by Coco Das and Sarah Roark
To those who seriously think the military will just drag Trump out of the White House on January 20 if he loses, consider these comments from General Mark Milley, the nation’s highest ranking military officer and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff:
I believe deeply in the principle of an apolitical U.S. military. In the event of a dispute over some aspect of the elections, by law U.S. courts and the U.S. Congress are required to resolve any disputes, not the U.S. military. I foresee no role for the U.S armed forces in this process.
So there you have it. As long as the vote is disputed—and Trumpists are great at disputing—the highest ranking military official has told you that he will issue no such orders. Is someone ranked lower than him going to magically appear to defy those orders? And, do you really want the military to have that kind of power?
This is no time for magical thinking. The only force that makes leaders like this go is the people themselves. Millions in the streets day after day demanding removal of the regime has forced out entrenched leaders in country after country after country. What finally drove Pinochet out in Chile? What ousted Mubarak in Egypt? Was President Park able to withstand months of protests in South Korea demanding her impeachment? Even in this country, mass protest to “throw the bum out” was one factor that forced Nixon to resign.
There are no guarantees, but we have everything to lose if we don’t use every power we have to force this regime to go. This is why it is so important that there be a clear mandate from the people – showing the whole world our bodies marching non-violently in the streets demanding Trump/Pence Out Now AND voting for Biden in order to have an effective vote against Trump.
If there is this visible mandate from the people, acting in the interests of humanity, the illegitimacy of the Trump/Pence regime will be ever more exposed and intolerable – even to people up high who may see no other way to resolve this crisis than to escort Trump and Pence out of the White House.
No one is coming to save us. Just as the German people should have driven out Hitler, this has always been our moral responsibility and our struggle to wage.
Everyone, everywhere, all out for: