The Only Way to Stop Trump is to Take Back Congress
There’s no way around it.
Is it unthinkable to imagine another year under the authority of the white nationalist mindfuck that is the Trump Administration? Yes.
The only thing more unthinkable, though, is to miss our one opportunity to stop Donald Trump and the Republican Party because we’re too busy being distracted by Mueller, Twitter and every last “drip” that’s supposedly filling a bucket with a gaping legal hole in the bottom of it.
The only guaranteed way to get Trump out of office is to take back Congress. The only way to take back Congress is to win the 2018 Midterm Elections. The only way to win the 2018 Midterm elections is to get out and vote.
You want to impeach Trump? You need to take back Congress.
You want to see Trump in prison? You need to take back Congress.
You want to stop the deportations, the destruction of universal healthcare, the dismantling of our Constitutional and Civil Rights and end this white nationalist, neo-Confederate attack on the United States? You need to take back Congress.
Every last ounce of focus and energy that we have needs to be directed towards getting folks out to vote in 2018. All that wasted energy being diffused into countless efforts that won’t stop Trump needs to be redirected into the one thing that will. Relentlessly. Militantly. Exhaustively. Sin parar.
Mueller can’t stop Trump. He only has the authority to recommend impeachment. He does not have the authority to impeach or imprison Donald Trump. Mainstream media and social media personalities have done a dangerous disservice to the people of this nation by encouraging the idea that the Mueller investigation could end Trump’s Presidency. It can’t. Congress must act on Mueller’s recommendations in order to unseat Trump. The Republican led Congress will not do so. In order to ensure Mueller’s recommendations are acted on, we have to take back Congress.
The 25th Amendment cannot be invoked to remove Trump. This ridiculously ableist strategy is not only offensive to people in the disability community, but it’s also strategically impossible. Whereas you need 1\2 of the House and 2\3 of the Senate to impeach a sitting President, you need the Cabinet and 2\3 of Congress to remove a President under the 25th Amendment. It’s a waste of time, and worse it’s a replication of the discrimination we are trying to fight.
Trump can’t be called or marched away. When marching and direct action are used properly, they are connected to a clear demand in policy and take sustained effort that must last days, weeks or even years. When they are used incorrectly — you have the Women’s March and the Indivisible Guide. One day street rallies and calling campaigns have done absolutely nothing to stop the Trump Administration’s legislative agenda, and they won’t function to unseat Trump. They aren’t designed properly, they aren’t implemented properly, and even if they were — we can’t scream Trump out of office. The only way to unseat Trump is through an act of Congress.
So, if you want to march Trump out, march to the polling booths for the Midterm Elections. If you want to start a calling campaign, call a friend up and take them to vote with you. If you want to protest in coordination with policy demands that will support efforts to unseat Trump, start mobilizing to re-enfranchise suppressed voters. But protest alone will not stop Trump. We need to take back Congress. And to do that, we need to turn out for the 2018 Midterm Elections a lot more than we need to turn out for a one-day street rally.
There are those in the Resistance that are quick to say that we need to try anything we can to stop Trump. Don’t listen to them. People are dying. More people will die if we don’t stop Trump. Democracy will die if we don’t stop Trump. We don’t have time to coddle people with good intentions and a lack of strategic knowledge. We don’t have energy to waste resources on campaigns that go nowhere. We don’t have the right to demand that people sacrifice their lives and livelihoods in the name of making the Resistance feel good about itself.
We have the responsibility to do what it takes to end Trump and the Republican takeover and to work relentlessly with militant focus to get that job done. So, I repeat:
The only way to stop Trump is to take back Congress.
The only way to take back Congress is vote in the 2018 Midterm elections.
If we really want to stop the white nationalist, neo-Confederate, Russian supported dismantling of the United States — we need to mobilize the biggest Midterm election turnout this nation has ever seen. And we have a year to do it. We need to get to work.
