Tag: Radical Resistors

The Case For Radical Resistance

By Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls

No one listens to me. I feel like I’m simply screaming into the void, which, I guess, I am. It seems pretty self-evident to me that we need a Radical Resistance movement in the United States. I use the term “Radical Resistance” for no other reason than I feel the threat to the Republic is equal to what was experience during Reconstruction when the Radical Republicans faced off against President Andrew Johnson.

It’s self-evident that something radical on an ideological level has to be done to address the abscess on the Republic’s social contract known as the Trump Administration before it inevitably goes septic. What I mean by this is, Trump is pretty much setting into motion the sequence of events that will ultimately lead to the end of the Republic and the establishment of something much more akin to an Americanized version of the Roman Empire.

Let me give you some context — the Roman Republic never really ended, or in a sense it didn’t end for much, much longer than we traditionally think. It gradually ended as the First Citizen of the Republic gradually over the years began to style himself as Emperor. So, in a sense, what I’m saying is it may not be Trump, but Trump is definitely going to be the primordial goo from whence an American Caesar will rise.

Unless, that is, we take a stand and impeach and convict him, removing him from office immediately. (Or as quickly as is politically convenient.) I guess what I’m saying is maybe we need to do it now, when it’s not particularly politically convenient. Or maybe there should be Radical Resistors who vow to primary any Democrat in 2020 (if, unfortunately, Trump lasts that long) who doesn’t say their main objective is to impeach and convict Trump.

You see, it seems self-evident to me that if we don’t impeach and convict Trump by, say, August 2019, he ain’t going nowhere. If we don’t impeach and convict Trump by August 2019, then the 2020 political silly season will have begun and the political conventional wisdom will be we should “let the people decide” Trump’s fate in 2020.

This, to me, is not an acceptable political statement.

I say this because it’s a huge fucking cop-out. It means that we will suffer the tyranny of the minority. That cult-like 37% of the electorate that is completely content with Trump’s traitorous, felonious maleficence is telling the rest of us — the actual fucking majority — to suck it. We already have Trump dead-to-rights on any number of impeachable crimes and…nothing. Crickets. It’s beginning to make me very unhappy on a political level.

I’m a man of peace. But I’m also a man of ideas. As such, it seems to me that there is a ideological case to be made for peaceful Radical Resistance. As such, I don’t advocate violence of any sort, but I do believe we should the utmost political pressure on the Democrat Party to, like, do it’s fucking job. I voted Democratic in 2018 specifically because I wanted a Democratic House to immediately impeach Trump. So fucking what if he doesn’t get convicted in the Senate. So fucking what if it only makes his shit-for-brains moronic MAGA supporters double and triple down on their support for him.

I honestly don’t fucking care.

What I do care about, however, is hearing Trump’s numerous crimes against the Constitution of the Republic articulate in the Well of the Senate. I want it to be established what a horrible president Trump is on an existential level so at least going forward I can point to that in an political debate and say at least we know he’s a criminal and what, exactly, he did.

Of course, the issue is, the Mueller Report.

That Congress would be so lilly-livered that it feels it needs to political cover associated with a third party such as Mueller to do, like, it’s job and stuff makes me very, very unhappy.

Alas, that definitely seems like what’s going to happen. And, as such, the talk of impeachment will turn into talk of how we can prevent Trump from protecting his “legacy’ in 2024. I, for one, say fuck that — impeach and convict NOW.  

The Radical Resister Manifesto

by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls

When, in the course of human events a democratic nation finds its ideals corrupted from within and without by the election of an illegitimate, treasonous, felonious regime it is the responsibility of each patriotic citizen to think in radical political terms.

Though violence is never the answer in domestic affairs of a constitutional democratic republic such as The United States of America, in times of crisis a more radical — though non-violent — course of action is necessary. One must only look at the early years of Reconstruction to see how the Radical Republicans stood up to the tyranny of President Andrew Johnson to see the power of an ideology being used to protect life, liberty and freedom.

As such, the heretofore passive Resistance must become more radical ideologically and make its basic tenet the immediate impeachment by the House and conviction by the Senate of one Donald John Trump, 45 president of the United States installed illegitimately on the people of the United States by a hostile foreign power.

Furthermore, Radical Resisters will withhold their political support from any candidate — be they Republican or Democrat — who does not advocate the immediate, lawful removal of Donald J. Trump. It is self-evident that Donald J. Trump is not only lacking the temperament to lead the American people, but his craven nature and anti-democratic behavior on any number of obvious accounts leave the citizens of this “city on a hill” to demand immediate representation on the part of their elected officials.

Should the various members of the House and Senate not represent the approximately 60% of the electorate who continue to vouchsafe their intense opposition to the autocratic, nay, fascist and un-Constitutional behavior of the illegal and illegitimate Trump regime, the people should, en masse invoke their Constitutional right to peaceful assembly in protest until such time that Congress heeds the will of the citizens they purport to represent.

As witness by the peaceful, regular and massive protests on the part of the citizens of the Republic of Korea, it is possible for a People’s Impeachment to occur when the more traditional methods of invoking pressure on the elected fail.

Thereby, the Resistance must begin to think seriously of a People’s Impeachment should the Congress continue to fail to properly represent the will of the People.

Why Haven’t We At Least Impeached The Fucker Yet?

by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls

The question of why we haven’t begun impeachment proceedings against Donald J. Trump, 45 president of the United States, is something I struggle with on a daily basis.

The short answer is, of course, that even though his high crimes against the Constitution are legion at this point, there simply isn’t the political willpower to do anything about it.

This comes in no little part from the basic paradox of Democrats impeaching a Republican President — they won’t do it unless they feel they have some bi-partisan support. Republicans, meanwhile, are always locked and loaded to impeach a Democratic president, damn the consequences because they’re shithead dipshits. As such, Democrats simply won’t do anything until either a Mueller Report comes out that would give them some sort of cover, the economy collapses or some sort of enormous bombshell drops independent of Mueller’s investigation. The only place I can think of that this might happen is from the SDNY.

Remember, it was SDNY, not Mueller, who gave Cohen an investigative root around about as deep as you can get without seeing sunshine on the other end. To date, of course, they, too, haven’t really come up with anything that would be the tipping point.

What really, really bothers me is we have Trump dead-to-rights about several things and because the economy is doing well and MAGA people are cult members, nothing is happening. Any other president would be at least impeached for the Stormy Daniels crimes, but as it stands…nothing.

I don’t really expect this to change anytime soon, either. Trump has a bloodlock on about 37% of the electorate, enough to defeat any attempt to convict him in the Senate. So, in a sense, Trump is a king right now. An elected dictator who is, for all intents and purposes, above the law.

And this isn’t going to change.

What I fear is it won’t change in time for it to really matter, even if Mueller drops a bombshell. If Mueller doesn’t drop a bombshell within the next six months, then the people who would otherwise think about impeaching Trump will kick that particular problem down the road into 2020 and say, “Let the people decide.”

The problem with that, of course, is the “people” won’t really decide, but rather a bunch of craven plutocrats who are rather content with the traitorous, felonious nature of the Trump Administration.

This whole thing of waiting for Mueller to “save” us is such a huge cop-out. It’s a national tragedy. For me, there’s no excuse at this point not to immediately at least impeach Trump. We have him dead-to-rights on massive violation of campaign finance law…and yet the Democrats are being fucking wussies on this one.

Our only recourse may be to start to be Radical Resisters and to primary anyone in the Democratic Party who doesn’t make it part of their basic policy to do everything in their power to impeach and convict Trump ASAP.

Because Trump is going to be re-elected, no doubt about it. What damage Russian fuckery doesn’t inflict, asshole American plutocrats will happily take up the slack.

Like I said, if we don’t get Trump by August 2019, we’re going to have to wait until August of 2021. And, really, it’s very possible that because Trump is an avatar for the rotting of the American civil society, it’s very possible that all of my personal gnashing of teeth over the lack of impeachment of Trump will simply bleed into my personal gnashing of teeth over Trump hurding someone like Sen. Tom Cotton to the presidency in an effort to protect his “legacy.”

Fuck MAGA.

Shelton Bumgarner is a writer and photographer in Richmond, Va. He may be reached at migukin (at) gmail (dot) com. He’s working on his first novel.

V-Log: Using The Term ‘Radical Resistors’ For The Left’s Answer To The Tea Party

by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls

Meh. No one listens to me. But this is watchable.

V-Log: ‘Individual-1’ & The Potential Rise of Radical Resistors #Resist

by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls

I have given it some thought and there is a chance that the nation is careening towards the type of instability not seen since the days immediately following the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln in April 1865. The reason I say this is simple — with the naming of Trump as “Individual-1” by Michael Cohen, there’s a possibility that the longer Trump stays in office, the more political power a group of people I’ve come to think of as the Radical Resistors might grow.

These Radical Resistors, much like the Radical Republicans before them, would set the political agenda as the average American who usually doesn’t care about politics, grows frustrated that Trump remains in office for not apparent reason other than the craven nature of the Republican Party, Russian meddling, voter suppression and dark money.

In the below video I think all of that through pretty extensively.