The Resistance Is at War. Where’s Our General?
The other side is organized, ruthless, and already on the march. We can’t wait any longer.
If you think we have the luxury of waiting until the midterms to start organizing, you haven’t been paying attention, or you’re part of the problem. Sorry to be blunt, but I’m concerned my fellow citizens are being lulled into complacency.
Donald Trump and his enablers have already shown us the playbook: undermine faith in elections, flood the zone with lies, weaponize the courts, and when all else fails, intimidate through force.
They’re not hiding it. They’re rehearsing it every single day.
So let’s stop pretending 2026 will be just another midterm. It won’t.
🚨 The 2026 Midterms Are Not a Fire Drill
Here’s the truth nobody wants to say out loud: if Trump or his imitators are anywhere near power, they’ll treat the 2026 midterms as the moment to cement minority rule permanently.
Gerrymandering
Voter suppression
Purges of voter rolls
Takeovers of state election boards
These aren’t hypotheticals. They’re happening now, damnit.
🛡️ Organizing Is the Only Antidote
We know what works. Grassroots energy flipped seats in 2018, protected democracy in 2020, and blunted the “red wave” in 2022. Just this week, a Democrat won by 10 points in a +10 Trump State Senate seat in Iowa. That’s what happens when we focus and put boots on the ground.
But this time we need more than energy: we need discipline, strategy, and stamina.
That means:
⚖️ Building election protection teams now including lawyers, poll watchers, rapid response networks.
📰 Funding local journalism to counteract disinformation before it metastasizes.
👥 Training volunteers not just to knock doors but to defend democracy at the county and precinct level.
💰 Creating a war chest for lawsuits, ballot challenges, and digital counter-offensives—not just TV and social media ads.
⏳ Stop Waiting for the Cavalry
The DNC won’t save us. Congress won’t save us. Courts won’t save us.
The cavalry is not coming. It’s us or it’s nobody.
We need to build resistance infrastructure that doesn’t collapse after one news cycle. Think less like a campaign, more like a permanent civil defense operation.
🔥 The Time for Polite Politics Is Over
If you’re worried about being “too partisan,” ask yourself:
Do you think the people who stormed the Capitol care about your tone?
Do you think gerrymandered statehouses or stacked courts are going to reward your civility?
The other side is playing for keeps.
It’s time we did too.
🧭 We Need a General — And Lieutenants
I’ve said this before and I’ll keep saying it: the resistance needs a general. Someone who can rally troops, focus resources, and keep the fight alive when attention drifts.
Think James Carville in the ’90s. Paul Begala. Or someone new with the fire, credibility, and reach to lead this effort into 2026. Movements need faces, not just slogans.
Governor Gavin Newsom is doing a remarkable job keeping the national spotlight where it belongs by hammering home the message that democracy itself is on the line. But Newsom needs to remain free to keep up that drumbeat. We can’t bog him down with running the day-to-day war room.
That’s where we come in. I am proposing that we convene a working group of professionals, strategists, organizers, lawyers, communicators, digital experts—to begin mapping this out. A war room for democracy.
And here’s where I want your input:
Who should be the general?
Who should be the lieutenants—the state-level commanders, the specialists, the operational backbone?
Who needs to be at the table on day one?
📅 2026 Starts Now
The midterms aren’t two years away. They’re already here.
Every week we delay, the other side gets stronger. Every month we wait for a savior, we give away more ground.
History doesn’t hand out second chances. If we blow this one, democracy in America may not survive in any form we recognize.
So: get off the sidelines. Help us convene. Help us choose our general. Help us build the team.
Because the only thing scarier than Donald Trump trying to cancel an election
is us letting him succeed.
Chris Murphy.
You guys are just in despair and want a daddy to look to.