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Republicans mostly silent as millions of Americans protest Trump on No Kings day (www.theguardian.com)

submitted 1 week ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/politics@lemmy.world

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Outside of typical remarks from Donald Trump, JD Vance and Mike Johnson and a Fox News report, party stayed mum

Republican voices were mostly silent as No Kings rallies and marches against Trump administration policies unfurled on Saturday, many in the spirit of a street party that countered the “hate America” depiction advanced by senior members of the party.

Instead of provocation, there were marching bands, huge banners with “we the people” references to the US constitution, and protesters wearing inflatable costumes, particularly frogs, which have emerged as a sign of resistance.

It was the third mass mobilization since Trump’s return to the White House and came against the backdrop of a government shutdown that not only has closed federal programs and services but is testing the core balance of power, as an aggressive executive confronts Congress and the courts in ways that protest organizers warn are a slide toward authoritarianism.

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[-] barkingspiders@infosec.pub 30 points 1 week ago

Wish I could upvote twice, people keep thinking the number is magic

[-] klammeraffe@lemmy.cafe 5 points 1 week ago

3.5% is the magic number decided by people smarter than you and me. Let’s just run with that and stop making excuses for coming short.

[-] barkingspiders@infosec.pub 23 points 1 week ago

Erica Chenoweth and Maria Stephan are absolutely smarter than me but I still think it's a red herring. Focusing on a number like that risks missing sight of the ultimate goal of overthrowing fascism, regardless of what it takes. Plus the math is not settled, it's a complicated number and every situation is unique.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3.5%25_rule

[-] AmbitiousProcess@piefed.social 18 points 1 week ago

And to quote an especially important part about one of the Author's views from that Wikipedia article:

(emphasis added)

Subsequently, Chenoweth has noticed that both nonviolent and armed resistance have been decreasing in efficacy since 2010, concluding that this is the result of authoritarian regimes learning from history, coordinating with one another, and training their armies and police to discourage defections within their ranks. Consequently, Chenoweth has advised that civil resistance movements take these changes into account and alter their tactics accordingly.

To quote even more from this publication, also by one of the authors. (emphasis also added)

The 3.5% participation metric may be useful as a rule of thumb in most cases; however, other factors—momentum, organization, strategic leadership, and sustainability—are likely as important as large-scale participation in achieving movement success and are often precursors to achieving 3.5% participation.

New research suggests that one nonviolent movement, Bahrain in 2011-2014, appears to have decisively failed despite achieving over 6% popular participation at its peak. This suggests that there has been at least one exception to the 3.5% rule, and that the rule is a tendency, rather than a law.

Large peak participation size is associated with movement success. However, most mass nonviolent movements that have succeeded have done so even without achieving 3.5% popular participation.

The key point is this:

The 3.5% figure is a descriptive statistic based on a sample of historical movements. It is not necessarily a prescriptive one, and no one can see the future. Trying to achieve the threshold without building a broader public constituency does not guarantee success in the future.

The very people who publicized this theory in the first place have been repeatedly, publicly trying to clarify that this is descriptive, not prescriptive, yet if you ran with the wording of 50501 and other related movements, you'd think that 3.5% is a magical number that if you pass, the administration instantly backs down. (source: 50501 - Hands Off protest statement: "History shows that when just 3.5% of the population engages in sustained peaceful resistance – transformative change is inevitable.", emphasis added ofc)

[-] kent_eh@lemmy.ca 7 points 6 days ago

The 3.5% participation metric may be useful as a rule of thumb in most cases; however, other factors—momentum, organization, strategic leadership, and sustainability—are likely as important

Another factor is how deeply entrenched the fascists you are trying to dislodge are.

The more levers of power they control (and the longer they control them), the stronger and more sustained the pressure against them needs to be.

[-] iloveDigit@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 week ago

I'm smarter than them and I can assure you the magic number is 2.4% not 3.5%

this post was submitted on 19 Oct 2025

743 points (100.0% liked)

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