America's descent into authoritarian fascism is made all the more alarming and demoralizing by the Democrats' total failure to rise to the moment:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KADW3ZRZLVI
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If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
https://pluralistic.net/2026/02/10/miller-in-the-dock/#denazification
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@pluralistic I love your line, Optimized for Netscape navigator 😸
But what would "rising to the moment" look like? What can the opposition do without majorities in either house? Well, they could start by refusing to continue to fund ICE, a masked thug snatch/murder squad that roams our streets, killing with impunity:
That's table stakes. What would a *real* political response to fascism look like? Again, it wouldn't stop with banning masks for ICE goons, or requiring them to wear QR codes:
https://gizmodo.com/dem-congressman-wants-to-make-ice-agents-wear-qr-codes-2000710345
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Though it should be noted that ICE hates this idea, and that ICE agents wear masks because they fear consequences for their sadistic criminality:
This despite the fact that the (criminally culpable) Vice President has assured them that they have absolute impunity, no matter who they kill:
https://edition.cnn.com/2026/01/08/politics/ice-immunity-jd-vance-minneapolis
The fact that ICE agents worry about consequences despite Vance's assurances suggests ways that Dems could "meet the moment."
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I think Dems should start a Nuremberg Caucus, named for the Nazi war-crimes trials that followed from the defeat of German fascists and the death of their leader:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuremberg_trials
What would this caucus do? Well, it could have a public website where it assembled and organized the evidence for the trials that the Democrats could promise to bring after the Trump regime falls.
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Each fresh outrage, each statement, each video-clip - whether of Trump officials or of his shock-troops - could be neatly slotted in, given an exhibit number, and annotated with the criminal and civil violations captured in the evidence.
The caucus could publish dates these trials will be held on - following from Jan 20, 2029 - and even which courtrooms each official, high and low, will be tried in.
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These dates could be changed as new crimes emerge, making sure the most egregious offenses are always at the top of the agenda. Each trial would have a witness list.
The Nuremberg Caucus could vow to repurpose ICE's $75b budget to pursue Trump's crimes, from corruption to civil rights violations to labor violations to environmental violations.
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It could announce its intent to fully fund the FTC and DoJ Antitrust Division to scrutinize all mergers approved under Trump, and put corporations on notice that they should expect lengthy, probing inquiries into any mergers they undertake between now and the fall of Trumpism. Who knows, perhaps shareholders will demand that management hold off on mergers in anticipation of this lookback scrutiny, and if not, perhaps they will sue executives after the FTC and DoJ go to work.
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