New York Times columnist David Brooks calls for national 'uprising' against Trump

New York Times columnist David Brooks has called for a "comprehensive national civic uprising" to protest the Trump administration. In a column he published on Thursday in the pages of the Grey Lady, Brooks said that "Trumpism" is "threatening" American institutions, the Constitution, the legal system, science, news media, charity, businesses, and anything else he could think of. He offers no solutions, however, but to return to Biden's status quo.

Brooks outlined a strategy to mobilize Americans in opposition to "Trumpism," encouraging them to use tactics similar to those seen in revolutionary communist movements. As for the definition of "Trumpism," Brooks said that it is "primarily about the acquisition of power — power for its own sake." To achieve its ends, he said, "any institutions that might restrain power must be weakened or destroyed."

Brooks, a self-identified Republican, claimed that the institutional resistance to President Trump has been insufficient and urged Americans across all professional sectors to unite and organize against the president. Instead of looking at each prong of Trump's plans to Make America Great Again as a separate issue, Brooks encouraged his fellow resisters to create "a concerted response" to "push back" against Trump's "single effort to undo the parts of the civilzational order" that "restrain" the administration's "aquisition of power."

"What is happening now is not normal politics. We’re seeing an assault on the fundamental institutions of our civic life, things we should all swear loyalty to — Democrat, independent or Republican," Brooks writes in his opinion piece titled, "What's Happening in Not Normal. America Needs an Uprising That Is Not Normal."

"It’s time for a comprehensive national civic uprising. It's time for Americans in universities, law, business, nonprofits and the scientific community, and civil servants and beyond to form one coordinated mass movement. Trump is about power. The only way he's going to be stopped is if he's confronted by some movement that possesses rival power," Brooks writes.

In the piece, Brooks identifies historical movements that he believes were successful in subverting regimes by compelling them to take actions that undermined their legitimacy. He cited the civil rights disturbances in Selma, Alabama, as an example of the uprisings he wants to see against the Trump administration.

"These movements began small and built up. They developed clear messages that appealed to a variety of groups. They shifted the narrative so the authoritarians were no longer on permanent offense. Sometimes they used nonviolent means to provoke the regime into taking violent action, which shocks the nation, undercuts the regime’s authority and further strengthens the movement," Brooks details before going on to complain further about "Trumpism."

"Right now, Trumpism is dividing civil society; if done right, the civic uprising can begin to divide the forces of Trumpism," Brooks states.

The column, which doubles as a book review, goes on to describe the crux of the problem: Americans are living in a low-trust society while being saddled with institutions that require high trust to function. 

In the end, he calls for lawsuits to "Stop Trump. Foil his efforts." He calls for resisters to "Turn some of his followers against him" and says that "Whether it’s the universities, the immigration system or the global economy, we can’t go back to the status quo that prevailed when Trump first rode down the escalator."

Then he compares the condition of the American people to that of enslavement. "Trump is shackling the greatest institutions in American life. We have nothing to lose but our chains," Brooks claims.