Rolling Stone reports:

The “No Kings” movement is shifting gears to counter what they’re calling the “authoritarian breakthrough” of Donald Trump’s second presidency.

On Wednesday evening, the No Kings movement hosted a video conference call for more than 130,000 pro-democracy activists. The call seeks to build off the success of mass anti-Trump street protests — which also continued Thursday evening with more than 1,600 nationwide “Good Trouble Lives On” demonstrations, inspired by Civil Rights icon John Lewis.

The 90-minute video conference was organized to train activists in principles of “strategic non-cooperation,” which aims to gum up the works of the increasingly dark and dictatorial Trump administration. The call was organized by the progressive grassroots organization Indivisible, and featured a trainer from Choose Democracy, Daniel Hunter, whose bio touts past work with pro-democracy activists living under authoritarian regimes, such as in Myanmar.

The tone of the conference was significantly more somber than similar recent webinars organized by Indivisible. It painted United States’ democracy as confronting an existential crisis — and pegged the odds of overcoming Trump’s ambition at not much better than a “coin-flip.”

“We’re in a moment of authoritarian breakthrough,” said Hunter, who defined that term as a “window in which a would-be authoritarian is attempting to rapidly consolidate power” in an effort to “eliminate checks” that prevent them from operating with impunity.

Hunter ticked through six characteristics of authoritarian breakthrough, all of which are currently in play. This dictatorial to-do list includes “directing investigations against critics”; “giving license to lawbreaking”; “regulatory retaliation”; “deploying [the] military domestically”; “federal law enforcement overreach”; and holding tight to power, i.e. “the autocrat won’t leave.”

Trump is hewing to this well-worn playbook, Hunter said, by pardoning violent Jan. 6 felons, sending masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to round up law-abiding immigrants, deploying the National Guard and Marines into Los Angeles, making “capricious threats” to deport U.S. citizens like Rosie O’Donnell, and openly plotting an unconstitutional third term.

The pro-democracy trainer offered the encouragement that “Trump didn’t write this playbook. This is a global phenomena … the growth of autocracies.” He added that the experiences of allies across the globe offer strategies that have succeeded in turning back Trumpian figures in their own countries.

But the odds of success are sobering. The training included a study of 35 countries that experienced “democratic backsliding” in the last 30 years, and their track records for overcoming the authoritarian assault. Without a movement of mass “civil resistance,” less than eight percent of countries were successful at righting the democratic ship of state. Active civil resistance — such as the movement that No Kings is building in the U.S. — has historically increased the odds to 52 percent. “I don’t love those numbers,” said Hunter, but he added that the payoff for victory can be profound. Successful resistance movements typically forge societies that are “more democratic” on the other side — offering “an advancement” rather than a return to the status quo ante. [Continue reading…]