Republicans Are an Invading Force: What Are Our Options?
Christopher Armitage
Sep 30, 2025
AUTHOR’S NOTE: I originally published this article several weeks ago. Since then, Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth have openly discussed deploying federal forces to invade American cities. The threats outlined are now being stated explicitly by the administration. I’ve updated and republished this piece because the urgency has shifted. If you’ve read the original, I’ve tightened the focus on actionable resistance strategies with a more clear call to action. If you’re new here, this is the moment these tools matter most.
In 1933, German conservatives thought they could control Hitler. Two years later, they were being executed in their own homes. I spent weeks researching this question, desperately looking for counter-examples, for hope, for any time in history where people successfully stopped fascists after they started winning elections.
Here’s what I found: Once fascists win power democratically, they have never been removed democratically. Not once. Ever.
Let’s start with Germany because everyone thinks they know this story. Franz von Papen, the conservative politician who convinced President Hindenburg to make Hitler Chancellor, said “We’ve hired him” in January 1933. Within 18 months, the Nazis were machine-gunning von Papen’s allies in their homes during the Night of Long Knives. Every single conservative who thought they could “control” or “moderate” Hitler was either dead, in exile, or groveling for survival by 1934.
Italy handed Mussolini power when they could have crushed him. The King had martial law papers drawn up, the military ready. Instead, he invited Mussolini to form a government. Spain let Franco take over while democracies declared neutrality and watched. Hungary’s Orbán won democratically in 2010, rewrote the constitution by 2011, controlled the media by 2012, and still rules today. The EU has been “very concerned” for fourteen years.
The pattern repeats across decades and continents. Conservatives panic about socialism or progressives, ally with fascists as the “lesser evil,” fascists take power, then immediately purge the conservatives who helped them. Germany, Italy, Spain, Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Greece, Portugal, Croatia, Romania, Hungary. Every single time.
The facts are clear. Fascist takeovers prevented after winning power democratically: zero....
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