As Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg decides whether to arrest Donald Trump on the thinnest of charges, the former president has exhorted his supporters to “PROTEST, PROTEST, PROTEST!!!” before our country completes its transition to banana republic. This has caused a rift in the MAGA movement. To protest or not to protest, that is the question.
I am of the view that we must protest and do it visibly, in large gatherings, as a show of strength in numbers against the abusive power of corrupt leftists who have hijacked the administrative state and are ruling by intimidation. Arresting the former president, the leader of the pack for the Republican nomination in 2024, would be an attempt to decapitate the MAGA populist movement. The criminalization of politics at this high level would be unprecedented in American history.
Whatever you think of Trump, it is important to take a step back and look at the bigger picture. Politics, it has been said, is war by other means. Without a functioning political system bounded by respect for the rule of law, we are a failed state that careens off into tribal warfare. This is where the arrest of Trump on “trumped-up” charges will lead us.
We should recoil in shock at the prospect of jailing a 76 year old man with no criminal history who recently served as the leader of this great nation, earning the support of 75 million citizens even in the election that sent him out of power. Arresting him sends a message to his supporters: “You are not part of the American family. People who think as you do are not entitled to participate in civil society and enjoy its benefits.”
This leaves the Deplorables with no options within the system, despite their vast numbers — even the right of the people, supposedly guaranteed by the First Amendment, “peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.” When you take away all lawful options, only bad things can come of it.
Even if the Manhattan DA backs down, Fulton County, Georgia stands ready to step into the breach and hit Trump with election meddling charges. Regardless whether charges are filed, it is long past time for members of the MAGA movement to make a show of strength in numbers by rallying in support of freedom and against abuses of power by the radical left.
In the aftermath of the J6 fiasco, it makes little sense for people to journey into blue cities like New York and D.C. to protest. It will be hard to get large crowds of MAGA Republicans gathered there. The better strategy is for leaders of the MAGA movement to pick a day of protest and call on Trump supporters to choose locations to assemble in red areas of all 50 states. Photos, videos and hopefully drone shots of each gathering could be shared widely via social media.
In the protest arena, the Right has fallen mostly into the trap of fighting the last war. When we think of protests, we envision the textbook “March on Washington” that has been employed by so many groups over the years. The coverage includes the inevitable quibbling over just how big the crowd was, for crowd size is taken as a barometer of the strength of a movement. So the Right, imitating the Left, dutifully marches in Washington or New York or whatever city is the locus of the latest left-wing outrage.
But the technology has changed vastly since the 1960s when mass protests came into vogue. It is no longer necessary to travel to the cities to be seen and heard by politicians and the media.
So here’s an idea.
The MAGA movement should pick a significant date like July 4 for a day of protest. Put out the call to grassroots organizers in all 50 states to secure large outdoor venues where people can come and gather, make speeches, hold up signs, sing patriotic music, and appeal to the conscience of the nation to end the anti-American left wing lunacy.
Call it “Day of Protest, Day of Freedom” or call it whatever you want. If crowd sizes can be estimated and aggregated from drone footage at each location, it could easily set the record for the largest protest in American history.
Such a day of protest would have several ancillary benefits. First, it would create an opportunity for people to gather socially in huge numbers and once and for all break the back of the social isolation mindset of the Covid-19 pandemic. Second, it would set a visible example, as Woodstock did for the hippie generation, of the peaceful nature of the MAGA movement, so unfairly maligned since J6. Third, it would shift the balance of power and burden of proof upon the left to show that they can match the positive energy and enthusiasm of the MAGA movement. They can’t.
I truly hope someone with resources and vision can make something like this happen. These are desperate times that call for extraordinary measures. Let freedom ring!