Photos: YouTube Screenshots\Wikimedia Commons
The following open letter was written by Sunsara Taylor to Ezra Klein, of the New York Times, in response to his recent article. Taylor is a co-host on The RNL — Revolution Nothing Less! — Show and writes for revcom.us.
I wrote this before Charlie Kirk was killed, before your comments about this, but the arguments involved are even more urgent now, so I am going forward with this.
On Monday you made an airtight case in the New York Times that, with regards to the Trump fascist regime, everyone should “STOP ACTING LIKE THIS IS NORMAL.”
But then you yourself go on and act like it is. You painstakingly document the ineffectiveness of the Democratic Party’s opposition to Trump. But then you insist:
“[T]he question is: What are Democrats going to do about it?”
No! Wrong! That is NOT the question! And thinking that it is will actually enable Trump to hammer down his fascist rule, past the point of no return.
The real question is: What are WE, the millions and millions of people horrified by Trump, what are we going to do?
Well, I have an answer. On November 5th, the one-year anniversary of Trump’s re-election, we take up the call from RefuseFascism.org to flood DC in the biggest nonviolent, but determined, mass mobilization in U.S. history – not stopping until Trump is driven from power.
This is the only way. Here’s why. As you yourself said,
“We are in the authoritarian consolidation stage of his presidency…. We’ve watched Trump deploy the national guard to Los Angeles and then to Washington DC, with more cities expected to come under federal military occupation soon. We’ve watched masked ICE agents conducting raids all over the country, refusing to reveal their faces, badge numbers or warrants. We’ve watched Trump systematically purge the government of inspector generals, of JAGs, of military officers, of federal prosecutors – anyone who seems they might stand in the way of his corruption or his accumulation or exercise of power.”
And that’s just the tip of the iceberg of what you expose, which itself is just the tip of the iceberg of Trump’s accelerating fascist juggernaut:
“You often hear this line: ‘This is how authoritarianism happens.’ No. This is authoritarianism happening.”
Exactly. In fact, what it actually is, is fascism.
But whatever you want to call it, there is no living with it. No waiting it out. Which is what makes it so dangerously wrong for you to insist
“Donald Trump won the election. He is the legitimate president.”
No! Fascism is NEVER legitimate. None of the outrages and crimes that you detail so well are legitimate.
Besides, even if you grant Trump some claim to legitimacy because he was elected, he forfeited that claim the second he started using his constitutionally obtained power to systematically dismantle this constitutional order. To shred due process. To trample basic rights. To weaponize the federal government against opponents. To violate court orders. To seize on the heinous assassination of Charlie Kirk to go on a fascist rampage. To subvert elections.
“It is an astonishing fact that the January 6th rioters have been pardoned, and dozens of the Justice Department lawyers who prosecuted them have been fired.”
True. But you know what’s even more astonishing? Thinking that the tyrant who did this can be effectively opposed by relying on the very norms, mechanisms, and party that Trump is illegitimately neutralizing. Thinking that Trump can be left in power and somehow curbed in his worst excesses. Look, despite your evident anguish, this kind of illusion – that a fascist strongman can be contained – will result in disaster.
As long as Trump is allowed to stay in power, he is going to continue to bulldoze through every “guardrail” and commit greater and greater atrocities. And that Rogue Fascist-Packed Supreme Court – that’s not going to stop him.
And neither will the Democrats.
Bob Avakian, the revolutionary leader and architect of the new communism, recently spoke to the role of the Democrats in a social media message:
“In its determination to maintain the “orderly functioning” and “traditional norms” of this system, it has repeatedly aided and facilitated the fascists – who are trampling on those “traditional norms” in order to rule through an open dictatorship of lawless tyranny and terror…. Some Democratic Party politicians may contribute to the struggle against Trump MAGA fascism – but the Democratic Party will not, and cannot, lead this struggle where it needs to go.”
Ezra, you have enough principle to admit:
“The 2026 midterms are 14 months away. The machinery of the state is being organized to entrench Republican power through redistricting, to control information, to punish and harass enemies, to create a masked paramilitary force roaming the streets….
I’m not going to tell you I’m sure that Democrats should shut down the government…. If there is a better plan than a shutdown, great.”
Well, here’s that better idea again, this time described more fully by Bob Avakian:
“[W]hat is being called for by Refuse Fascism is not just another protest. In keeping with the unprecedented nature of what is happening with the terrible tyranny of this fascist regime, what is being called for is an unprecedented, historic mobilization and convergence of millions in DC – determined to create a massive “political earthquake from below,” bringing about a profound political crisis such that the completely illegitimate nature of the Trump fascist regime stands out all the more sharply, provoking and motivating major shifts and realignments throughout society, including within the dominant institutions, such that this regime can no longer function and cannot remain in power.”
Millions and millions of us. Rising from below. Nonviolent, but with sustained determination. Coming back stronger in the face of repression. Learning to unite across political and ideological differences. And yes, willing to sacrifice for the greater good. November 5th. Washington, DC. It begins.
So Ezra – I challenge you to get out of your comfort zone and talk with me about this. In fact, I challenge every decent person in this country to get to work on making this real. This is the ONLY real chance humanity has.
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