We Need Another 1776!

We must harness the fighting spirit of our forefathers (and mothers) and launch an American Revolution 2.0. It is one minute before midnight on the apocalypse clock. It is now or never.

One of my tasks as a U.S. diplomat in Cuba was to travel the island to monitor the human rights of those who had attempted to flee the island but failed. I was constantly surveilled and harassed by the secret police who, at one point, slashed the tires of my car. I also assisted in resettling in the U.S. a number of dissidents. Many, however, chose to remain in Cuba to fight for its liberation from tyranny, some paying with their lives. The dissident blogger Yoani Sanchez particularly stands out in my mind. A feisty agitator, she summed up her fellow dissidents’ sentiments: “Freedom is fundamentally the possibility of standing on a street corner and shouting ‘There is no freedom here!’” That reminded me of one of the earliest American political dissidents, Thomas Paine, who proclaimed, “Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must…undergo the fatigue of supporting it.”

Indeed, we face the same challenge now, in Trump’s America. Journalists are not “enemies of the people”; all voters have the right to unhindered access to the polls; dark money needs to be taken out of politics; and whistleblowers are essential to democracy. That’s why we need to fight back. Because, as Paine made clear, and as the dissidents I knew in Cuba and other countries exemplified, the most patriotic thing one can do is to dissent. It means you love your country enough to sacrifice your own comfort for the sake of liberty.

That is why we need another 1776 moment. Urgently.

The juggernaut of MAGA fascism has progressed to the point that if we do not act now, there will be no turning back. We are now at the dangerous phase of authoritarianism when the aspiring dictator goes after his enemies. This was underscored this week by Trump’s FBI and Justice Department’s raiding the home of one of Trump’s thorniest critics, his former national security advisor John Bolton. This act of intimidation comes quickly on the heels of trumped up charges of “mortgage fraud” lodged in quick succession by a Trump toady against Senator Adam Schiff, New York Attorney General Letitia James and Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook. The first two previously led legal actions against Trump. Ms. Cook is being targeted as a means to undermine Chairman Jerome Powell. Trump’s corrupted DOJ has formed a “strike force” to investigate claims that Barack Obama carried out a “treasonous conspiracy.”

And through extreme gerrymandering and voter suppression, he is laying the groundwork to rig the elections in 2026 and 2028, transforming them from competitive contests into Putinesque sham charades. Trump made very clear what he is capable of on January 6, 2021 when he instigated a (failed) coup. He hasn’t given up.

Trump is methodically following the dictator’s playbook: cow Congress, intimidate and extort pillars of law, higher education and the media; threaten the courts; purge the civil service and military and steal elections. As with all strongmen, he persecutes his political adversaries using the warped tools of government. Today it’s ex-presidents, senators, former senior officials and law enforcement officers. Tomorrow it will be you and me.

Progressive commentator Thom Hartmann starkly spells out the danger:

The lesson of history is that once fascists take control, they will never leave voluntarily.

The only counterweight is we, the people. History shows that nonviolent resistance, when massive and sustained, is more effective than violence at bringing down tyrannies. But it requires solidarity, discipline, and an unshakable commitment to the idea that no one man is above the law.

In his recent essay, “What’s Happening Is Not Normal. America Needs an Uprising That Is Not Normal,” the NYT’s David Brooks writes,

It’s time for a comprehensive national civic uprising. It’s time for Americans in universities, law, business, nonprofits and the scientific community, and civil servants and beyond to form one coordinated mass movement. Trump is about power. The only way he’s going to be stopped is if he’s confronted by some movement that possesses rival power.

Right now, Trumpism is dividing civil society; if done right, the civic uprising can begin to divide the forces of Trumpism.

Trumpism is the new tyranny we face, an existential threat to our 249-year old democracy. “No Kings Day” and the like are a good beginning, but the time has come for more muscular mobilization. We must therefore harness the fighting spirit of our forefathers (and mothers) and launch an American Revolution 2.0. In doing so, we must take to heart Tom Paine’s rallying cry:

These are the times that try men’s souls: The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.

The American revolutionaries were ingenious in how they organized resistance to the British Crown. Their efforts were uniquely American, borne of the frontier mindset and relatable to a broad swath of the populace, from educated men of the Enlightenment to simple farmers. We need only dust them off and update them. They centered on two catalyzing forces: the Sons of Liberty and the Committees of Correspondence.

The Sons of Liberty was a secretive colonial organization that used acts of civil disobedience, intimidation, and violence to protest British policies, especially taxation without representation. Formed in 1765, the group was instrumental in events leading up to the American Revolution, including the Boston Tea Party, and promoted inter-colonial unity against the British Crown. Key members included Samuel Adams, Paul Revere, and John Hancock, and their efforts helped pressure colonial leaders into confronting British rule.

Committees of Correspondence were organized communication and political action networks established by American colonists, starting in 1764, to coordinate resistance against British policies and taxes like the Stamp Act. They functioned as early forms of revolutionary government, exchanging information, shaping public opinion, and mobilizing colonists for unified opposition, leading to the formation of the Continental Congress. They directed the Revolutionary War effort at the state and local level and gradually expanded their reach over many aspects of American public life. By early 1775, they organized the elections of state conventions, which then evolved into a true colonial government. John Adams launched the committees with the aim of “cultivating the Sensations of Freedom.”

The Sons of Liberty and the Committees of Correspondence also carried out effective propaganda operations, including humiliating pro-Crown public officials by publicizing their names, actions, and unpopular policies in a coordinated manner that swayed public opinion against them. This public shaming undermined the legitimacy of colonial officials and rallied most of the public to the cause of independence. Loyalists were effectively frozen out and isolated.

Spearheading much of the anti-British propaganda was Paine whose stirring language helped in both recruiting revolutionaries and making the case against Britain in eloquent terms that resonate even today. Two more of many striking examples:

The strength and power of despotism consists wholly in the fear of resistance.

To argue with a man who has renounced the use and authority of reason, and whose philosophy consists in holding humanity in contempt, is like administering medicine to the dead.

It is estimated that 500,000 copies of his most popular pamphlet, Common Sense, were hand-distributed during the war. The colonies had a population of only 2.5 million people; therefore at least one in every five people were exposed to this publication.

Today, information reaches millions at the speed of light via fiber optic cable. Latter-day Tom Paine’s have no problem (yet) in proselytizing the masses. And the public space is rich with hard-hitting, articulate pundits. What is needed is better organization and greater energy. Who will constitute today’s Sons of Liberty and Committees of Correspondence?

I had the privilege of monitoring the movements that liberated Eastern Europeans from Soviet tyranny in the 1980s and 1990s from my perch in the State Department. Each country was unique in how it did it. In Poland, organization was centered in the Solidarity labor movement and the Catholic Church. In East Germany, Protestant churches were instrumental. Czechoslovakia’s Velvet Revolution was spearheaded by students, intellectuals and groups like Civic Forum and Public Against Violence. In Romania, a spontaneous people’s uprising won the support of the army in overthrowing the communist regime. Years later, in 2004-2005, Ukrainians sent Putin’s puppet president packing in their Orange Revolution through mass civil disobedience, sit-ins, and general strikes.

The U.S. civil society space is robust and activist. A broad, yet well organized, coalition of groups such as MoveOn, Indivisible, Democracy Forward, Common Cause, League of Women Voters, Fair Fight Action, Lawyers Defending American Democracy, Protect Democracy and many others could form an organizing committee guided by an agreed-upon plan of strategy to launch actions ranging from boycotts to mass demonstrations to energetic information campaigns that include publicly shaming members of Congress, senior administration officials and private and public sector entities that aid and abet or cave to Trump’s authoritarian demands. California Governor Gavin Newsom recently has launched an effective trolling campaign against Trump mimicking the latter’s bombastic language. More of this needs to be done by others.

While action should center on peaceful protests, they should be impactful to the point of disruptive. Organizers should take their cue from the U.S. civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. Particularly effective actions included legal challenges like the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court case, nonviolent protests such as the Montgomery Bus Boycott, Greensboro Sit-Ins, the Selma March, the Birmingham Demonstrations and the March on Washington. The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, which led many of the actions, should be studied with an eye to adopting some of its most effective organizing tactics.

The 1960s anti-Vietnam War movement likewise offers lessons in organizing. Groups such as the National Mobilization Committee and Vietnam Veterans Against the War, among others, proved to be especially impactful

The pro-democracy movement’s shortcomings center on diffuse efforts and the lack of a charismatic leader like Martin Luther King. Here’s the problem, however: there is no time to waste. The heroes of our Revolution were acutely aware of this and squandered no time in putting together a movement that defeated what they viewed as a tyrannical overlord. It is one minute before midnight on the apocalypse clock. It is now or never. Or as Tom Paine noted, “The present time…is that peculiar time, which never happens to a nation but once.”