So exactly what is the average citizen supposed to do about this? I keep hearing people say that we have to fight. Fight what? With what? How? The Supreme Court won't stop him and the repubs are following along in lockstep. WTF are the rest of us supposed to do? Make phone calls? Write postcards? protest? NONE OF IT HAS HAD ANY IMPACT WHATSOEVER!!!!! Sorry to yell but I am beyond pissed!! I keep hearing people say, no one is coming to save us, we have to do it ourselves. Maybe a dead pedophile can do the job none of the rest of us are able to.
You are wrong that none of what we (or some of us) are doing has impact. We just need more people to step up and be VISIBLE. Historians have documented that all over the world people have overthrown dictators by massive numbers. Protest in the streets and on overpasses, tape signs to the inside of your car windows. Put a message or image under your signature that goes out with every email. Write letters to the editor. Refuse to cooperate and support those who also refuse (law firms, universities, elected officials, anyone serving the public etc. Also VERY important: be kind and helpful to people in your community regardless of who they are. This creates a vision for people of what societies should look like and sound like. I used to think this idea was fluff but now experience has shown me that creating small, even tiny examples of civilized behavior is enormously powerful.
Good advice, LP. I see several people here saying calls and emails to our U.S. Reps and Senators make no difference…. Wrong! Almost all our elected keep tallies of your calls, and many do send responses.
Recently I read that a Republican Rep was heard to say, "please, can someone stop the phones ringing?"
That is exactly how I feel at 82. I only hope I live long enough to see all these corrupt people locked up for the rest of their lives. I feel so hopeless that have vivid daydreams of what I really wish would happen to this dispicable man and all those that support him. This is a living night mare. Friends tell me I have to just go on and ignore it but it's like passing and a violent accident and you can't help yourself from looking. I tell myself this is the history of our democracy being attacked by a dictator for religious fascists and do not look away. It will be gone if I do!
Yes Pat, I am 81 and feel the same way as you. I write letters to no avail, I live in Missouri and my Senators are Hawley and Schmitt and both are useless. I don’t get it, are republicans just idiots that can’t see what’s going on? I think they don’t care unless it affects them. It’s about money and power. Wish I could go protest but am a caregiver to my husband who has dementia and can’t leave him alone at all. I do what I can and share as much as possible and hope people will pay attention.
Excellent piece on the horror story we face now. My humble suggestion, Mr. Litman, is that we do away with the term authoritarian and replace it with the old fashioned one, dictator.
Everybody knows what a dictator is. Authoritarian sounds too clinical and doesn't really convey how counter this is to all things American.
Fine by me. I stopped calling Republicans conservative eons ago. Any party that consistently "forgets" that it's concerned about the deficit and cranks it up is not conservative. (Of course, when Dems are at the tiller, they're suddenly concerned about it.)
As I'm sure you're aware, Orange Judas called us "radical leftists" long ago and I will proudly fess up to that.
As far as being radical, every accusation with that clown is a confession.
These horrifying events are well laid out here, and we are apparently so dumbstruck that we seem to be paralyzed. Dealing with this level of corruption, the blatant cheating, lying, demolishing of the rule of law at every level of government is something we are struggling to comprehend and defeat.
Imagine what it must be like for those of us who read all about what trump & his crew are doing every single day -- i.e., we read multiple exposes every day about the damage trump is causing every day -- but fail to think of something we can do to stop it. I'm 82 and yet, before I die, I still hope to finish writing the novel I've been working on for ten years or more (who's counting?). I want to fight back to save American democracy, but it is unclear to me where I could fit in to get that done and I grow more despondent about that every day.
I just replied above the same as you at 82 and can not let this lunatic destroy everything. As much as I hate to admit my hopes died with the boy on the roof before the election.
Wow, Harry, this is one of your all time best columns ever, and I have been reading you in the LAT for many years prior to your resigning. I will be sharing to my socials. Everyone needs to read this.
Indeed, it is not that we democrats who love our country and understand the true nature of democracy and how it protects common man and woman, animals and the environment, don't understand what's happening or our desensitized to it. Millions of us feel as powerless as we are exasperated by The daily deluge, which we all know is their intention...
We are all just trying to stay sane in a very insane world, are donating and protesting, writing and adopting vulnerable homeless dogs, and supporting our candidates for 2026...
Thank you for always being a brilliant light in a sea of darkness. I believe our democracy will recover, but without the proper information no one will know where to start.
Thanks Harry, great summary of 36 Hours in TT’s America! It was great to see the TX Democrats styme the attempts of the GQP legislators to shove through gerrymandered maps by leaving and going to IL where they were welcomed by Governor Pritzker. Many thanks to MTN and the AZ rally! It really highlighted and gave a roadmap for other Democrats and showed that it’s time for Democrats at all levels of government to start playing tough and stop pretending the coup against America will just go away if they play nice. We need them ALL to stand UP, speak UP and fight against this rogue criminal cabal with everything they can muster and not stop until we’ve put all of them out on their collective ears! Onward!
We are being drowned in bullshit just as Bannon said to do. It’s very difficult to tunnel out from under it when you can’t breathe and that’s exactly what is happening to America right this minute. It’s been a slow build-up but the convergence of computers, the internet and all the social media outlets have overwhelmed us in the perfect storm of too much too fast so we can’t tell up from down. We’ve lost our horizon, as a pilot would say. It’s like flying in a continual cloud and we can no longer trust our instruments. When that happens, we risk flying into big objects that kill us. What we need right now is someone or something to blow the fog away; and do it quickly!
Many of us hope that our voting 11/26 & Democrats taking control of the House will slow down the process; however GOP/Trump are in process of blocking our voting rights. I am losing any hope of having elections again. When/if elections are hijacked, our only option will be rioting in the streets. GOP has prepared for that w funding of tens of thousands of ICE Police & building of Detention Centers. Those are for citizens not immigrants.
What can we do? There are no mainstream legitimate media or newspapers or radio stations anymore. We march and are ignored. We write, call, and email our representatives and senators and are ignored. I’m 72 and don’t know what else to do.
I take inspiration from not only MLK Jr and the Civil Rights movement, but also Blacks in this country ever since 1619. They fought impossible odds for CENTURIES . The least we can do is keep our eyes on the prize and keep fighting.
Harry, if Democrats are elected in 2028, can the DOJ transfer Maxwell back to the higher-security prison? She shouldn't be rewarded for protecting Trumpstein.
Are you sure that you will be able to vote ? Purging electors lists and gerrymandering in red states will make voting harder for the hardworking people, especially when the number of polling stations is reduced to one or two in states like Arizona, when giving water and food for those who are queuing for hours (for lack a polling station) is punishable by a jail sentence, , etc. The blatant rigging that the GOP is preparing, for example Texas wants to capture 5 seats from the Democrats by every means necessary.
So exactly what is the average citizen supposed to do about this? I keep hearing people say that we have to fight. Fight what? With what? How? The Supreme Court won't stop him and the repubs are following along in lockstep. WTF are the rest of us supposed to do? Make phone calls? Write postcards? protest? NONE OF IT HAS HAD ANY IMPACT WHATSOEVER!!!!! Sorry to yell but I am beyond pissed!! I keep hearing people say, no one is coming to save us, we have to do it ourselves. Maybe a dead pedophile can do the job none of the rest of us are able to.
You are wrong that none of what we (or some of us) are doing has impact. We just need more people to step up and be VISIBLE. Historians have documented that all over the world people have overthrown dictators by massive numbers. Protest in the streets and on overpasses, tape signs to the inside of your car windows. Put a message or image under your signature that goes out with every email. Write letters to the editor. Refuse to cooperate and support those who also refuse (law firms, universities, elected officials, anyone serving the public etc. Also VERY important: be kind and helpful to people in your community regardless of who they are. This creates a vision for people of what societies should look like and sound like. I used to think this idea was fluff but now experience has shown me that creating small, even tiny examples of civilized behavior is enormously powerful.
I'm with you, LP! Our protests have made a difference. This is a long-term project. Failure is not an option.
Good advice, LP. I see several people here saying calls and emails to our U.S. Reps and Senators make no difference…. Wrong! Almost all our elected keep tallies of your calls, and many do send responses.
Recently I read that a Republican Rep was heard to say, "please, can someone stop the phones ringing?"
Right on
Protest Protest Protest and form coalitions with neighbors friends relatives family
Join Mobilize.US and make your voice heard in order to organize the resistance movement
Aug13 join One Million Rising put together by Indivisible to help organize
Once coalitions are formed then can begin to boycott companies across the country to demand that oligarchs do not run this country
Yup. Boycotts and strikes too will be effective tools for us.
Exactly! Look at the Arab Spring, specifically Tunisia and Egypt. Look at France during their revolution. Do not be a defeatist.
That is exactly how I feel at 82. I only hope I live long enough to see all these corrupt people locked up for the rest of their lives. I feel so hopeless that have vivid daydreams of what I really wish would happen to this dispicable man and all those that support him. This is a living night mare. Friends tell me I have to just go on and ignore it but it's like passing and a violent accident and you can't help yourself from looking. I tell myself this is the history of our democracy being attacked by a dictator for religious fascists and do not look away. It will be gone if I do!
Yes Pat, I am 81 and feel the same way as you. I write letters to no avail, I live in Missouri and my Senators are Hawley and Schmitt and both are useless. I don’t get it, are republicans just idiots that can’t see what’s going on? I think they don’t care unless it affects them. It’s about money and power. Wish I could go protest but am a caregiver to my husband who has dementia and can’t leave him alone at all. I do what I can and share as much as possible and hope people will pay attention.
Do not ignore what is happening. Ignoring it is what the Germans did in 1939.
Agree, the protests are tiny. Writing our reps does nothing. I contribute here and there when I can. I don't know what to do either!
Protest Protest Protest and form coalitions with neighbors friends relatives family
Join Mobilize.US and make your voice heard in order to organize the resistance movement
Aug13 join One Million Rising put together by Indivisible to help organize
Once coalitions are formed then can begin to boycott companies across the country to demand that oligarchs do not run this country
This
This
This
This
THIS!!!!
I’m so fucking tired of screaming into the void.
And no longer give a FUCK about appropriate language.
What IS it going to take to get together & overthrow this COUP? 🤬🤬🤬
Protest Protest Protest and form coalitions with neighbors friends relatives family
Join Mobilize.US and make your voice heard in order to organize the resistance movement
Aug13 join One Million Rising put together by Indivisible to help organize
Once coalitions are formed then can begin to boycott companies across the country to demand that oligarchs do not run this country
My daughter & I are now signed up. Thank you!
Protest Protest Protest and form coalitions with neighbors friends relatives family
Join Mobilize.US and make your voice heard in order to organize the resistance movement
Aug13 join One Million Rising put together by Indivisible to help organize
Once coalitions are formed then can begin to boycott companies across the country to demand that oligarchs do not run this country
🥹
A public service piece. Concise, comprehensive, compelling.
The corruption keeps going in Texas with MAGA fascist Abbott. Texas Democrats are defending democracy with the support of Governor Pritzker of Illinois. I wrote a poem as a tribute to their bravery: https://democracydefender2025.substack.com/p/jay-pritzker-texas-democrats
What I saw on a protestors sign: Can we now cut to the part where he goes in the bunker and shoots himself?
Excellent piece on the horror story we face now. My humble suggestion, Mr. Litman, is that we do away with the term authoritarian and replace it with the old fashioned one, dictator.
Everybody knows what a dictator is. Authoritarian sounds too clinical and doesn't really convey how counter this is to all things American.
Fine by me. I stopped calling Republicans conservative eons ago. Any party that consistently "forgets" that it's concerned about the deficit and cranks it up is not conservative. (Of course, when Dems are at the tiller, they're suddenly concerned about it.)
As I'm sure you're aware, Orange Judas called us "radical leftists" long ago and I will proudly fess up to that.
As far as being radical, every accusation with that clown is a confession.
I call them MAGATS because MAGAS resemble a maggot feeding on their host.
Amen!
These horrifying events are well laid out here, and we are apparently so dumbstruck that we seem to be paralyzed. Dealing with this level of corruption, the blatant cheating, lying, demolishing of the rule of law at every level of government is something we are struggling to comprehend and defeat.
Thanks, Harry. Keep fighting.
We do not live in a democracy.
We live in a police state...and all the Trumpetoons think that's just fine and dandy.
They expect to get hired by the secret police.
Yeah, right.
And get a $50K bonus! Oh, how much worse it will get.
Imagine what it must be like for those of us who read all about what trump & his crew are doing every single day -- i.e., we read multiple exposes every day about the damage trump is causing every day -- but fail to think of something we can do to stop it. I'm 82 and yet, before I die, I still hope to finish writing the novel I've been working on for ten years or more (who's counting?). I want to fight back to save American democracy, but it is unclear to me where I could fit in to get that done and I grow more despondent about that every day.
I just replied above the same as you at 82 and can not let this lunatic destroy everything. As much as I hate to admit my hopes died with the boy on the roof before the election.
Wow, Harry, this is one of your all time best columns ever, and I have been reading you in the LAT for many years prior to your resigning. I will be sharing to my socials. Everyone needs to read this.
Indeed, it is not that we democrats who love our country and understand the true nature of democracy and how it protects common man and woman, animals and the environment, don't understand what's happening or our desensitized to it. Millions of us feel as powerless as we are exasperated by The daily deluge, which we all know is their intention...
We are all just trying to stay sane in a very insane world, are donating and protesting, writing and adopting vulnerable homeless dogs, and supporting our candidates for 2026...
Thank you for always being a brilliant light in a sea of darkness. I believe our democracy will recover, but without the proper information no one will know where to start.
Thanks Harry, great summary of 36 Hours in TT’s America! It was great to see the TX Democrats styme the attempts of the GQP legislators to shove through gerrymandered maps by leaving and going to IL where they were welcomed by Governor Pritzker. Many thanks to MTN and the AZ rally! It really highlighted and gave a roadmap for other Democrats and showed that it’s time for Democrats at all levels of government to start playing tough and stop pretending the coup against America will just go away if they play nice. We need them ALL to stand UP, speak UP and fight against this rogue criminal cabal with everything they can muster and not stop until we’ve put all of them out on their collective ears! Onward!
We are being drowned in bullshit just as Bannon said to do. It’s very difficult to tunnel out from under it when you can’t breathe and that’s exactly what is happening to America right this minute. It’s been a slow build-up but the convergence of computers, the internet and all the social media outlets have overwhelmed us in the perfect storm of too much too fast so we can’t tell up from down. We’ve lost our horizon, as a pilot would say. It’s like flying in a continual cloud and we can no longer trust our instruments. When that happens, we risk flying into big objects that kill us. What we need right now is someone or something to blow the fog away; and do it quickly!
Many of us hope that our voting 11/26 & Democrats taking control of the House will slow down the process; however GOP/Trump are in process of blocking our voting rights. I am losing any hope of having elections again. When/if elections are hijacked, our only option will be rioting in the streets. GOP has prepared for that w funding of tens of thousands of ICE Police & building of Detention Centers. Those are for citizens not immigrants.
What can we do? There are no mainstream legitimate media or newspapers or radio stations anymore. We march and are ignored. We write, call, and email our representatives and senators and are ignored. I’m 72 and don’t know what else to do.
I take inspiration from not only MLK Jr and the Civil Rights movement, but also Blacks in this country ever since 1619. They fought impossible odds for CENTURIES . The least we can do is keep our eyes on the prize and keep fighting.
You are right.
Harry, if Democrats are elected in 2028, can the DOJ transfer Maxwell back to the higher-security prison? She shouldn't be rewarded for protecting Trumpstein.
We simple citizens agree, but other than voting 15 months from now- what are we to do to have any real impact?
Are you sure that you will be able to vote ? Purging electors lists and gerrymandering in red states will make voting harder for the hardworking people, especially when the number of polling stations is reduced to one or two in states like Arizona, when giving water and food for those who are queuing for hours (for lack a polling station) is punishable by a jail sentence, , etc. The blatant rigging that the GOP is preparing, for example Texas wants to capture 5 seats from the Democrats by every means necessary.
Truth. 👆👆👆👆