Momentum

Some thoughts on what changed this week and how we keep it going

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Boy. That escalated quickly.

Consider where we were a week ago vs. today. Last Friday, I was concerned that America was sleepwalking into collapse, with elected officials, journalists (outside of the tech beat), and ordinary people tuned out entirely or tuned in but hopeless. Now we have some court wins, Congresspeople and Senators have been pushed into action by their constituents, and President Musk finds himself on defense. All while Trump continues to issue edicts with no care for the fact that they aren’t necessarily legal or enforceable.

We’re not winning. But we’re in the fight. We’ve made it clear that we’re not going to just let Elon and his intern Bobs systematically destroy the Federal government one agency at a time. We have the momentum.

Three things we should all do next:

Keep up the pressure Elected officials work for us. Media relies on us as consumers, and institutions rely on us for legitimacy. To the extent that anyone is responding to this moment, it’s because they’ve been pushed by engaged and enraged Americans. Your actions and activism are having an impact. Keep that foot firmly on the gas pedal and that megaphone right at your lips.

Ridicule them and make them fight Who is actually in charge? Donald Trump or Elon Musk? I legitimately don’t know the answer to that question, but I know Donald Trump well enough to know that, eventually, it’s going to piss him off. I also know that both of these men are addicted to attention and have gone to extraordinary lengths to keep it on them. The more they fight, the more we can drive the wedge and the weaker MAGA as a movement becomes.

Rewrite the rules Finally, and I’m going to choose my words carefully here, American Democracy just lost at the ballot box. The one thing a majority of Americans seem to agree on is that the system as it was hasn’t worked for quite a while. I remain pro-democracy, but I have also never been more open to new ideas about what that should look like or how it should function. If MAGA gets to rewrite the rules, there’s no reason we can’t do the same.

My understanding is that toppling a system of government is the easy part. (As Elon Musk is showing us in real-time.) The bigger challenge is getting people to agree on what comes next and there’s no guarantee that what comes next is democracy. It’s a scary place to be, but it’s also where we are. My view is that it’s time to start thinking along those lines. If the old rules no longer apply, we can use this moment to lay a foundation for something else. Instead of saving a system that clearly isn’t working for most Americans, how can we use the pieces to build something that does?

With that in mind, here are some things I’ve been reading and listening to this week.

Musk's Junta Establishes Him as Head of Government (Garrett Graff) Graf covers what’s currently happening in the US as if he were a foreign correspondent writing about another country. A haunting and effective way to acknowledge where things stand.

The Authoritarian Playbook for 2025 (Protect Democracy) The other side’s playbook is clear. This is one of the best guides for understanding the agenda and how they plan to enact it.

How to Topple Dictators and Transform Society (Vox) This is an interview from 2020 that I come back to a lot. Ezra Klein talks to Erica Chenoweth, an expert on nonviolent resistance. It’s an easy and informative listen.

Rules for Radicals (Alinsky) The rules themselves can be found online, but I always find reading them in Alinsky’s voice with examples from his work is especially helpful. Some of his references are dated and he can have some problematic moments by our standards, but the rules hold up.

The Indivisible Guide (Indivisible) Indivisible remains one of my favorite organizations, and there’s no doubt that its members have propelled a lot of the momentum we’re currently seeing. The guide remains my gold standard for guiding electeds in the right direction.