The Power of Solidarity

The left’s power isn’t in brute force—it’s in collective force.

The MAGA Regime’s use of its power is relentless and all-encompassing. Beyond claiming a mandate from the last election, MAGA seeks to destroy every system and institution that will create friction for them and daring anyone to try and stop them. Their theory of change is might makes right and they’re banking on the rest of society being unable to effectively come together and oppose them.

I wouldn’t call it a safe bet on the MAGA Regime’s part, but so far, the strategy is panning out well for them. There are multiple examples. Let’s start with what’s going down in the legal community right now. The MAGA Regime is targeting law firms that have crossed Trump and his cronies in the past, most notably Perkins Coie and Paul Weiss. Perkins Coie is fighting the order in court, but Weiss caved quickly, agreeing to several of the MAGA Regime’s demands.

Per reporting for the NY Times, Weiss initially “hoped to create a unified front with other big law firms to challenge the order issued against it,” but soon discovered that rather than showing support, rival law firms were actively trying to poach Weiss’s clients from them. There’s no united front, and it doesn’t seem like the legal community will manage to organize one. Instead, Trump’s political opponents are now having trouble finding law firms to represent them, lest those firms also become a target of Trump’s ire. (It’s worth noting that not everyone is bending the knee. In addition to Perkins Coie, firms Jenner & Block and WilmerHale are now suing the Trump Administration over similar executive orders targeting their firms.)

This is just one instance, but a version of it is currently playing out on several fronts. In academia, you have Columbia University caving to the MAGA Regime and the Regime turning around almost immediately, saying it wasn’t enough to appease them. At Yale, three experts on fascism are leaving their posts for universities in Canada, and two of them cited a belief that Yale and other academic institutions will cave similarly as part of their reasoning. Meanwhile, college students are being detained by ICE and kidnapped off the street by masked men, simply expressing their political views.

Solidarity has never been more necessary. It’s also clearly in short supply.

If you’ve ever heard me speak or attended one of my workshops or trainings, you know that I always end the same way: a call for solidarity. In trainings, I generally talk about the fall of ACORN, an anti-poverty organization that became a constant target of the Right. And how it was Democrats in Congress who helped Republicans deliver the final blow that ultimately killed ACORN once and for all.

Solidarity is a core value for me, probably because I have so many union members in my family lineage. It’s my personal north star, but professionally, I’ve seen all too often what happens when we don’t stand in solidarity. Not only do we lose a battle, but we also lose critical infrastructure and resources that we don’t regain. Organizations and people that don’t stand up for others more often than not discover that they’re up next, and the target was on their back all along.

The MAGA Regime is ruthless, but let’s be clear: they’re getting a lot of help. From those who are afraid, those who think they can comfortably ride out America as a fascist nation, those who feel they have a lot to lose, and those who simply don’t want to deal with discomfort. Every day, people and institutions choose to try and save themselves rather than show solidarity. It’s like watching the demise of ACORN, but 10,000x worse.

My aim here isn’t to fall into doomerism or encourage despair. In fact, I think we have a lot more power than we realize. Economic power, power in the form of social capital, power to organize and mobilize. Solidarity is power. We can show it with one another, and we have the power to demand that our elected officials and other institutions show it as well.

Solidarity isn’t easy. It requires courage, and often it requires us to stand alongside those whose views and politics don’t at all align with our own. But as I wrote last week, the cost of not opposing Trump is that you will eventually lose everything. If a student can be kidnapped in broad daylight by masked men, we’re all in danger. There’s no safe harbor, even if we delude ourselves into thinking there is.

But at scale, solidarity is a force to be reckoned with. American history offers multiple examples of this: “Seneca Falls, and Selma, and Stonewall,” just to name a few. Or to put it in more practical terms, as Governor J.D. Pritzker said in remarks to the Human Rights Campaign this week: "The response to authoritarianism isn't acquiescence. Bullies respond to one thing and one thing only: a punch in the face.".

If a punch is the only thing the MAGA Regime understands, solidarity is the strongest force to deliver the blow.

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ICYMI

What Happens to the Free Speech Warriors? (String in a Maze)

“The amount of ink spilled on this has been incredible; dozens of milquetoast careers are floating in it. And yet now, to anyone with a functioning brain, it seems quaint. We are now witnessing an actual assault on free speech, backed with the force of the state, and initiated by people who harbor genuine disdain for the principles of the First Amendment.”

Misogyny Makes You Stupid (Wonkette)

“As a professional who has debunked herself out of countless jobs, I have carefully observed what’s been going down over the last decade or so, from GamerGate all the way to now, where actual elected officials cut their racist shitposting teeth on 4chan and it shows, and I have thought it all the way through to one irrefutable conclusion: ‘Misogyny makes you stupid.’”

Mike Waltz Left His Venmo Friends List Public (Wired)

“A WIRED review shows national security adviser Mike Waltz, White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, and other top officials left sensitive information exposed via Venmo—until WIRED asked about it.”

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Coda

I put together a short post of resources for digital and operational security since a lot of you were asking. It’s now free from behind the paywall. Take a look.

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I’m going to continue to compile resources since y’all appreciate them so much. If you have something you’d like me to curate or compile for readers, let me know in the comments. After a decade of newsletters, I have a lot of stuff amassed and saved!

That’s all for now. Talk to you again next Sunday!