SUMMARY: This post addresses the alarming rise of fascism in America, urging citizens to take action against government abuses. It emphasizes the importance of contacting members of Congress to demand due process and the preservation of rights. Readers are encouraged to participate in protests, particularly with organizations like 50501 and Indivisible, to show solidarity and resistance. Additionally, even solitary demonstrations can spark movements. The call to action is clear: now is the time to stand up and make your voice heard against the erosion of democracy.
KEY WORDS: Fascism Habeas Corpus Due Process Members of Congress Protests 50501 Indivisible Resistance Constitution Democracy
Timothy Snyder warned us that fledgling despots would make outrageous proposals that trample on national norms, laws, and rights. Why? To see just how far they could push us—who would squawk in protest and who would happily nod along like a bobblehead.
Suspending Habeas Corpus
When Stephen Miller, the Herman Goering of the administration, steps in front of the cameras and casually mentions that they’re “exploring” ways to suspend habeas corpus. This is a test. How big of a deal is it? Who’s going to object? How vociferous will the objections be?
When Sen John Barrasso (R-Lily White Ass) refuses to say whether he supports suspending habeas corpus for anyone nabbed on suspicion of undocumented status, he is rolling out the red carpet for the fascification of America. He’s telling Trump that he’s not fighting it. By saying, he doesn’t THINK it will even come before Congress, he’s effectively saying the Republican-controlled Congress won’t lift a finger while the administration keeps deporting American citizens like Trump collects emoluments and bribes.
Due Process
The step-sister of habeas corpus is due process, which ICE is actively denying anyone that they detain. They don’t present legal warrants, identification, or even their faces. Instead, they swoop in like the villains in a low-budget Mafia flick, roughing people up and tossing them into the back of unmarked vans before speeding away. It’s like a bad B-movie scene, except it’s happening in real life. These detainees don’t go before a judge. They are held in camps and denied contact with lawyers. Then, put on planes and flown out of the country for hellish destinations never to be heard from again.
They’ve even snatched up American citizens who come armed with their birth certificates! Imagine that — holding people who can PROVE they belong here, all while resisting judicial orders to release them.
Without due process — a fair and transparent system of justice where individual rights are respected — calling these folks undocumented or criminals is a joke. They’re not even being granted the sacred status of innocence until proven guilty.
Without due process, we are all undocumented.
“I Don’t Know”
When Trump mused about whether it was his duty to uphold the Constitution, he was testing it out. Would anyone actually care? Would Republicans in Congress go on the talking heads shows and clutch their pearls and express their deep concerns about it? Would they reassure us that Trump had learned his lesson, but never specifying which lesson he had learned?
It looks increasingly like Trump did learn his lesson since Rolling Stone asked all 53 Republican senators about his assertion that maybe the Constitution was just a suggestion and supporting it was something for the lawyers to hash out. None of them replied. None. Of. Them. Not even proverbial concerned pearl-clutcher Maine Senator Susan Collins, or the cowed and intimidated Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski, or the notorious erratic loose cannon, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, or even there are other ways of holding Trump accountable for his crimes, Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell. None of them would comment to a national publication that was going to run a big story about them and their reaction to Trump openly defying the Constitution.
That isn’t just not objecting. That is shining the Bat Signal over Gotham requesting that he do so! They’re standing on the tarmac guiding the plane in with those weird day-glo orange landing batons.
What’s To Be Done About It?
Now that we have scenes of fascism dancing across our screens like a bad reality show, the big question is: what do we do about it?
Call Your Members of Congress and Other Government Offices
Call your freaking members of Congress and make it crystal clear: it is NOT okay to suspend habeas corpus! It is NOT okay to deport people without due process! It is NOT okay for the president to flout the Constitution or accept bribes like it’s a game show prize. These are fundamental U.S. laws designed to protect us from government abuses, and we need to remind them of that.
Calling your members of Congress is especially important if they are Republican. We really need to demonstrate to them that they are not insulated from our vote. Their cozy seats in office are on shaky ground thanks to the administration’s antics.
And when I say “call your MoC,” I mean contact them by any means necessary. Make some noise! Hit them up on social media, flood their email, write them a letter — whatever it takes to grab their attention. Think of every way you can reach them; now is the time to get noisy!
Of course, “your MoC” includes anyone in government who has jurisdiction over you — local, state, or federal, elected or appointed. Lucky for you, I have the all purpose contact your government officials post up so that you can easily find out how to contact all of these government officials and get busy.
Protest and Demonstrate
Hit the streets! Attend any and all protests you can. With everything happening, it can feel overwhelming, so consider joining a group or following a national organization to stay in the loop. Here are two you should know about:
50501
50501 is a national organization that is dedicated to opposing the fascification of the US by the Trump regime. Just to clear up any confusion, it is pronounced fifty-fifty-one. It stands for fifty protests, fifty states, one movement. Their next event is on 14 June called No Kings. That’s Flag Day and Trump’s birthday, you know the day he’s hosting a multi-million dollar military parade idolatrizing himself as some kind of Orange Calf. The perfect day to divert national media attention by flooding he streets of America with millions of protesters.
Indivisible
Indivisible has been leading the fascist resistance against Trump since 2017! With chapters all over the country, they are even more active than ever. Front and center on their landing page is the No Kings protest on 14 June, so make your plans now.
Their local chapters are very active in contacting government officials. They are a good way to locate others in your area who are dedicated to stopping the fascification of America.
The Lonely Demonstrator
If nothing else, go all Greta Thunberg and make yourself a sign and stand on a corner or overpass at the same time on the same day of the week for the next month. Hell, who knows, someone may stop and join you. And, before you know it you’re living Arlo Gutherie’s Alice’s Restaurant Massacree and you’ve started a whole movement. You never know. It could happen.
Image Attribution
Eger, Einwohner mit “Hitlergruß” on Wikimedia Commons licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Germany
The Psy of Life 
In a sense, every word out of the mouths of Trump, Miller, and others is a loyalty test, a trial balloon, and a normalization. Miller, in particular, is really good at it, at redefining words in the march to Newspek. This piece lays it out very well regarding his talk about Habius Corpus:
Habeas Corpus Is Not a “Privilege”, it’s a RIGHT.
If they can get you to use the words as they redefine them, words like diversity, equity and inclusion, or invasion, or riot, etc. they have won.
Yes, the defense is to raise a fuss and insist on our meanings, our definitions, and the ones the authors of the Constitution understood (without going all phony “origionalist”).
LikeLiked by 1 person
Howdy Bob!
They’ve definitely taken 1984 as an instruction manual. Of course, Orwell based it all on something. Those techniques were known during WWII where the Nazis and Communists put them to use to great effect. People accept change surprisingly well once it is implemented. In my doldrums I’ve got about half a dozen posts started and that is one of them. A study recently published investigating how quickly social policy changes are accepted once they are implemented — think seatbelt, smoking, and helmet laws — there’s lots of complaints when they’re being enacted, but once done, compliance and acceptance follow. I suspect — and that’s the thesis of the post — that a similar mechanism is at work when politicians redefine words like habeas corpus to be a privilege not a right. It struck me in writing this post that without due process protections that we are all undocumented immigrants, especially since they’ve held people who have authenticated US birth certificates and threatened to deport them.
One of the things that is getting me so down during Trump 2.0 that didn’t during 1.0 is my relative isolation living abroad. With the MSM not reporting protests and colluding with Trump in using his Newspeak and doublethink, it makes it hard to be confident that people are doing ANYTHING to push back. Luckily, social media feeds reflect more people actively challenging the regime.
Blog On, Sibling!
Jack
LikeLiked by 1 person
Another reference to 1984 that came up about this process of redefinition and rewriting of history is titled as a warning, but they are already doing it:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/5/13/2322130/-Warning-Trump-will-use-Orwell-s-1984-chocolate-ration-lie-to-bamboozle-the-base?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=trending&pm_medium=web
I forget at the moment who said it, probably more than one, that if you let your adversary define the words and framing, you have already lost. But the definitions and framing are embedded in the narrative. The resistance must tell a different and at least equally compelling story, a story that carries our definitions and frames. Just attacking theirs isn’t enough.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I don’t think, anyone, even as, we “grouped” ourselves into, a whole, we still, CAN’T, stop a, FASCIST, DICTATOR, into, taking, OVER the, citizens’, lives, because “we the people” are, simply, WAY TOO DUMB, to, know any better, and, by the time, all of us realize, that, we’d, elected a, DICTATOR, into office, it’s, too late, we the people, had given up control of our life, liberty, yada, yada, yada, to the, authoritarian-ELECT. And, we can’t, get our freedom and liberty, back, unless we, REVOLT, but, we are, WAY too, CIVILIZED…
LikeLiked by 1 person
Howdy Taurus!
One thing I think we’re all missing is the number of people, the number of protests, and the enthusiasm at the protests that are happening. In fact, from what I can tell, all are building. The MSM is not reporting on the protests in a very accurate manner. They are getting minimal coverage.
While you are right, we have given up control of our government to authoritarian forces, it is not too late. History shows that back-sliding democracies are “saved” by protest. Never forget that it was Solidarity, a peaceful resistance movement that brought down the USSR.
The US has a long and strong democratic tradition. While there has always been a vocal minority of authoritarians in US society, it is by no means the majority. While we have a fight on our hands, it is one that we have won in the past — there have been several strong authoritarian attempts on the US government in our history — and we will win this time.
Blog On, Sibling!
Jack
LikeLike
Crap! I forgot to include this…..https://www.results.org/wp-content/uploads/Old_RESULTS_Group_Leader_Handbook_-_Activist_Milestones.pdf chuq
LikeLike
Wow. Chuq. That’s a GREAT resource and timely. Definitely needed in our times. I like the emphasis on getting to know your Congress person and their staff, especially the staff that handles the issues they’re interested in. It’s those personal touches that actually help make change possible.
Jack
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hopefully it will be useful….glad it was helpful chuq
LikeLike
Useful to me, and I hope to include it in an upcoming blog post.
Jack
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hopefully others will get on-board. chuq
LikeLiked by 1 person
Jack, I am old and a creature of the 70s so I firmly believe in protest……you gave some great sources for citizen activists to get involved…..but my question is….will they? chuq
LikeLike
this person is……..and i am older than you. so my question to you is, what’s stopping you?
LikeLiked by 2 people
Howdy Suze!
I don’t think Chuq was saying that he wasn’t actively opposing the fascist regime. I think he was questioning whether the opposition would be as widespread as it needs to be to really effectively stop fascism. Knowing Chuq from his online presence, I’m confident he is doing what he can when he can.
I’m glad to realize that so many of us are standing up to be counted when it really counts. I think it will surprise many that we are willing to fight for our democracy and rights.
Huzzah!
Jack
LikeLiked by 1 person
If you mean protesting….then in am 78 years old….mobility problems and daily cancer treatments…is that okay or answer your question? chuq
LikeLiked by 2 people
We all do what we can, when we can. Kinda like Marxism, we contribute as we are able and benefit as we need.
All the best. I’ve walked that road with many people. It isn’t easy.
Jack
LikeLiked by 1 person
No it is not an easy task….but it needs doing chuq
LikeLiked by 1 person
I am also in my 70’s with multiple disabilities…if the only thing a person can do is consistently write, call or fax their respective reps then that is “good enough”. protesting isn’t always hitting the streets. I did not mean to denigrate you in any way shape or form. Peace
LikeLiked by 2 people
NO problem…I appreciate your visits and your comments. chuq
LikeLiked by 2 people
Howdy Chuq!
I think the coverage of the protests in the MSM is pretty anemic. They don’t seem to be providing the same level of coverage of protest movements past, like say BLM or the Portland mishegas from Trump 1.0. However, my social media feed is filled with footage recorded by participants from cities big and small from around the country.
There was a near riot in the Capitol building during a hearing on cutting Medicaid by people in the public just wanting to attend the meeting. As things become more dire, and they will, we’ll see a stronger reaction.
Blog On, Sibling!
Jack
LikeLiked by 1 person
Jack I do hope you are right…..only reports I see are on sites like Counterpunch and Common Dreams, etc…..we need to stand up. chuq
LikeLiked by 1 person