News: How to Topple an Authoritarian Regime

Fair enough. But it still has to make sense.

I don't get the "leadership must leave them with more to keep them from exiting." You are precisely the kind of person that Trump and his cronies are happy to see go: articulate, passionate and cranky. I fail to see how your absence weakens the regime. Same with Sounders, whose very existence is anathema to them.

You've said that the figure is 3.5% of the population that has to be out marching. What is the percentage of the population that has to leave? What proportion of capital has to leave?

Well, that's what I'm doing, what many of us here are doing. Just Tuesday I was out standing in the cold for a little over an hour for a women's day protest. I vote, I organize (though I am crap at it,) I protest. Every time I have heard that ICE (well, both times) is in my little burg, I have rushed out to try and confront them. Heck, I even had seven gallons of water sloshing in the car to try the frozen ice trick... Both times the notice I got was three hours old and so nothing there.

No one is mad at you for leaving, or actually having left prior and refusing to come back. That's fine, you do what you have to do for your family. And I'm sure you would be extremely helpful for anyone choosing to leave. But to piss all over those of us who have not made the choice to flee, while you presume to say we're sleepwalking, is arrogant and rude and downright shitty.

 

Well, I read what you wrote:

Hmmm... or I could ask a bright guy who knows...

So, I'll ask you again. How much wealth has to exit? And how do you have leverage?

 

Protests can work, but only if there is massive commitment to get involved, and if they are succesful in targeting the power groups that support the regime. Just going to the street angry and annoying regular folk (by blocking traffic, etc.) is going to get people to hate you even if your cause is righteous.

My experience is that for protests to become massive, you need large segments of the population to be suffering. In Iran we are seeing massive protests over human rights, and we've seen them sporadically in the past, but they became massive only when the economy tanked to the extent that people started truly suffering, and so they spread. But the question remains whether they can shame the powers that support the regime into doing something.

My experience in Argentina was that protests were mostly limited while the economy was doing relatively well, but when the economy tanked, and regular folk started suffering, large numbers of people finally joined the protestors in massive rallies. The protests worked in descrediting the Junta, because they targeted groups that were supporting the junta.

Also, the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo, by focusing on the stolen children of the dissapeared were able to strike a nerve. In spite of the regime's control of the media, they could not be silenced. And their efforts not only brought international condemnation for the Junta, shaming the leaders of nations that were supporting it, but internally it also exposed the leadership of the Catholic Church, as well as business leaders, and even some leaders within the armed forces into doubting whethet they could continue supporting what was happening.

The stolen children became a rallying cry, partly because people were pissed off because the economy was tanking, and by shaming the nation's leaders who were either supporting or turning a blind eye to the Junta's actions, it became very difficult for the Archbishops, the CEOs and top military figures to continue their tacit support of the regime. The constant protests led to both internal and international pressure, and as the regime lost support it became desperate. It turned against its international supporters and invaded the Malvinas.

But to show how fickle people are, when the Junta went to war, it received an injection of popular support. This is one thing fascists can do when they get in trouble, find an external enemy. Of course after they were defeated, they completely lost support and Democracy came back.

It wasn't an easy path, and I do think that the protests played a big role in toppling the regime. But it took time to get going. Frankly I don't know if the US is ripe yet for something like that. I think the majority of people are still too comfortable with their every-day life to want to get involved.