The American Winter: Without Unrelenting Nonviolent Protest America Faces Ruin

Time is running out to avoid brutal dictatorship or an escalating spiral of violence.

A collage for MENA protests. Clockwise from top left: 2011 Egyptian revolution, Tunisian revolution, 2011 Yemeni uprising, 2011 Syrian uprising. Source: Wikipedia.

This Week Marks A Turning Point

On the last day of the first week of 2026, the United States reached a turning point. The brazen murder of Renee Nicole Good should make clear the stark choices facing the nation. Without immediate, massive, and unrelenting nonviolent protest, Americans face two equally horrible futures: brutal dictatorship or a spiral into civil war.

Brutal Dictatorship Is Fast Approaching

As 2025 drew to a close and many logged off for a much needed holiday break after a year of insanity, experts lauded the growing resistance to Trump and consequent slowing of his consolidation of power. They warned, however, that we would likely see a regime escalation of violence in response. We wrote about it exactly a month before Ms. Good’s murder:

And so, 2026 has started with a blitzkrieg of chaos, both foreign and domestic, by the regime. The week started with the abduction of a world leader, seizure of a Russian oil tanker, and threats of war against NATO allies. It comes to a close with the nation reeling from a regime paramilitary murder of an American citizen in broad daylight.

Welcome to one possible future. This is a small taste of what full-blown dictatorship will look like. Make no mistake, that is our future if we do not act boldly and soon. Dictatorship is approaching rapidly. It’s later than you think.

Asked today what can stop him, Trump said only his own morality and mind. That would be the morality of a pedophile rapist and the mind of a malignant, demented narcissist. He has at his sole command a growing paramilitary force creating a system of concentration camps with a projected capacity of 116,000 beds by spring. For comparison, the entire federal prison system currently holds 155,000. This is to say nothing of his possession of an arsenal of nuclear weapons capable of killing everyone on the planet.

An Escalating Spiral of Violence Can Lead to Civil War

However, a certain percentage of the United States’ 340 million people are likely to reject such a future. In a nation awash in firearms, it’s only a matter of time, therefore, before the guns “enter the chat,” as Jim Stewartson has warned.

We should not downplay the potential consequences. The nation’s first Civil War arguably started before the South’s attack on Ft. Sumter, with an escalating spiral of political violence all across the nation, from the Kansas-Missouri border to the halls of Congress even.

One incident, in particular, still lives in our memory and has had a lasting impact on American culture. That is the raid by abolitionist John Brown on Harper’s Ferry, for which he was later convicted and hanged for “treason” by the state of Virginia.

But what started with the martyring of John Brown, ended with General Sherman’s scorched earth campaigns in Georgia and North Carolina, presaging the dawn of modern industrial warfare and the strategic bombing campaigns of WWII.

As I watch Minnesotans come out in the snow and freezing cold to confront federal paramilitary thugs, I cannot help but recall the words of Texas Governor Sam Houston. In opposing the state’s vote to secede from the Union, he warned,

“They are not a fiery, impulsive people as you are, for they live in colder climates. But when they begin to move in a given direction, they move with the steady momentum and perseverance of a mighty avalanche; and what I fear is, they will overwhelm the South.”

Don’t forget that the 28th Virginia Infantry Regimental Battle Flag, captured by the First Minnesota Volunteer, remains in the possession of the Minnesota Historical Society (MNHS) and has not been returned to Virginia despite multiple requests over the past century.

In the end, one might say those cold climate Yankees trampled them, brought the grapes of wrath, loosed some fateful lightening and a terrible swift sword. Before that was the Battle Hymn of the Republic and one of our most beloved patriotic songs, it was called John Brown’s Body.

Such a spiral of violence is not to be courted lightly. The last time the demon of political unrest overtook our nation, we slaughtered one another in 10,000 places across the entire continent. While we focus on the big battles and great generals on horseback, guerrilla warfare within states, between counties, towns, and neighbors, was common, leading to flows of refugees, death, and misery. We can expect such a savage conflict again if we do not change course.

An Alternative To Destruction

There is a third option, however, one that has succeeded in overturning such regimes. That is massive, sustained, nonviolent protest. We have seen it work in countries from Eastern Europe and the Balkans to the Middle East. We may be seeing it again right now in Iran.

We must not be cowed by regime violence. Remember what this escalation represents: desperation. The regime is losing control of the narrative. People are feeling the pinch of a worsening economy. Even the miniscule percentage of Epstein files that have made it past the regime censors make it clear that the President is a pedophile.

We cannot allow the current situation to continue. Further consolidation of power makes it more difficult by the day to restore democratic governance. We cannot wait for November elections, which are in no way guaranteed to be free or fair, if they are even held at all.

We must act now. But in doing so, we cannot give the regime the violence it wants. There is no doubt that any violence from the pro-democracy side will be used as a pretext for martial law and perhaps to cancel the November elections.

Massive, sustained, nonviolent action is no guarantee of victory. But the other options are worse. The decent, non-fiery people who are now awakening to our dire situation must once again act as a relentless force to overwhelm the evil forces that have taken our nation hostage.

The situation will get darker. But it’s always darkest before the dawn. Regime actions in Minnesota are the best indicator yet that they are losing, that they know it, and that we can defeat them. Keep the faith! Keep fighting!