Trump’s dark vision has a weak spot. Here’s how to hit it

The nightmare is already upon us, but too many are simply sleepwalking through their days, leaning on carefully crafted and long assumed structures of normalcy, where you go to the office, pay the phone bill, check your feed, take the kids to swim lessons, go to a game — activities that reaffirm that everything is as it should be, it's okay, life today entails all that was thought guaranteed just last year, last decade, last generation.

It is the dream, the one you were taught to expect in school, promised by parents, told by leaders.

But that framework of normalcy is the battered social infrastructure of the past. Because life in America right now is not okay. Slowly, at a varying pace, Americans are opening their eyes to the fact that the expectations of an American life, the birthright to freedom and opportunity, an absolute right to our own thoughts, the ongoing expansion of civil rights, advances in science, creative new arts — all no longer a given, indeed are slipping away.

We awaken to the nightmare of the new reality, where nothing is as it was, no right is irrevocable, facts no longer unassailable, no conventional wisdom predominates, national unity is no longer even desired, national sanity now a punchline. That is our waking reality.

Those with open eyes see a pale truth, one exposed without pancaked bronzer.

In the summer of 2025, the GOP and Donald Trump are in control of a post-Constitution America, a post-fact culture, a post-science society, a post-"United" States, a neo-theocratic nation in which Trump stands as the Republican God on Earth. Trump and the GOP have laid the marble foundation for one-party rule into the foreseeable future, building a ballroom in which they can drink in power and dance for decades, encamped in a newly hardened White House, a perimeter patrolled by troops and light armor.

Between now and the certification of the 2026 elections, Americans writ large, regardless of party, must both wake up to this new reality and decide if it is worth the fight to get that birthright back: fight for a normal life in an enlightened democracy, a middle class existence with vacations and savings, a citizens' republic where votes matter, one in which facts exist as reported, alternative views are expected and respected, where certain cherished values override day trading in political transactions.

We will be challenged to fight for all of it by fighting for real elections that really matter. As things are now, we cannot count on that right. Many fight hard. Too many lean on vapid "normalcy."

Let's set out reality as it is, wide awake.

Trump is already altering perfectly accurate elections. He demanded and received five more seats out of Texas. He wants control of the vote, writing an unconstitutional executive order outlawing mail-in voting and requiring paper ballots. He has specifically said that ridding this country of the normal right to vote would "get rid of politics" forever. Meaning one-party rule, and in this party, that means all power, post-Constitutional, flows from one unstable man.

The Founders' nightmare, our waking reality.

In so doing, Trump is already posturing for a win in 2026 or the basis on which to fight a possible loss. He is setting up the framework needed to contest seating a Democratic-run House of Representatives. He declared real crime statistics "fake," to create a false emergency to call in troops. The result is a military occupation of our capital, answering only to the president.

Breathe that naked fact in. That's what dictators do: use troops, guns, and armor to secure the seat of government. He has already said he will do it in other Democratic cities … Now consider what he is willing to do next November. Is there any reason to believe he will accept the reality of an election? Or create his own if needed, leading to "one-party rule."

One also has to awaken to the propaganda. Please remember that propaganda is not used to convince anyone to believe any one story or explanation. No, propaganda is infused into every statement, interview, press conference, meme, whatever, so overwhelmingly that citizens give up on even the very idea of truth, that select facts exist as knowable and pertinent.

In the post-Constitution propaganda state, every report on every subject, even prices or unemployment numbers, all are said to come with a political angle and are thus rendered debatable and deniable. Every announcement implies an agenda. If a news outlet cites rising costs or job losses, the response will be that it is a fake story by the "liberal media" that hates America and is out to get Trump.

This administration tosses aside bad news like a bone of fried chicken. It could be someone citing crime statistics in D.C., a mediocre Bureau of Labor report, a military bomb damage assessment, rising prices, a jury finding regarding rape in a civil case, Epstein victims, or even the undeniable need for vaccinations — they can all be scoffed at and rage tweeted as just the product of someone wanting to stop America from being great. In a propaganda-infused fascist state, plain and obvious facts no longer exist, never mind matter. The post-truth administration no longer seeks reality.

Only the message matters. And the message is that America is the "hottest" country in the world. In the post-truth existence, Trump has ended six wars and deserves a Nobel Prize. He has record-high approval ratings, higher than any president ever. The administration has done more than any in history.

It is all branding, it is all propaganda. Try finding the "truth" in any of it.

More Americans are awakening to at least that truth. But too few are fighting. California Governor Gavin Newsom has become an overnight hero by finding a foothold for real resistance.

A genius within Newsom's organization decided to hold a mirror up to the outrageously ridiculous behavior that we're now conditioned to see as "normal," only to show how freaking bizarre this shit looks when coming from anyone else. Its brilliance flows from the fact that it's based on what people see and feel, not so much a fight for truth. In a post-truth, "branded" society, this mirror is the leading Democratic message: be the anti-matter in all Trump matters, drain the message's power with a reverse image.

Newsom isn't wasting a lot of time arguing principles or what is right or best. That is implied. He is fighting for the sake of a fight. The fight itself becomes sufficient truth. If utter insanity is the coin of the realm, then invest billions in crypto-crazy cash and bank it right back at them. In this post-normal context, Newsom has landed a blow.

There are many other ways to resist and fight back. There are, in fact, truths that are felt rather than messaged. You feel it when you go to get groceries, and a frozen pizza is $10. The pizza went up $3 in two years, while your paycheck stayed the same. This is a hard truth that Trump cannot circumvent: the "feel."

People wanting democracy and normalcy must act. Democrats must invest in outreach to that feeling: you feel you are falling behind, and we know it. No matter how "hot" the country may be, you feel increasingly left in the cold. To fight back in the propaganda dictatorial state, movements must be based on the mood, not necessarily facts, and then message the ever-living hell out of it on every screen in existence.

All government legitimacy comes from some level of consent. We consented to Trump's election because he won, and that's what Constitution-based Americans do. But as he grabs for post-Constitutional power, consent must be withdrawn.

It can be done with movements and protests. But ultimately, it will likely take turning the tables and shaking the administration's waking assumption, the one in which Americans acquiesce to increasing dictatorial power by continuing to go about their normal everyday lives, working, consuming, and sleepwalking. Crash that dreamy predicate.

It will take economic boycotts of certain companies, even sectors, perhaps a national "savings" movement where people forego discretionary spending to slow the economy, perhaps even general strikes, protests that fly above facts and arguments but go right to messaging and what people feel. The republic needs a shakeup that alters presidential assumptions about normal Americans.

But no plan or movement can work until enough citizens awaken to the post-truth world and see that nothing is normal, no matter how many PTA events or farmers' markets they attend. For now, at least, Newsom's message is the true north for those not so much "woke" as "awoken."

From Newsom's foothold, outreach should not focus on Americans' heads, but their gut, the only truth available. Home in on that vast majority that knows it's left behind and share the message that they're valued and matter because they are and do. Provide reasons to feel included, involved, even optimistic, thereby empowered. And then act together in any way but "normal."

For now, Newsom is pointing the way. In a post-fact, post-Constitution, propagandized America, perhaps the only reliable counterpoints lie in mirror images, the lenses by which it's easiest to see that things are not okay. Forget normal messaging. Go for the "feeling" that this abnormal situation requires a gut reaction, something unexpected, something that awakens them to a new reality. The slumbering giant pushes back. It is now okay to do just that.

• Jason Miciak is a columnist for Rawstory, former Assoc. Editor at Occupy Democrats, an American Attorney and Author. He can be reached at jasonmiciak@gmail.com and is available for speaking or consulting engagements.