Where We Go from Here - emptywheel

"Polarization is his superpower. It's how he has gotten out of every single one of his political jams in the past: by turning his own scandal into a polarizing pivot, thereby turning his own failures and crimes into a matter of tribalism. Once he has done that, he invents some new bullshit story (usually stoking grievance), and getting right wingers to believe it because of that polarization."

"This is why I'm such an asshole about the way people serve as data mules for Trump's tweets: because those damn things are little polarization machines, which always serve to make him the center of attention around which society is re-polarized. The way to combat someone whose superpower is polarization is not to exacerbate that polarization. It is to use his own tools - grievance and conspiracism - against him."

"Back before everyone checked out for the holidays, I did an inventory of the progress we've made in four ways to fight fascism (in comments ApacheTrout reminded I should have the courts in there too). The Erica Chenoweth rule, which says that if you can get 3.5% of a population in the streets, it often leads to regime change. Beginning to peel off four people in the Senate or eight or nine people in the House."

Polarization operates as a core political weapon that converts scandals and failures into tribal identity fights and fuels grievance-driven narratives that attract partisan followers. Amplified messaging, especially via social platforms, functions as a polarization engine that recenters attention and hardens divides. Effective opposition should avoid intensifying polarization and instead exploit grievance and conspiracism strategically to undermine authoritarian influence. Practical tactics include mobilizing mass protests aligned with the 3.5% threshold, persuading targeted legislators to defect, rescuing moderates from predictable catastrophes, engaging courts, and securing legislative victories by 2026 to constrain executive overreach.

Read at emptywheel