When your opponent has all the strength, you must follow Aikido and use their strength against them.

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The new Trump administration has done a dizzying list of extreme actions, insane cabinet appointments, executive orders and much more. The Democrats have been largely powerless to stop them, and do not appear to have even been trying very hard. Christian "reconstructionist" Russel Vought, architect of both Project 2025 and hidden plans, is running OMB, and Some fear a coup is in progress, and while it's not certain, the fear can't be easily dismissed. What can be done? For Democrats, the time to act was last year, but they failed. Trump controls the White House, the Senate, the House and much of SCOTUS, a level not seen for many decades, though the margin is small. Most people are asking how can they resist, and as always, there is a great deal of outrage and statements of opposition.

There is a radically different strategy, one that will no doubt anger those feeling outrage, for it is frustrating, contains risk, and seems counterintuitive. It may also be the best plan. It must be understood that Trump's main strategy is to create enemies, and unify his supporters around them. His main enemy is the left, or Democrats, but he has also specifically demonized immigrants, drag queens, trans people, abortion supporters and many others, even including China and allies like Mexico and Canada.

Trump works by pitching these enemies as the bogeyman, but he also enlists those enemies to help him. He is deliberately as provocative as he can be, in order to trigger outrage. If he can make his enemies lash out at his supporters, engender hate for him and the Republicans, he wins. People will never break ranks to join those who hate them. If you call somebody a Nazi, you had better have a good reason, because you're ensuring they will never help you, even if its in their interest, any more than you would reach out to help somebody who thought you were a Nazi.

Trump's play worked. First, he won primaries to become the nominee working through the system. But many in his party were "never Trump" and hated him. Every former nominee except Palin refused to vote for him. Most of his former Cabinet refused to vote for him as well, but almost none overtly supported Harris. Trump defused the "Never Trump" movement by making sure the Democrats were clearly the enemy, somebody a Republican could never join, even though that was the only way to stop Trump. He multiplied that by punishing any disloyalty to him. Liz Cheney, in about as safe a seat you can imagine -- a Cheney! -- was ejected for not bowing to Trump.

He created a deal for the Republicans. Pretend to be loyal to him, and get power. Fail and the hated Democrats -- who hate you and all you stand for -- will get it. On top of that, be disloyal and not only do you not get power, you're forced out of your career and your party. Trump kept his deal, he got them power. Some actually like him, but far from all. But they all got the thing politicians crave the most. The scary enemy, who hate Republicans but offered the only alternative to Trump, were shut out.

Shut out for at least 2 years. The Republicans should, by normal patterns, lose the House in early 2027. The Senate they will almost surely get to keep. Trump will appoint more Supreme Court justicies in the next few years, possibly ending up appointing 5 of them personally. That can't be stopped.

The hard realization is that Trump's opposition is mostly powerless. It has the lower courts and can file lawsuits. There are procedural tricks that some agencies can do. The people can yell and protest.

Members can filibuster until the GOP votes to turn that off. Not entirely powerless, but mostly.

This means a hard truth. The best hope for taking down Trump is a schism within the Republicans. The schism is already there. And it only needs 3 house members and 3 Senators. The only thing that blocks the schism is the common enemy. You.

This means the answer may be to remove the common enemy. Not to withdraw from the fight (that's impossible anyway, there will never be enough unity for that.) Enough so that they stop being afraid of you, and start focusing on each other. Remove the enemy and any group will fight within itself. They will turn on the “real” enemy–their Republican rivals. Even one-party countries become one party but with multiple factions.

It can start with simple things, like refusing to bring a pedophile to Justice. Or 50-50 votes on a drunk Secretary of Defense. It can involve blocking his crazier actions. Conservatives hate tariffs, but Trump has forgotten that. They don't want a trade war with Canada or a real one with Panama or NATO member Greenland. But it eventually ends with his weakening and then removal, through a variety of possible means.

And yes, it means the answer is J.D. Vance, who is no Democrat's favorite person. But he's no Trump. As a Catholic, he may even have the favor of the six Catholics on SCOTUS. During the election, betraying Trump meant handing things to the hated Democrats. Now, Trump can be betrayed and a Republican takes his place. He's officially termed out (though sadly there are several ways he could take a 3rd term, including the Lurleen Wallace hack) but he's also getting too old. A quick excision can allow the non-MAGA GOP to take back their party, which they would very much like to do, as long as it doesn't mean giving power to the Democrats. But this is up to them, not you. All you can do is give them the tools, and take away their fear.

This doesn't mean you stop resisting, but you do it with precision. Avoid symbolic gestures and outrage. Focus on tactics that have a decent shot at actually changing things. The quieter you can do it the better, if you can be effective.

For every effort, you must ask, "will this unify them?" If it will unify them, it helps them and hurts you. Judge the gain you will get from any tactic, and how much it will help keep them together. This means giving up on hate, difficult is that is. It shouldn't be difficult. Every great liberal and progressive philosopher, be it Gandhi or Jesus or Obama or Martin Luther King, Jr. has preached this message strongly and consistently. Pull back from hate, and do not drive them to hate you. Stop calling them clever names or lecturing them on their immorality and stupidity, as satisfying as that may be. When you preach, ask what your message will do. If it will just make you and your cohort feel superior, skip it. If it will make them hate you, definitely skip it. When they bait you -- and they will bait you, not just Trump but Putin too -- ignore the bait. They want your outrage and your anger. Imagine them as Emperor Palpatine from Star Wars, monologuing that your hate makes you strong, to feel your anger, and be Luke Skywalker. I used to think those scenes were stupid, why is the Emperor reminding Luke that he's trying to trigger him, but it turns out it really works.

Yup, frustrating as it may be, you have to stop calling them Fascists and Nazis, and idiots and dupes and evil. Frankly, stop thinking it, because they are not that stupid, and they can tell what you think, because it's really obvious. Resist in more subtle ways, and let them start to ignore you. Let them stop thinking of you as the threat, as instead turn towards, and on, their fellow Republicans. (And they will, even though I just explained this to them.) This is not appeasement, or surrender. This is strategic resistance. It's Aikido - using your enemy's strength against themselves when they have all the strength.

There will be great frustration at not doing all you can think of. I know many will refuse, both because of the frustration, but out of fear of not doing absolutely everything they could. You may have heard that the triumph of evil happens because good people do nothing. That's not the actual lesson of history. The good people didn't do nothing when the fascists rose, they objected, strenuously. The triumph of evil happens when the average people, neither very good nor very bad, enable the evil. But there is a difference between doing all you can think of and doing all that will work. This strategy is one of those things that can work. If you think the Democrats in Congress are keeping too quiet, maybe its because they realize that.

Comments

Reflecting on the current political climate, I see parallels with Aikido's philosophy. In Aikido, we don't confront force with force; instead, we redirect the opponent's energy to neutralize the threat. Similarly, in politics, rather than opposing aggressive tactics head-on, we can channel that momentum to our advantage. This approach not only diffuses potential conflicts but also fosters a more harmonious resolution. It's a strategy that requires patience and insight, much like a well-coordinated team in a hospital emergency room, turning chaos into coordinated care.

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