What are forms of anti-Trump resistance that are both 1) effective and 2) plausible?

[Wesley_Clark]

@Velocity

Sounds great. But IIRC, a federal grand jury requires only a mere majority of jurors to vote in favor of the prosecution to give an indictment. It might be hard for a Trump opponent to block an indictment since he’d have to get a good number of jurors on board.

Its already started to happen.

Not guilty verdict in ICE case sends stark message to Trump DOJ’s political...

So if grand juries are struggling to get 51% of voters on board, what happens if someone requests a jury trial and you need 100% of jurors on board.

[CaveMike]

@Wesley_Clark

So the best thing democrats can do is use the power of state governments they control to resist the federal government. Something like 40% of the US population lives in states with democratic trifectas, and those 15 states make up about 40-50% of the US’s GDP.

What would this involve? Are there effective ways for a state to resist that can’t be quickly overruled by the Administration?

[griffin1977]

@Velocity

Physical obstruction of ICE (from arresting migrants) is plausible and doable at the micro level, but it may not necessarily help on the macro level - and may in fact embolden Trump/Patel to crack down harder

I think this is the only form* of effective protest against Trump. No plausible means of protest will actually remove trump, but unlike the alternatives this one can actually reduce the effectiveness of his policies.

A nationwide organized non-violent campaign to disrupt ICE could significantly hamper their ability to disappear people. Which is an extremely worthwhile outcome in and of itself (that should be the aim). But if it succeeds, it will seriously harm trump politically, not to mention personally drive him mad.

It will undoubtedly provoke a backlash and will be very dangerous for those involved, particularly those at the top (no matter how fastidiously they avoid violence and stay inside the bounds of the law). But a backlash against peaceful protesters will not help Trump (not that it will hurt him all that much amongst the Republican base unfortunately)

‘*’ - in the short term, the No Kings protests can be a stepping stone to the kind huge mass protests that can change policies and governments, but they aren’t going to stop people getting kidnapped by ICE right now.

[griffin1977]

@Velocity

A massive landslide defeat of Republicans in the 2026 midterms would be good, but that still leaves a full year of time between now and then for MAGA/Trump to do damage

Yeah it also goes without saying that during the second half of next year the most plausible and effective thing anyone in America is an do is out all their weight behind supporting democratic candidates for office, no matter how milquetoast and centrist they are.