On June 4, 2018, Trump tweeted, “I have the absolute right to PARDON myself.”
His statement and statements by Rudy Giuliani and some other extreme Trump loyalists expose the Trump regime as a dictatorship.
The Trumpists think he is above the law, and that he can simply disregard the Constitution in his pursuit of power and wealth.
Since he started running for President in 2015, Trump has commanded — and mainstream news media have utterly yielded — the power to be every day’s #1 news story. Trump has tricked everyone into talking about him all the time. (Yes, I’m doing that too right now.)
Dictators make their word law. Hitler and Stalin did that. Trump is doing that now. He is overruling the laws of science. He lies and claims they are “alternative facts.” True information about the climate is wiped off from government websites. He has banned certain words from being spoken or written by federal employees.
We can nonviolently resist that by envisioning what we want instead — and working to accomplish that.
Instead of letting Trump overwhelm and intimidate us, we can nonviolently envision — and then take steps to create — the nation we want instead. When people feel trapped and powerless, they can’t envision a better future. Give yourself permission RIGHT NOW to envision a better future, and imagine it in the present tense:
#1. Imagine that the new reality is that the U.S. has become a nation of peace, social justice, freedom, etc. Spend several minutes imagining the various new realities you would want the U.S. to embody and live out. You might want to write a list of the new realities. Envision them as if they had already occurred, so you can write them using present tense wording.
#2. Now imagine — and write down — some of the steps that you and I and other people took to achieve that better new reality. You do not need to list them in chronological sequence. Just brainstorm a good number of steps, activities, behaviors, etc., that Americans used in order to create the new reality.
#3. Now think of — and write down — a few things you could do NOW or VERY SOON to start that ball rolling. What few things could you do NOW or VERY SOON to start turning things around and creating the new society that you have envisioned?
#4. Perhaps some of your steps in #3 are things you could do to undermine the power of Trump and the Trumpists. Or perhaps some of your steps in #3 are simple steps or new activities to live the new reality that you envision, without even waiting for other people to join you. (Remember that Buckminster Fuller had said that we can replace old bad stuff by creating good new stuff so the old bad stuff becomes obsolete.)
#5. If you find this exercise useful or hopeful, consider sharing this blog post with other people.