Many people wanting Biden to do more in reaction to this Supreme Court decision require a civics lesson.

[ck4829]

25. There is a "more" and it is doable, but from my experience, people don't seem to like it

It'd be really swell if pressing a button one day every other November solved all of our problems, but let's be realistic here...

What other crisis or issue has been prevented or solved this way?

So I present to you from Gene Sharp's "From Dictatorship to Democracy"...

Sources of political power include:

•Authority, the belief among the people that the regime is legitimate, and that they have a moral duty to obey it;

•Human resources, the number and importance of the persons and groups which are obeying, cooperating, or providing assistance to the rulers;

•Skills and knowledge, needed by the regime to perform specific actions and supplied by the cooperating persons and groups;

•Intangible factors, psychological and ideological factors that may induce people to obey and assist the rulers;

•Material resources, the degree to which the rulers control or have access to property, natural resources, financial resources,the economic system, and means of communication and transportation; and

•Sanctions, punishments, threatened or applied, against the disobedient and noncooperative to ensure the submission and cooperation that are needed for the regime to exist and carry out its policies.

Are we prepared to undermine the legitimacy of Trump, of the Republican Party, of the Christian Nationalists? We should be if it's all bad as I hear it is. Do we have a moral duty to obey the things they proclaim? No, right? Are we shaming and resisting the persons and groups that would obey, cooperate, or provide assistance to them? Are we denying them skills and knowledge? Are we ready to? Intangible factors? These three often say they are backed by God? Are we prepared to reject that notion? Are we ready to deny them material resources they need? And are we defending against their sanctions?