew I was starting this podcast so I am thrilled that her episode is finally out this week! You will learn so much about this incredible author, the marvelous widow, and another heroic woman from history that I bet you’ve never heard of!
That’s all,
Kat