Nonviolent Resistance: It's How We Take Donald Trump Down

Donald Trump will not become our President. It's up to us to take him down by following a method that requires an incredible level of courage and hard work, and this effort has begun. The method is found in the great legacy of Martin Luther King: civil disobedience and nonviolent resistance. Armed with this weapon, we can and will defend ourselves against what is shaping up to be an attempted fascist takeover of American democracy.

We need to work harder this week than we worked last week. Our enraged public protests since election day have been glorious and heartening, and they've gotten lots of media attention. But they haven't yet expanded into a national strike, and a strong leadership team of organizers has not yet emerged. This must continue to progress at a fast rate so that we can make it absolutely clear to the American people, and most importantly make it clear to ourselves, that we absolutely reject Donald Trump's right to be inaugurated, and that we will never back down no matter how much struggle this takes.

We reject this right because he is an obvious criminal who intends to govern as a cruel dictator, and because there is evidence that his election was fraudulent and stolen. Trump's campaign was often blatantly illegal, and the American people will not roll over and allow an obvious con-man and liar to assume power over our own lives. We love our homeland too much, we love our freedom too much, and we love our diverse fellow American citizens too much. We will never consider giving up our fight when so much is at stake.

The fact that we reject Trump doesn't mean we support Hillary Clinton. She conceded last week, and the battle to take down Donald Trump is not a battle to make Hillary Clinton president. It's now something more primal than that: a battle to save our own freedom and basic rights. We do not accept Trump's right to hold office until several questions are answered about his illegal conduct during this campaign, and about his illegal intentions as President.

Until our questions are answered, we are in a severe constitutional crisis, and our union as a country is absolutely at stake. This is a difficult situation, and there's no clear roadmap for what happens next once it becomes clear that our constitutional crisis will not resolve itself with a Trump presidency. One good possible scenario, if we can make ourselves heard swiftly enough, would be for the electoral college to acknowledge our valid objections and choose a coalition government, like Elizabeth Warren and Newt Gingrich, or Nancy Pelosi and Paul Ryan.

Our objections are in the form of questions, and we demand answers. Trump appears poised to transform America into a fascist dictatorship, and we need to be reassured that this is not taking place. Until this happens, we fight and we resist. We are not willing to live in a fascist dictatorship - period. A majority of Americans already feel a private sense of emergency and disaster that is growing every day. The purpose of organized protest is to turn these private feelings of terror and despair into a shared sense of urgent alarm so we can stave off the disaster that we all see coming.

This requires that we stay in the streets, and that we continue to use Facebook and Twitter to unify, educate and embolden ourselves. If you want to help take Donald Trump down, one of the most important things you need to do is find a protest to join, and help make that protest stronger and louder. Our voices are all we have. If we speak together, our common voice becomes our strongest weapon.

I've been protesting in New York City, primarily around Union Square and Trump Tower. There is action every day, though you sometimes have to search or ask around to find it. Several of my friends in other cities and towns have told me about protests they've found to join. These are all heartening and inspiring events — so heartening that last Saturday after joining a really great crowd outside Trump Tower for several hours I felt so positive about our shared unity and conviction that I wrote an article declaring that our resistance is now absolute, and predicting that Trump will not be inaugurated.

I was feeling strong at the moment — a good protest will do that to you — but my strong words left some of my friends feeling cold. "Why are you giving us false hope?" "Are you a fortune teller now?"

Other friends of mine who lean towards supporting Trump also objected, angrily accused me of stirring up "rigged election" hysteria. It was difficult for me to explain my strong conviction that the good and decent people of America will prevail against Trump's onslaught of fascism to people who hadn't spent the day in an angry, vocal, unified and determined peaceful crowd.

Why will the good people of America never give in? Well, because we're not stupid. Trump is a racist and a sexual predator. He has suspicious ties to Russia. He has badly insulted Muslims, Mexicans and women. His VP is a hateful homophobe who has pledged to subject women seeking abortions to humiliating punishments. He just named a notorious white nationalist and several outrageous Islamophobes into his cabinet. He has signaled his intent to subvert our Constitutional checks and balances. He already demonstrated the type of frauds he intends to perpetrate when he conspired with Rudy Giuliani and independently acting FBI agents to break the law by issuing a false rumor about Hillary Clinton eleven days before the election. (This is a crime bigger than Bridgegate, though it's taking our rather slow legal experts and journalists a while to swing into action on it.)

Our nonviolent protest's clear goal is to demand federal investigation into all the above concerns. "No inauguration without investigation." We are on solid legal ground with this approach, with this objection. We the people know our limits: we do not have the right to convict Donald Trump of a crime, even though we strongly suspect he is a criminal, because we are not a court of law. We can't convict him of a crime, but we can and will demand investigation when there is clear evidence of several serious crimes. We are using nonviolent resistance to block him from becoming President until our questions about the Trump campaign's blatant criminal activities are answered.

Until then: we fight. We resist. We summon all the bravery in the world to stand up for our rights, for our freedom. We remind each other every day, even at moments when we each feel our own hope slipping away, that we will never accept a fascist dictator as our President. Because we're not stupid, and we're not sheep.

Donald Trump is about to meet the legacy of Martin Luther King. He will not be President. My fellow Americans, please be a part of this movement in any way you can.