Transcript
David Pakman (0:07)
Welcome to the show. If you haven't heard what is happening this weekend, you need to. April 5th could be huge. We are talking about potentially millions of people mobilizing across the country. These are called the hands off protests. And this is the same progressive coalition to a degree that came together after the 2016 election when Donald Trump was elected. This time, these protests are going to be targeting really sort of like a fresh round of authoritarian style policy changes, these executive orders, the sweeping government cuts, the DOGE stuff, headed at least for a few more weeks by none other than Elon Musk. By the way, Doge may not even exist come June 1st, and we're going to talk about that a little bit later in the show as well. I am both extraordinarily inspired to see that these protests are happening. And I also have some words of caution. You know, one of the things I talk about in my book, the Echo Machine, is that there are forms of activism that historically have been shown to be effective. When mass rallies happen in urban centers, especially numerous urban centers across the country, they get noticed. And this is one of the most effective forms of protest historically. We vote. Does signing petitions do much? I don't think so. Especially not online petitions. Signing to put things on the ballot locally, that's one thing. Signing online petitions, I don't think it's very high up. It's certainly not high up on my list. Calling elected officials. Yes, absolutely. But what are the forms of protests that have been demonstrated really to affect change historically? And mass rallies at urban centers are one of them. They can't be ignored. It's where people work, it's where people live. It's where you have news stations filming and reporting. But the goal isn't just symbolic, it's also strategic. But it only works if the protests are three things. Okay, this, this is the, this might be the most critical line from today's show. Let's actually, let's keep today's show rather than deleting it immediately after recording. Okay? The protests must be massive, nonviolent and inclusive. Now, what do I mean by inclusive? I'll get to that in a moment. When I say massive, I'm not talking about a few dozen people standing on a corner. The way that movements get momentum is through massive numbers. That's number one. But being massive is necessary, but it's not sufficient unless the protests are nonviolent without criminality. If you want to destroy this movement from within, show up and start breaking windows, fighting with police, etc. That's all it takes Now, I'm not even saying that police always act in the right way. In fact, we've been critical that police don't always act in the right way. But the point here is it needs to be self policed from the inside, but also with regard to provocateurs from outside that will seek to make it seem as though the protests are violent. You've got to really root out violence from within and also prevent it from coming in and making it look bad. So I don't know how you do that. You need to figure out how you do that. Violence plays directly into the authoritarian playbook. And here's what's critical to understand. If we are mobilizing against authoritarianism, which we are, one of the things authoritarian movements love is to be able to justify violence and repression against protesters. If the protesters come in and break stuff or get violent, you will immediately lose the moral high ground. The media coverage will shift and suddenly the broken Starbucks window becomes the story, and it will play in to authoritarians like Trump saying, we need the National Guard, let's get the governor on the phone to call in the National Guard. So they've got to be nonviolent, and number three, they have to be inclusive. And this is crucial. We cannot repeat the mistakes of past movements that turned inward and started gatekeeping their own members. Remember the Women's March where Jewish women were not considered intersectional and depressed enough to be on the leadership? That is not activism, that's purity testing. And one of the reasons that Democrats lost in 2024 is that when Republicans see someone from the left who has one disagreement with the left, they go, come on in. Join our movement. After the election, you're no longer part of it, but at least for the purposes of winning elections, you have one disagreement, they go, come on in. What we see on the left too often is you have one disagreement. We're not part of the same movement. I don't want your votes. I don't want your votes. And that's a disaster. So if you care about civil liberties, if you care about democracy, if you don't want to hand the country over to a billionaire running a fake government agency and cutting everything, then you're in, Period. And that's really the way that it should be. That's what solidarity looks like. So something big is happening this weekend. If you're going, be smart, bring people with you. If you're not going, there will, there will be many ways to amplify what's going on online. Make noise online, and this could be the beginning of a major inflection point in 2025 or it could end up being a missed opportunity. It's up to us. I hope it's the former. Let me know if you're going info@david pakman.com we occasionally see honesty from elected officials. And one of the little bits or scraps of honesty that's available right now is that every once in a while you'll hear from a Republican elected official that Trump's economic policies are going to be harmful to the average person. Kaitlan Collins on CNN had Senator Tim Sheehy on and said, isn't the tariff policy of Trump going to hurt Montanans people in your state of Montana? And Sheehy acknowledged, yes, yes, but it's only going to be short term. Let's take a listen.