Fighting Fascism: We're Doing This Wrong

Why the Strategy Is Failing—and How We Take Our Country Back

Jan 13, 2026

“What are you doing to keep me safe? What are you doing to keep my mother safe, my sister safe, my community safe from these thugs?”
— Michael Fanone, 20-year police veteran

Don’t stop protesting. Start protesting smarter.

You weren’t wrong to show up. You weren’t wrong to be outraged. Your anger is righteous. Your instinct to do something is exactly right.

You were wrong about where to aim.

The strategy most of us have been using—the marches, the protests outside federal buildings, the confrontations with ICE—isn’t just ineffective. It’s exactly what they want us to do. We’ve been exhausting ourselves against walls that will never move while the people who actually have the power to stop this watch from the sidelines.

This piece is about fixing that. It’s about where to aim your energy so it actually does something. Because right now? We’re losing. And we’re losing because we keep fighting the wrong people.

The Pattern

Let’s be honest about what’s been happening.

When DOGE came for federal workers and agencies, we took to the streets. We stood outside government buildings with signs—millions of us—telling them we wanted them to stop. The result? The Department of Education has been mostly dismantled. The U.S. Institute of Peace is gone. The CFPB is gone. USAID is gone. Hundreds of thousands of federal workers are still fired.

Then they renditioned Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia and hundreds of Venezuelans to CECOT—a Salvadoran torture prison—without trial or due process, on the mere assertion that they were gang members. They built “Alligator Alcatraz” in Florida and imprisoned thousands more in what amounted to a concentration camp on American soil.

So we took to the streets again. We stood outside ICE facilities to confront Trump’s fascist thugs. What happened? The men in CECOT were deported to the countries they originally fled. Nobody really knows what happened to all the people in Alligator Alcatraz when it got shut down over an environmental lawsuit. And the main reason Kilmar got a second chance? Senator Van Hollen flew to El Salvador himself—an elected official taking direct action. That’s what worked, because he felt pressured to make the right move.

Then the government shut down. The regime held the country hostage to gut ACA subsidies and fund tax cuts for billionaires. We took to the streets again, holding our “No Kings” signs to protest against Trump.

Did we protest the Democrats to keep fighting? Did we flood their phone lines demanding they hold the line? No. We protested Trump—who didn’t care, who wanted the confrontation—while the people who were supposedly on our side caved. They capitulated the moment Trump took SNAP hostage and threatened to starve sixteen million children.

That’s the pattern.

Something horrific happens. We protest. We march. We file lawsuits. The media treats it as politics as usual. The pundits say the guardrails will hold. And then—nothing. Or worse than nothing. They do it again, bigger, bolder, because we just showed them we can’t stop them.

The protests are getting larger. The crowds are getting angrier. And things are getting worse.

Let me say that again: The protests are growing. Things are getting worse.

If the strategy were working, that wouldn’t be true.

The Trap

Here's why it doesn't work: Every protest outside an ICE facility is a protest the regime wants. They have the guns. They have the legal authority—or at least the willingness to pretend they do. They want the confrontation. They want the images of federal agents facing down angry crowds. They want us to exhaust ourselves against walls that are never going to move.

This isn’t speculation. The regime has literally instructed ICE agents to record their confrontations with protesters. They’re turning our resistance into recruitment content—footage of angry crowds to rile up the base, to paint us as the enemy, to justify further crackdowns. Every time we show up to scream at federal agents, we’re playing a role in their propaganda machine. We are helping them.

Over and over again.

Meanwhile, the people who actually have the power to stop this—the governors, the mayors, the district attorneys, the state attorneys general—watch from the sidelines. They issue statements. They express concern. They do nothing.

Here’s what they can do:

Mayors can order local law enforcement to protect residents against excessive force and constitutional violations by federal agents
District attorneys can criminally charge ICE agents who break the law
Governors can deploy the National Guard to protect their citizens

Yes, state attorneys general have filed injunctions—that’s about the most anyone has done. But it takes months, and after the Supreme Court killed nationwide injunctions, each ruling only protects the specific party that brought the case. The regime terrorizes a city, loses in court, moves to the next one. Courts alone won’t save us.

Don’t believe they can do this? Here’s Philadelphia DA Larry Krasner:1

Do you see an ICE invasion in Philly? I don’t.

Don’t believe local cops have the power to stop this if they’re ordered to? Don’t take my word for it. Take it from a 20-year police veteran who almost died defending the Capitol on January 6th:2

Here’s the brutal truth: You should not be the ones confronting ICE and defending immigrants. You can’t succeed. State-sanctioned violence can only be stopped in one of two ways—a confrontation by state-sanctioned power (local cops, DAs, the National Guard), or pure bloodshed. Nobody should want the second option.

By trying to do it ourselves, we’re letting the people who can succeed off the hook. And we’re feeding the fascists the pretext to use even more force.

Stop.

So What DO You Do?

You redirect. You aim at the people who can actually make a difference—and you make their inaction more painful than action.

Here’s how:

1. Pressure the People with Power

Here’s who we’ve been targeting:

ICE agents (who have guns and want the confrontation)
Federal buildings (which are guarded by people who don’t care)
“The system” (which is an abstraction that can’t be pressured)

Here’s who we should be targeting:

Governors who could deploy the National Guard to protect residents
Mayors who could order police to intervene against federal overreach
District Attorneys who could prosecute agents who break the law
Media executives who refuse to call lies lies
Celebrities with millions of followers who stay silent

These people have actual power. And they’re not using it.

Maybe they’re afraid of bloodshed. But here’s the thing: by refusing to act, they’ve guaranteed bloodshed anyway—just on the regime’s terms. Slow. Gradual. Normalized. No single moment shocking enough to mobilize mass resistance.

Maybe they’re afraid of the Supremacy Clause. But if the regime can ignore court orders to violate people’s rights, how is it moral for states not to ignore federal overreach to protect them?

We need to make their inaction more painful than action.

That means protests outside their offices. Phone calls flooding their lines. Campaigns targeting their donors. Public pressure that makes clear: you either fight back with the tools you have, or we replace you with someone who will.

Stop confronting the enforcers. Start pressuring the people who can actually stop them.

2. Call It Fascism

Some of you already do. Good. Keep doing it.

But too many people—including people who should know better—are still softening the language. Authoritarian tendencies. Democratic backsliding. Concerning developments.

Every time we use those phrases, we exonerate them. We tell the world it’s not that bad. We give permission to treat this as normal politics, as a policy dispute, as something the courts and elections will eventually sort out.

It’s not a policy dispute. It’s fascism.

The word exists for a reason. It describes a specific thing: a political movement built on ultranationalism, scapegoating of minorities, rejection of democratic norms, cult of personality around a strongman leader, and the use of state violence to crush dissent.

That’s what this is. That’s what we’re living through. And if we can’t bring ourselves to say the word, we’ve already lost the most important battle—the battle over what people think is happening.

Their civility politics is a trap. When they call us “hysterical” for using accurate language, they’re not defending democratic norms—they’re exploiting our fear of sounding extreme to keep us from naming their extremism.

Stop falling for it.

If you’re afraid to use the word because it feels hard to define—because you’re worried someone will say “but that’s not real fascism”—here’s a framework that makes it easier. Use it. Share it. The more people who can articulate why this is fascism, the harder it becomes for the regime to hide behind definitional games.

The word is fascism. Use it. Every time. Without apology.

3. Drop the Civility

Forget “When they go low, we go high.” That’s how we got here.

Here’s a question: Why does the media go so easy on Trump and MAGA while holding Democrats to impossible standards? Think about it. When the media criticizes MAGA—even fairly, even accurately—what happens? MAGA trashes them. Accuses them of bias. Calls them enemies of the people. Threatens their advertisers. Makes their lives hell.

So what does the media do? They adjust. They grade Trump on a curve. They sanewash his ramblings. They treat his lies as “claims” and his crimes as “controversies.”

And what do we do when the media fails us? We politely disagree. We write thoughtful op-eds. We appeal to their better angels.

Why the hell would they change? They’d be idiots not to comply with MAGA when MAGA is the only side willing to play hardball.

Here’s the reality: If doing the right thing has a cost, people will do nothing—unless you make the cost of doing nothing higher than the cost of doing what’s right.

Our number one job is to collect on that cost.

It’s time to draw a line.

There are two kinds of people in America right now: those who are actively stopping the fascists—using whatever power they have, whether it’s media reach, celebrity, wealth, government position, or just their voice—and those who are helping the fascists, whether actively or through complicit silence.

That’s it. Two categories. Pick one.

Want civility? Earn it. Do your part to stop the fascists. Until then, don’t expect us to be polite while the country burns.

Stay Peaceful—But Act Now

Nonviolence is a strategy, not a suicide pact. It doesn’t mean putting yourself in danger while those with power do nothing. It doesn’t mean standing in front of armed federal agents so politicians can watch from the sidelines.

It means we don’t give them the excuse to unleash state violence against us. We maintain the moral high ground. And we direct our energy at targets that can actually be moved.

Here’s what that looks like:

Call your governor’s office. Demand they deploy the National Guard to protect residents—not assist federal raids. Do it today. Do it again tomorrow.
Show up at your mayor’s next public event. Ask them directly: what are you doing to protect us? Record their answer. Post it everywhere.
Contact your district attorney. Demand they follow Krasner’s lead—publicly commit to prosecuting federal agents who break the law in your jurisdiction.
Flood media comment sections and tip lines. Demand they call it fascism. When they sanewash, call them out by name—publicly. Make their cowardice a story.
Hold celebrities accountable. Who are your favorites? Are they speaking out, or staying silent? Amplify the ones fighting. If not, ask them why.
Target the donors. Find out who funds the officials staying silent. Make supporting cowardice toxic.
Share this. Pass it to everyone you know. The strategy only works if people hear it.

You are not powerless. But power misdirected is power wasted.

And you have to use it now. Not after the next election. Not after the courts rule. Now.

There’s more below, but first: If work like this—strategic guidance for actually fighting back against fascism, not just feeling good about resistance—feels worth having in the world, please consider supporting The American Manifesto. Paid subscriptions make it possible to keep fighting when others stay silent.

💪 Join the Resistance

The Fight Is Here

Let me be clear about something: I don’t want to be writing this. I don’t want to be telling you that the strategy most of us have been using is failing. I don’t want to be the one saying that the protests you poured your heart into were aimed at the wrong targets.

But someone has to say it. Because if we keep doing what we’ve been doing, we’re going to keep getting what we’ve been getting—and what we’ve been getting is fascism consolidating power while we exhaust ourselves against walls that will never move.

The instinct to show up is right. The anger is right. The refusal to accept this nightmare is right.

Now we need to aim that energy where it can actually do something.

Call it fascism. Pressure the people with power. Drop the civility. Act now.

"Do you hear me, ICE agents? Do you hear me, National Guard? Do you hear me, military? You're going to jail if you commit crimes in the city of Philadelphia."
— Larry Krasner, Philadelphia District Attorney

Be relentless until your officials say the same.

This is still our fight. We can still win it.

But only if we fight smarter.

Let's get to work—and pass this to everyone you know.

Your Move

The pattern only continues if we let it.

Who are the local officials in your area who should be pressured to act?
Has your district attorney taken a public stance on federal overreach? If not, have you asked them why?
If you’ve contacted your governor or mayor, what response did you get?
What pressure campaigns are you seeing in your state that are actually working?

This isn’t rhetorical. We’re building a movement, and movements need intelligence from the ground. Tell us what you’re seeing.

Discussion about this post

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