The 5 Ways We Can Stop Trump from Seizing Power

This was originally a Facebook post by Taj James, Founder & Co-Director at Movement Strategy Center. It is reposted here with his permission.

image from the Libertarian Republic

The 5 Ways We Can Stop Trump from Seizing Power
(And how to remove him from power if he does!)

#TrumpLost the democratic election (the one where the person who gets the most votes wins) He appears to have received the most votes in the “Electoral College Poll” in which the people vote for the “Electors” who pick the President. The person who becomes the President is the person whom the 538 members of the Electoral College choose and they are free to choose whomever they wish because we live in a Republic and not a Democracy. If 37 of them don’t vote for Trump he does not become the President. Because of this, and for many other reasons, there are many ways that #WeThePeople can keep Trump out of the White House.

1) THE RECOUNT CHANGES THE RESULT: A recount is underway in swing states could show that Trump did not win the Electoral College poll. (In addition to losing the democratic, majority-vote by millions)

More info: here, here, here, here, and here.

2) THE LACK OF ELECTORAL INTEGRITY NULLIFIES THE RESULT: From racist voter suppression, to gerrymandering, to the potential hacking of voting systems by a foreign government, there are numerous legal and moral foundations upon which the integrity of this election is being called into question in ways that could nullify the outcome of the Electoral Collage Poll. If you add the blatant, direct and illegal intervention of the FBI in the election, done with the clear intent to change the outcome, it is clear that this election has no legitimacy, by any standard.

More info: here, here, here, and here.

3) THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE CHOOSES A DIFFERENT PRESIDENT: There are active efforts underway to make this happen. A) 5 million have demanded they honor the will of the majority of voters B) Republicans who know the Chump is a fascist and threat to humanity and their direct control over the economy and they are organizing within their party and the electoral college to stop him C) Trumps past and current criminal activity could require the Electoral College to disqualify him as a candidate for President (and help land him in jail) D) Mass #DefendDemocracy rallies and occupations at State Capitals around the country on 9am Dec19th, when the electors will meet to choose the President, change the outcome around the tables where our neighbors will sit down and decide our collective fate.

More info: here, here, here, here, here, and here.

4) TRUMP BECOMES A CONVICTED CRIMINAL: Trump is held accountably for one of the numerous criminal acts that he and his businesses have perpetrated. Swindling students out of $175 and then paying a $25 settlement is legalized robbery. As a boastful sexual predator with a long history of crimes, victims can still come forward. And as the winner of the electoral college poll he has already pledge to violate the Constitution and international law if he is allowed to take power and is breaking laws currently by mixing his business interest with his role as “president-elect”#ArrestTrump

More info: here.

image from Talking Points Memo

5) POPULAR UPRISING AND AN ASSERTION OF THE WILL OF THE PEOPLE: This country was created through colonialism, genocide, slavery violence and the assertion of the power by white settlers. The “people” declared their independence from the power that had legal authority over them. A revolutionary war was fought to claim that power. Around the world, through peaceful means, mass protest, peaceful protest has brought down dictators and violent regimes, from Egypt to the streets of South Korea. This momentum could crescendo before the inauguration of (Trump) within the first year.

More info: here.

How To Remove A Dictator from Power

I. TRUMP GETS IMPEACHED: The people are not able to assert enough power to keep Trump from office – but the fact that he has delegated the Presidency to Pence in order to use the Presidency to increase and amass more personal wealth, may result in his impeachment for the criminal and unconstitutional activity he is already engaged in already.

II. POPULAR UPRISING: See #5 above.

III. A PEOPLE TAKE OVER OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY AND MAKE TRUMP A ONE TERM PREISDENT: Those working to make the democratic party, a party of Resistance and Vision, are successful in and isolating and marginalizing #CollaboratorsWithFacism, which results in big shifts in mid-term elections and the creation of a major party that has abandoned the neo-liberal economic policies that cost the democrats this election and allow Trump to (possibly) steal the Electoral College Poll. This results in Making Trump a one term president, after a term in which he was unable to deliver on any of his false promises and the country was begging for relief from his unstable, erratic, violent undemocratic and criminals attempts to turn our Republic into a dictatorship. Instead, we turn our Republic into a Democracy.

There are dangers in all of these paths and but there is much greater danger in normalizing and conceding to Trump’s claim to power.

If the swing state recount does not change the outcome of the electoral college poll, the well documented Russian interference in the electoral process, and the evidence that Trump’s campaign collaborated with a forgen government, may be the two things that awaken public outrage. The ensuing mobilization may be the thing that causes those in power take actions they they want to take but will only do so in response to massive public pressure. The Obama administration knows that the election was rigged but can’t do anything about it unless there is massive and widespread public outcry. As, the Times already reported, Obama had to use the nuclear phone call Putin and request the Russian government stop interfering in the election.

More news coming soon on this but this may be the cirical leverage point that unravels it all.

Challenging Trump’s false claim to power contributes to multiple possible outcomes:

1) Prevents Trump from seizing power or significantly weakens his ability to do harm if is does.

2) Asserts the demand for a transition to a true and deep democracy by helping expose the fact that our electoral system, is unfair, unjust, undemocratic and can be changed by the will of the people

3) Deepens solidarity, unity and resistance that can help us weather whatever storms that are to come and weaken the power of Trump, or any other authoritarian, to do great harm.

There is one question facing each of us before the inauguration: Do we chose to #ContestOrConcede? This is a lost for those who have the courage to #ContestResistAndBuildTheNew. Contesting is the most powerful way to challenge normalization and legitimacy of fascism and weaken Trump if he does take power. After the election the majority will continue to #ResistTrump if we are unable to prevent him from rising to power, the organizing around that goal is growing exponentially every day. So what do you choose?

For More on the emergent strategy to #PreventTrumpFromSeizingPower search for posts using these tags:

#TheFourFutureScenarios #TheThreeQuestions, #TheThreePrinciples and#TheRevolutionInValues