‘Grind the country to a halt’: Democratic Senator urges national strike if Trump meddles in midterms.
From The Guardian, February 5, 2026
“The Democratic senator from Arizona ,Ruben Gallego has proposed that, should Donald Trump try to sabotage the midterm elections, Americans should respond with a general strike that would “grind the country to a halt”.
“If we have to destroy the stock market to save democracy, we need to accept that and, more importantly, the richest and the most powerful people in the world and in this country need to understand that that is a real possibility. There is no economic stability without democratic stability. If you take away our democratic stability, we will take away the economic stability.”
From The Peaceful Solution:
All praise to the Senator for proposing a meaningful method to oppose the fascist takeover of the country. We need people of his stature to lead this effort.
It is past time to escalate the resistance, and this proposal would certainly do that. But for many people, if you don’t work, you don’t get paid. And for how long could most people keep it up? And with AI coming for a lot of people’s jobs, this would be the perfect opportunity for businesses to fire a lot of people.
Here’s another proposal that will work as well, without the collateral damage:
The Peaceful Solution-Part 1
How much do you want to stop His Royal Heinous and the fascist takeover of the country?
Enough that you’re willing to make a small sacrifice? Like altering your spending habits for a month or two or three? That could be all it would take to get the attention of the oligarchs (formerly known as The Robber Barons in the first Gilded Age, also The Fat Cats, The Greedy Bastards).
A brief demonstration of We, the People’s, power of the purse could persuade them to quit supporting HRH and the politicians who enable him.
We quit spending, except on essentials, businesses lose money, stock market goes down, Greedy Bastards pay attention to our demands.
Greedy Bastards own most of the politicians of both major parties. GBs start losing money, tell politicians to change course and do what We, the People want.
We are running out of peaceful options. The Republican controlled legislature is controlled by HRH. He controls the executive branch, including the Military, Justice Department, FBI, ICE, the IRS. He controls all levers of power.
We, the people, still have the power of the purse. No one can control our spending, or lack of spending. When all else fails we can go on a spending strike until the business community stops supporting HRH and the politicians who enable him.
Economic warfare is the only thing the oligarchs, the business community will understand and act on. Call it a Surreptitious General Strike (Quiet Quitting). Go to work, do as little as possible. Stop spending money except on essentials. Quit feeding the corporate beast that supports the HRH.
Stop participating. Nearly 70% of the U.S. economy is driven by consumer spending. All of us. Hobble the economy and the stock market. Mahatma Gandhi drove the British from India by peaceful civil disobedience and economic disruption. We can stop the fascist takeover in the same way.
We can keep rehashing past and present atrocities until our access to the internet is taken away by the regime, or we can DO something!
Please: Resist. Stop cooperating. Stop spending. Stop the fascist takeover.
Thank you for restacking, and sharing, to help Spread the Word!
The stop spending method could work longer, have wider participation, if we had neighborhood mutual aid- so people could borrow what they need, or share items or services.
1. have a "General Strike," and the heck with millions who can't afford to lose money by being off work. 2. Take away economic stability...you're asking for a real switch to autocracy...that's what trump is doing today. 3. "escalate resistance?" would you be the one to face the crazy ICE folks who apparently love to shoot and abuse people? 4. reduce spending...you think that will affect the billionaire mega millionaires, or do many citizens have to cut down the little they can afford now? Outside of the fact you let the whole financial situation feel and it would take decades to reestablish. The megas will just stop buying stock for their businesses, sit back in their mega-million estates and laugh the whole thing off. 5. This isn't India, apples and oranges to the present USA economy. 6. You want to stop the fascist takeover then Americans will have to stop voting for the fascist republicans in Congress who only do trump's bidding, and then impeach and convict trump and all his sycophants Congress or Departments and start on a resurrection of democracy. But, you keep on voting for republicans then it doesn't matter who the solutions discussed above are...nothing is going to happen in the long run but even more tumult, and pain. Wake up America it is time to act now and vote for those who are for not against America....and those happen to be DEMOCRATS!
Those in the Resistance need to be thinking beyond the midterms.
Most Americans disapprove of His Royal Heinous, but they are looking for an easy solution. One that will not require even a small sacrifice on their part, or any disruption to their life.
They are putting too much faith in what the midterms will do. The midterms may have a beneficial psychologic effect but in reality the outcome will have little or no practical effect, unless the Dems can get 2/3 majority in the house and senate, which they won’t. They will not be able to undo anything His Royal Heinous has done, or pass new legislation, because of his veto power.
There will be investigations if the Dems take the House, but to what end. There will be no cooperation and HRH will pardon all perpetrators, and they know it.
They will impeach HRH, but we’ve seen that movie twice before. Convicted in the senate and removed from office? We can only hope, but hope is not a strategy.
He will continue to rule by “National Emergency“ and Executive Orders and almost surely the Supreme Court will allow it.
The greatest danger in all this is that it will appear that something beneficial is happening. The majority of people will believe the system is working. After about a year they will realize that nothing is changing. Then they will think, Oh well, he’ll be gone after the election next year.
Or will he? It took the Hungarians 16 years to get rid of Orban, and the Project 2025 people will certainly not make the same mistakes that Orban did.
For solutions, visit my profile page.
Please: Resist. Stop cooperating. Stop spending. Stop the fascist takeover.
Thank you for restacking, and sharing, to help Spread the Word!
With trump's approval ratings at around the mid 30s to the point that it is quite possible that many GOP voters will stay at home as initially evidenced by their terrible turnouts in state republican primaries. It is also a fact that it only takes a majority in the House to impeach something trump is initially scared to face. In the Senate you need 67 votes...can the Dems get that far, doubt it, but we don't know how badly the GOP will do in this election in the Senate, as a warning for the next one around. Dependent on how many Dems can win new Senate seat could tilt the minds of other GOP Senators as to their viability to be reelected in 2028.
Frankly, I wouldn't go so far as to say that the SCOTUS will go along with a "National Emergency" as there would be none other than trump and his sycophants being in trouble. Also, those clowns in the SCOTUS who have been playing the trump/fascist game might very well find themselves impeached and thrown out if they continue to act rogue irrespective of the Constitution.
Something "beneficial" is hardly the case as people have lost too much, millions not only in health care, SNAP benefits, the ACA and Medicaid that they are not too keen on the republicans dissing their benefits needed for their survival. Also, it took less that 4 years to get Orban out in his first go around 1998-2002. This is technically trump's first go around because the first term was rather benign compared to this one. Good Luck and thanks.
Marci Shore's knowledge is immense and her style is emotional intelligence personified. I wish I could have been a young person in her class.
Remembering the Shore-Snyder report from the Kyiv Book Arsenal in May - does anyone know of a charity or organisation or fundraiser that would help resupply the small booksellers who lost all their stock in a missile strike on Kyiv's book market this week?
I finished listening to the series yesterday. So fascinating. I grew up in the 60s/70s and so much of this stuff wasn’t known or seen! An eye-opening and thought-provoking series all the way ‘round. I’ve been thinking a lot this morning about “the end of history”—even how it applies in small ways to our lives as we age.
Thinking The Twentieth Century is an excellent book. Well recommended. Somewhere on a list I found "The Stalin-Kaganovich Correspondence 1931-36" recommended for this series. The book just arrived and the cover has been cracked. Thank you Tim.
I just watched Mr Jones today (after I listened to your lecture). What an amazing film! I'm so thankful that you're making these lectures public. I'm learning so much!
Communism got taken off the rails by fanatics in Russia, China, Korea, Cuba, Vietnam, etc., fanatics who were true believers that they could change human consciousness through abolition of private property, collectivization, forced famine, breakdown of the nuclear family, rejection of religion, etc. But capitalism can be taken off the rails too when we become a mafia state, which I believe is what's happening now, and fanatical belief in the American Gospel of Prosperity, or the primacy of technology (Pope Leo's warning about Artificial lntelligence). But do people even remember that for Marx the purpose of owning what one produces, the fruits of your labor, the works you make, was SELF-KNOWLEDGE? It's an old 19th Century Romantic Philosophy concept, and philosophy has moved well beyond these ideas. They've even been criticized as idolatrous and blasphemous, if we take seriously our catechism. In my Cajun first grade lessons, "Who made me?" "God made me." "Why God made me?" "God made me to know, love, and serve Him." My point is that we don't need a Hoover Institute or a Saint Ronald Reagan or an Elon Musk or a merry band of technocrats/oligarchs persuading MAGA to argue that our social safety net is un-American. It's enough to point out that the very premises of communism are weak and outdated BUT the critiques communism directs at off the rails capitalism are still strong today, and cogent. It's unchecked capitalism and AUTHORITARIANISM we need to be opposing today, as much as communism. We don't need a class of rulers as in Plato's Republic replacing politics & persuasion with divisive demagoguery, a zero sum game, winner take all/scorched earth ethos, with rhetorical techniques we've known about and debunked since BCE (Before the Common Era)!
Phenomenal. Professor Marci Shore walks us thru the eras of Lenin and Stalin in a most fascinating manner. I felt as though I’d opened, Bloodlines, written by her spouse, Professor Tim Snyder, and was walking the pages as she narrated details. The complexity and depth of her lecture is spellbinding. My only regret is that too many have not visited the pages, and the offering of these lectures.
These lectures are incredibly helpful. Thank you. I don’t know where we are in America right now, but it seems clear that true believers in any kind of perfect system, get us in trouble. Reality is messy and the ends do not justify the means.
Hi Tim: In this lesson on Stalin called "Why Was Communism Appealing?" you need to answer "TO WHOM?"
As you know, I lived in Russia and other Russian-speaking countries for about 20 years. Although I studied Russian in the U.S., I came to understand that truly grasping Russians and their remarkable language required immersion—and that is what I pursued.
For two years, I traveled between Denver, Colorado, and Moscow, USSR, staying for two to three weeks at a time with Lidiya Vergosovna. She was an avid Communist, retired, widowed, and by Soviet standards, living comfortably. Previously she taught history at MGU. Lidiya, and her relatives and friends, would cram into her small kitchen - all with the genuine effort of teaching the American about Russia and how to speak genuine Russian. For every slang word in English, there are 5 to 10 in Russian. It was a critical part of my transition and paved the way for my deep understanding of Lidiya, her life, and the lives of many others living under Communism. I became bi-cultural in this process, moved to Moscow with my two youngest children and enrolled them in Moscow Public Schools, and by the time of the coups in 1991 and 93 - I was Russian.
I witnessed this transition through Lidiya’s life. She could no longer call for a car, access the best medical care, or shop at upscale grocery stores for butter and coffee. She still had her comfortable two-bedroom apartment in a pleasant part of Moscow, and I helped her with daily errands, such as buying fresh bread. I still miss her astounding soups; despite everything, we were never hungry.
Living as a devoted and educated Communist brought stability to life in Russia. It demanded loyalty but also instilled the love and pride of culture. This all crumbled and Russia once again was thrown into chaos. Factories closed, no salaries, less food available, snipers in tall Moscow buildings, doctors no longer visiting you at home, and so on. Corruption was found around every corner, while Yeltsin opened the borders and allowed people to travel and foreigners to visit.
This message could fill a book, so I will stop here – but you need to know that under Communism there was little to no street crime. People felt safe and lived comfortably.
This lecture makes me remember my line to friends or family--there are three questions you answer before you do that: (1) What are you running from? (2) What are you running to? (3) Why? Are they real?
This was so riveting that I listened to it as I went about my household chores like my own grandmother would have listened to her “stories” on the television. She is a wonderful presenter. And the material was tragically, horrifically fascinating.
‘Grind the country to a halt’: Democratic Senator urges national strike if Trump meddles in midterms.
From The Guardian, February 5, 2026
“The Democratic senator from Arizona ,Ruben Gallego has proposed that, should Donald Trump try to sabotage the midterm elections, Americans should respond with a general strike that would “grind the country to a halt”.
“If we have to destroy the stock market to save democracy, we need to accept that and, more importantly, the richest and the most powerful people in the world and in this country need to understand that that is a real possibility. There is no economic stability without democratic stability. If you take away our democratic stability, we will take away the economic stability.”
From The Peaceful Solution:
All praise to the Senator for proposing a meaningful method to oppose the fascist takeover of the country. We need people of his stature to lead this effort.
It is past time to escalate the resistance, and this proposal would certainly do that. But for many people, if you don’t work, you don’t get paid. And for how long could most people keep it up? And with AI coming for a lot of people’s jobs, this would be the perfect opportunity for businesses to fire a lot of people.
Here’s another proposal that will work as well, without the collateral damage:
The Peaceful Solution-Part 1
How much do you want to stop His Royal Heinous and the fascist takeover of the country?
Enough that you’re willing to make a small sacrifice? Like altering your spending habits for a month or two or three? That could be all it would take to get the attention of the oligarchs (formerly known as The Robber Barons in the first Gilded Age, also The Fat Cats, The Greedy Bastards).
A brief demonstration of We, the People’s, power of the purse could persuade them to quit supporting HRH and the politicians who enable him.
We quit spending, except on essentials, businesses lose money, stock market goes down, Greedy Bastards pay attention to our demands.
Greedy Bastards own most of the politicians of both major parties. GBs start losing money, tell politicians to change course and do what We, the People want.
We are running out of peaceful options. The Republican controlled legislature is controlled by HRH. He controls the executive branch, including the Military, Justice Department, FBI, ICE, the IRS. He controls all levers of power.
We, the people, still have the power of the purse. No one can control our spending, or lack of spending. When all else fails we can go on a spending strike until the business community stops supporting HRH and the politicians who enable him.
Economic warfare is the only thing the oligarchs, the business community will understand and act on. Call it a Surreptitious General Strike (Quiet Quitting). Go to work, do as little as possible. Stop spending money except on essentials. Quit feeding the corporate beast that supports the HRH.
Stop participating. Nearly 70% of the U.S. economy is driven by consumer spending. All of us. Hobble the economy and the stock market. Mahatma Gandhi drove the British from India by peaceful civil disobedience and economic disruption. We can stop the fascist takeover in the same way.
We can keep rehashing past and present atrocities until our access to the internet is taken away by the regime, or we can DO something!
Please: Resist. Stop cooperating. Stop spending. Stop the fascist takeover.
Thank you for restacking, and sharing, to help Spread the Word!
The stop spending method could work longer, have wider participation, if we had neighborhood mutual aid- so people could borrow what they need, or share items or services.
1. have a "General Strike," and the heck with millions who can't afford to lose money by being off work. 2. Take away economic stability...you're asking for a real switch to autocracy...that's what trump is doing today. 3. "escalate resistance?" would you be the one to face the crazy ICE folks who apparently love to shoot and abuse people? 4. reduce spending...you think that will affect the billionaire mega millionaires, or do many citizens have to cut down the little they can afford now? Outside of the fact you let the whole financial situation feel and it would take decades to reestablish. The megas will just stop buying stock for their businesses, sit back in their mega-million estates and laugh the whole thing off. 5. This isn't India, apples and oranges to the present USA economy. 6. You want to stop the fascist takeover then Americans will have to stop voting for the fascist republicans in Congress who only do trump's bidding, and then impeach and convict trump and all his sycophants Congress or Departments and start on a resurrection of democracy. But, you keep on voting for republicans then it doesn't matter who the solutions discussed above are...nothing is going to happen in the long run but even more tumult, and pain. Wake up America it is time to act now and vote for those who are for not against America....and those happen to be DEMOCRATS!
The Midterms Will Not Solve the Problem
Those in the Resistance need to be thinking beyond the midterms.
Most Americans disapprove of His Royal Heinous, but they are looking for an easy solution. One that will not require even a small sacrifice on their part, or any disruption to their life.
They are putting too much faith in what the midterms will do. The midterms may have a beneficial psychologic effect but in reality the outcome will have little or no practical effect, unless the Dems can get 2/3 majority in the house and senate, which they won’t. They will not be able to undo anything His Royal Heinous has done, or pass new legislation, because of his veto power.
There will be investigations if the Dems take the House, but to what end. There will be no cooperation and HRH will pardon all perpetrators, and they know it.
They will impeach HRH, but we’ve seen that movie twice before. Convicted in the senate and removed from office? We can only hope, but hope is not a strategy.
He will continue to rule by “National Emergency“ and Executive Orders and almost surely the Supreme Court will allow it.
The greatest danger in all this is that it will appear that something beneficial is happening. The majority of people will believe the system is working. After about a year they will realize that nothing is changing. Then they will think, Oh well, he’ll be gone after the election next year.
Or will he? It took the Hungarians 16 years to get rid of Orban, and the Project 2025 people will certainly not make the same mistakes that Orban did.
For solutions, visit my profile page.
Please: Resist. Stop cooperating. Stop spending. Stop the fascist takeover.
Thank you for restacking, and sharing, to help Spread the Word!
With trump's approval ratings at around the mid 30s to the point that it is quite possible that many GOP voters will stay at home as initially evidenced by their terrible turnouts in state republican primaries. It is also a fact that it only takes a majority in the House to impeach something trump is initially scared to face. In the Senate you need 67 votes...can the Dems get that far, doubt it, but we don't know how badly the GOP will do in this election in the Senate, as a warning for the next one around. Dependent on how many Dems can win new Senate seat could tilt the minds of other GOP Senators as to their viability to be reelected in 2028.
Frankly, I wouldn't go so far as to say that the SCOTUS will go along with a "National Emergency" as there would be none other than trump and his sycophants being in trouble. Also, those clowns in the SCOTUS who have been playing the trump/fascist game might very well find themselves impeached and thrown out if they continue to act rogue irrespective of the Constitution.
Something "beneficial" is hardly the case as people have lost too much, millions not only in health care, SNAP benefits, the ACA and Medicaid that they are not too keen on the republicans dissing their benefits needed for their survival. Also, it took less that 4 years to get Orban out in his first go around 1998-2002. This is technically trump's first go around because the first term was rather benign compared to this one. Good Luck and thanks.
Such a good series. Thank you Professor Snyder
Marci Shore's knowledge is immense and her style is emotional intelligence personified. I wish I could have been a young person in her class.
Remembering the Shore-Snyder report from the Kyiv Book Arsenal in May - does anyone know of a charity or organisation or fundraiser that would help resupply the small booksellers who lost all their stock in a missile strike on Kyiv's book market this week?
Tim, I appreciate all you have written & shared, both in print & on Substack. Thank you, thank you!! You are a treasure! 😊
I finished listening to the series yesterday. So fascinating. I grew up in the 60s/70s and so much of this stuff wasn’t known or seen! An eye-opening and thought-provoking series all the way ‘round. I’ve been thinking a lot this morning about “the end of history”—even how it applies in small ways to our lives as we age.
Thinking The Twentieth Century is an excellent book. Well recommended. Somewhere on a list I found "The Stalin-Kaganovich Correspondence 1931-36" recommended for this series. The book just arrived and the cover has been cracked. Thank you Tim.
Thanks for sharing and makes sense
I just watched Mr Jones today (after I listened to your lecture). What an amazing film! I'm so thankful that you're making these lectures public. I'm learning so much!
I can’t thank you enough for this series and what you are doing in service to us citizens and our country.
Excellent lecture by Professor Shorr.
Thanks for mentioning Alex Rabinowitch! His Russian Revolution course at Indian University was brilliant and very well done!
Communism got taken off the rails by fanatics in Russia, China, Korea, Cuba, Vietnam, etc., fanatics who were true believers that they could change human consciousness through abolition of private property, collectivization, forced famine, breakdown of the nuclear family, rejection of religion, etc. But capitalism can be taken off the rails too when we become a mafia state, which I believe is what's happening now, and fanatical belief in the American Gospel of Prosperity, or the primacy of technology (Pope Leo's warning about Artificial lntelligence). But do people even remember that for Marx the purpose of owning what one produces, the fruits of your labor, the works you make, was SELF-KNOWLEDGE? It's an old 19th Century Romantic Philosophy concept, and philosophy has moved well beyond these ideas. They've even been criticized as idolatrous and blasphemous, if we take seriously our catechism. In my Cajun first grade lessons, "Who made me?" "God made me." "Why God made me?" "God made me to know, love, and serve Him." My point is that we don't need a Hoover Institute or a Saint Ronald Reagan or an Elon Musk or a merry band of technocrats/oligarchs persuading MAGA to argue that our social safety net is un-American. It's enough to point out that the very premises of communism are weak and outdated BUT the critiques communism directs at off the rails capitalism are still strong today, and cogent. It's unchecked capitalism and AUTHORITARIANISM we need to be opposing today, as much as communism. We don't need a class of rulers as in Plato's Republic replacing politics & persuasion with divisive demagoguery, a zero sum game, winner take all/scorched earth ethos, with rhetorical techniques we've known about and debunked since BCE (Before the Common Era)!
👍
Phenomenal. Professor Marci Shore walks us thru the eras of Lenin and Stalin in a most fascinating manner. I felt as though I’d opened, Bloodlines, written by her spouse, Professor Tim Snyder, and was walking the pages as she narrated details. The complexity and depth of her lecture is spellbinding. My only regret is that too many have not visited the pages, and the offering of these lectures.
These lectures are incredibly helpful. Thank you. I don’t know where we are in America right now, but it seems clear that true believers in any kind of perfect system, get us in trouble. Reality is messy and the ends do not justify the means.
Hi Tim: In this lesson on Stalin called "Why Was Communism Appealing?" you need to answer "TO WHOM?"
As you know, I lived in Russia and other Russian-speaking countries for about 20 years. Although I studied Russian in the U.S., I came to understand that truly grasping Russians and their remarkable language required immersion—and that is what I pursued.
For two years, I traveled between Denver, Colorado, and Moscow, USSR, staying for two to three weeks at a time with Lidiya Vergosovna. She was an avid Communist, retired, widowed, and by Soviet standards, living comfortably. Previously she taught history at MGU. Lidiya, and her relatives and friends, would cram into her small kitchen - all with the genuine effort of teaching the American about Russia and how to speak genuine Russian. For every slang word in English, there are 5 to 10 in Russian. It was a critical part of my transition and paved the way for my deep understanding of Lidiya, her life, and the lives of many others living under Communism. I became bi-cultural in this process, moved to Moscow with my two youngest children and enrolled them in Moscow Public Schools, and by the time of the coups in 1991 and 93 - I was Russian.
I witnessed this transition through Lidiya’s life. She could no longer call for a car, access the best medical care, or shop at upscale grocery stores for butter and coffee. She still had her comfortable two-bedroom apartment in a pleasant part of Moscow, and I helped her with daily errands, such as buying fresh bread. I still miss her astounding soups; despite everything, we were never hungry.
Living as a devoted and educated Communist brought stability to life in Russia. It demanded loyalty but also instilled the love and pride of culture. This all crumbled and Russia once again was thrown into chaos. Factories closed, no salaries, less food available, snipers in tall Moscow buildings, doctors no longer visiting you at home, and so on. Corruption was found around every corner, while Yeltsin opened the borders and allowed people to travel and foreigners to visit.
This message could fill a book, so I will stop here – but you need to know that under Communism there was little to no street crime. People felt safe and lived comfortably.
That is interesting. Thank you.
If you wish to learn more, read my bestselling book on Amazon named "From Democracy to Democrazy". Thank you, Elizabeth
so you became a criminal imperialist and are proud of it, got it
This lecture makes me remember my line to friends or family--there are three questions you answer before you do that: (1) What are you running from? (2) What are you running to? (3) Why? Are they real?
This was so riveting that I listened to it as I went about my household chores like my own grandmother would have listened to her “stories” on the television. She is a wonderful presenter. And the material was tragically, horrifically fascinating.