With Donald Trump in the White House, millions of Americans are seeking ways to resist what Chris Hedges labels “despotic forces.” In a recent speech in Portland, Ore., the Truthdig columnist and author lays out actions to effectively oppose the administration.

Hedges also examines the horrors of the American prison system. “Our system of mass incarceration is not, as some critics charge, ‘broken,’ ” Hedges tells the crowd. “It works exactly the way it is designed to work.”

Returning to his central subjects, the future of democracy and resistance against Trump, he declares, “This [situation] will require us, as Ralph Nader has long said, to show up. We have to, as Max Weber advised, make politics a vocation, and resistance will begin locally as we transform our neighborhoods and our communities.”

He concludes the speech by drawing on his own experience and historical precedents of opposition to fascist regimes.

“The steady drumbeat of rebellion exposes the dead hand of authority and the rot of the state,” Hedges says. “No act of rebellion, however futile it appears in the moment, is wasted.”

Watch the full speech in the video above.

—Posted by Emma Niles

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#authoritarianism#democracy#domestic terrorism#donald trump#fascism#government#History#national#philosophy#politics#prison#prison industrial complex#resistance#trump administration#usa