READ: Trump's tyranny needs just ONE more thing to succeed

Even his best henchmen can't provide him with the most powerful tool needed for a military takeover.

The headlines are coming faster than the orders, it seems. You probably awoke this morning like me to the latest dispiriting developments.

President Trump has threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act, a rarely used 1807 law that grants sweeping powers to deploy the military on American soil. I’ve said this is coming, and it is. Along with it, a constitutional crisis will start tearing apart this country if Trump is not blocked or does not back down.

Already, the federal deployment of 300 National Guard troops in California has been quietly extended into next year. Troops are landing in Chicago. Court orders are being dodged by the Trump administration as it seeks to send the military into Portland. Meanwhile, mayors and governors are being ignored as they insist they don’t need or want troops.

Yesterday, the governor of the nation’s largest state wrote perhaps the scariest post I’ve seen in a long time:

“America is on the brink of martial law. Do not be silent.”

And yet, with each new development, the most dangerous thing happening isn’t what Trump is doing. It’s who might let him do it. In mere months, he’s nearly normalized the idea of troops being deployed into American cities, but it wasn’t weapons and warplanes that allowed him to start this process. Something far more powerful enabled him to do it: the consent of the governed.

Someone saw this coming nearly 500 years ago.

You’ve probably never heard of Étienne de la Boétie. He wasn’t a famous soldier or a president. Born in 1530 in France, he died young and largely unknown to his contemporaries. But at around age 18, he wrote an essay so radical that his friend Montaigne refused to publish it for fear of the consequences.

It was called The Discourse of Voluntary Servitude. One of our incredible subscribers to TREASON forwarded me the essay, and I devoured it, including the history behind it, because of its relevance to this moment.

The young man wrote his essay during a time of enormous religious and political upheaval in France. The country was teetering on the edge of civil war, as tensions between religious factions turned increasingly violent. Monarchs were using these to enhance their self-proclaimed rule by divine right, and the crackdown on dissent was more severe than usual. An essay critical of the ruling class could get him called.

Against this backdrop, Boétie demanded to know “Why?” Why do the many obey the few? Why do people submit to tyranny when they outnumber and outpower the tyrant? Why do they build the scaffolding of their own oppression?

His answer: because they choose to.

“He who thus domineers over you has only two eyes, only two hands, only one body... he has indeed nothing more than the power that you confer upon him to destroy you.”

Let those words echo into our moment. Trump doesn’t need millions of Americans to cheer him on. He just needs millions to comply by looking the other way. The tyrant is propped up and his rule continues because we make him powerful by stepping aside as he imposes his will.

“So many villages, so many cities, so many nations, sometimes suffer under a single tyrant who has no other power than the power they give him,” Boétie wrote.

Sadly, America has given Trump a lot of power by acquiescence. He has sent elite Border Patrol counterterrorism teams into cities that aren’t even on the border. He has soldiers flying from red states into blue states to enforce his edicts. He has vile aides and unflinching enforcers building the architecture of a police state. He even has lawyers and judges who might bless it all out of fear (perhaps of their homes getting torched).

But he doesn’t have you, at least not yet.

The final ingredient in a dictatorship — the part that I said will enable the worst developments of all — is mass compliance. Trump is testing the limits of our submission, which is why our defiance cannot be merely legal. It must be moral.

“It is therefore the inhabitants themselves who permit, or, rather, bring about, their own subjection,” Boétie continued, “since by ceasing to submit they would put an end to their servitude.”

Do we stand, or do we kneel?

Many of you will read this and beg for a practical solution. “Yes, but what can I do?” I am going to give you an answer. Right now, it’s the only real answer. Boétie didn’t call for blood or urge civil war. He offered a radical nonviolent strategy:

“Resolve to serve no more, and you are at once freed.”

This can apply to every single person in our society. Members of the military and government officials should refuse to enforce orders the courts find illegal. Local leaders should refuse to accept the militarization of their territories — proactively, before Trump ever singles them out on social media. And each individual citizen should refuse to accept a president’s power grab as lawful just because he says it is.

You must protest it. If ever there was a reason for you (if you’re an American reading this) to stand up, it is now. We are in a moment where our national survival is in doubt. In two weeks, there will be one of the biggest nationwide protests in recent history. October 18. “No Kings” Day. You need to be there.

Like many of you, I’m not the “protesting type.” But you know what? Neither were our founders… until they were. By necessity. It’s easy to make excuses for not showing up at moments like this, but it won’t be easy to explain to your friends, children, or grandchildren why you did nothing as America fell apart.

Boétie believed that tyrants rule only as long as the people consent to their own domination. Remove that consent, and the entire structure collapses. Donald Trump believes the nation is too tired, too divided, and too afraid to resist. He is basically daring us — daring each of you — to prove him wrong.

Decide how you’ll meet that challenge. And maybe start by marking your calendars.

P.S. WHAT’S HAPPENING ON TREASON

Here’s what’s coming up. Tomorrow WEDNESDAY has become a big day. Here’s why…

1. Tomorrow / Weds, Oct 8 - Support James Comey - This is the day former FBI Director James Comey will be arraigned in federal court — they moved it up a day. I expect Donald Trump will “leak” Comey’s mugshot. I hope you’ve picked up a copy of one of Comey’s books and are prepared to respond by posting photos of it. I will also be doing LIVEs throughout the day about it.

2. Tomorrow / Weds, Oct 8 (12noon ET) - Subscribers Only - Weekly Wednesday Coffee - There is a lot to talk about this week. We’ll pick back up with our weekly coffees — bring questions for a chance to win a signed book. You can join here.

3. Tomorrow / Weds, Oct 8 (4:30p ET) - Congressman Robert Garcia on shutdowns & censorship - Rep. Garcia is the leading Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, the ones holding the Trump administration’s feet to the fire. Join us for a wide-ranging discussion about the current government shutdown and the administration’s unprecedented Censorship War. You can join here.

4. Fri, Oct 10 (5:15p ET) - Stacey Abrams tells us what a real resistance looks like - She’s been on a roll. Georgia politician, lawyer, and Democratic leader Stacey Abrams has given a lot of thought about what needs to happen next. Come find out what that is. You can join here.