Splitsville STAND UP NOW OR BOW DOWN LATER

The Energetic, Irrepressible Newsletter for Fans of THE SPLIT

As you know, we can make pretty much any dichotomy “work” in our tireless campaign to describe the US as Splitsville—by which we mean, a condition in which two “nations” occupy the same geo-political borders.

For example, recently a lady we know pointed out that, on the same day, she received, in her Facebook feed, the poster illustration of the rising, rampant shark from the movie Jaws (now celebrating its 50-year anniversary; where DOES the time go?) as well as a closeup photo of HHS Secretary/Nazi She-Wolf Gestapo Queen Kristi Noem (openly defying court orders while commanding a gang of thugs to render decent people to concentration camps; where DOES the rule of law go?).

The two images arrived separately and were unrelated. Nonetheless, from that it was but the work of a moment for one of us to observe that today the US consisted of two groups: those who wanted Kristi Noem to be viciously devoured by a shark and everybody else.

We’re about to do the same thing regarding a Substack we each received from Robert Reich who, among other things, was Bill Clinton’s Secretary of Labor from 1993 through 1997. Reich has been heroic and indispensable in his efforts to explain, to warn us about, and to deplore the Trump administration. He’s a fearless commentator, a first-rate writer, and (as if that weren’t enough) a talented cartoonist.

This publication, though, was different. Reich didn’t write it himself. At first he said Liz Cheney did, because he knows her personally and it arrived under her name. Now, we know nothing about her prose style. But we do know some things. We know that her father was (and still is) probably a war criminal, and we know we’ve loathed Liz Cheney’s politics from time immemorial.

But we also had to (grudgingly) admire her honesty, decency, and courage in helping to prosecute Donald Trump for his crimes during his first term, her refusal to (like almost all of her fellow Republicans) just shut up and go along with his depredations, and her willingness to risk her political career by defending democracy, decency, and other good things starting with “d.”

Still, it seemed unlikely that she wrote it. And, indeed, later in the day Reich added this note to it:

I’m told that the following message, which I received earlier today, purporting to be from Liz Cheney, is a hoax. She didn’t send it. It’s an excellent and important message nonetheless. (Several of you say it originated with Dr. Pru Lee.)

Whatevs, as the youth say. The point is, we read the thing, and we ask that you read it—the whole thing—too. And you’d better do it. No, we are not the boss of you, but so what? And besides, maybe that’s the problem! Did you ever think of that? Maybe if we were the boss of you, none of us would be in this mess.

In any case, we hope you’ll read it, because every goddamned word of it is true, urgent, and important. Indeed, it’s the emmess, which is a Yiddish word meaning “the essential, indubitable truth.” (Once again we urge NBC to start a new cable channel dedicated to broadcasting only the most vital and profoundly true things, and to call the channel EMMESS-NBC.)

Getting back to the not-by-Liz-Cheney screed, it is written in single, free-standing lines, in the manner of poetry penned by such admired poets as Homer, Goethe, Ogden Nash, and Dr. Seuss. It starts out strong and gets stronger.

Dear Democratic Party,

I need more from you.

You keep sending emails begging for $15,

while we’re watching fascism consolidate power in real time.

This administration is not simply “a different ideology.”

It is a coordinated, authoritarian machine — with the Supreme Court, the House, the Senate, and the executive pen all under its control.

And you?

You’re still asking for decorum and donations. WTF.

That won’t save us.

I don’t want to hear another polite floor speech.

I want strategy.

I want fire.

After more rabble-rousing and fanfare, it elaborates seven specific calls to action:

1. Form an independent, civilian-powered investigative coalition.

Make it public. Make it unshakable.

Let the people drag the rot into the light.

If you can’t hold formal hearings, hold public ones.

2. Join the International Criminal Court.

Show the world who’s hiding bodies, bribes, and buried bank accounts.

Force the GOP to explain why they’d rather protect a war criminal than sign a treaty.

3. Fund state-level resistance infrastructure.

This is not campaign season — this is an authoritarian purge.

Stop campaigning.

Act like this is the end of democracy, because it is.

We WILL REMEMBER the warriors come primaries.

Fighting this regime should be your marketing strategy.

4. Use your platform to educate the public on rights and resistance tactics.

Text campaigns. Mass trainings. Downloadable “Know Your Rights” kits. Multilingual legal guides. Encrypted phone trees.

5. Leverage international media and watchdogs.

Stop hoping U.S. cable news will wake up.

They’re too busy playing both sides of fascism.

Feed the real stories to BBC, Al Jazeera, The Guardian, Reuters, Der Spiegel — hell, leak them to anonymous dropboxes if you have to.

Start leveraging Substack. Use Bluesky.

That’s where the resistance is migrating. That’s where censorship hasn’t caught up.

6. Create a digital safe haven for whistleblowers and defectors.

Not everyone inside this regime is loyal.

Some are scared. Some want out.

Build the channels.

Encrypted. Anonymous. Protected.

Make it easy for the cracks in the system to become gaping holes.

And while you’re at it?

Stop ostracizing MAGA defectors.

7. Study the collapse — and the comeback.

You should be learning from South Korea and how they managed their brief rule under dictatorship.

They didn’t waste time chasing the one man with absolute immunity.

They went after the structure.

The aides. The enforcers. The loyalists. The architects.

You can’t stop a regime by asking the king to sit down.

You dismantle the throne he’s standing on — one coward at a time.

And finally: Stop being scared to fight dirty when the other side is fighting to erase the damn Constitution.

The above is a drastic condensation; each entry contains much more by way of suggestions, strategies, outrage, frustration, and urgency. You can see why we were skeptical about Cheney having written it—it has a fire and panache we don’t associate with her. But it doesn’t matter who wrote it, whether it’s Cheney, Dr. Pru Lee, or Dr. ChatGPT. It says what we’ve been saying for months, albeit in a smarter and more knowing way (as if such a thing were possible). We have an administration authorizing groups that are indistinguishable from Central American death squads and Brazilian paramilitary gangs and, indeed, Nazi Brownshirts, and when one of them throws California Senator Alex Padilla to the floor and cuffs him, Chuck Schumer can only call for an investigation “to find out what the hell is going on.”

Schumer no doubt thinks that by indulging in saying “what the hell” he deserves to be able to quote Bertie Wooster, who—not without a touch of pride--confides in us, “Strong language, yes—and I meant it to sting.” But Schumer already knows what the hell is going on. We all do. Trump’s fascist government (featuring, Kristi Noem’s masked thugs) is perpetrating a reign of terror among immigrants both legal and illegal. And all of it is meant to consolidate power in order to sell off the US government for parts, evade the law, and enrich Trump and his loyalists while creating a permanent impoverished class of the ignorant, the sick, the addicted, and the dying.

So there’s your additional version of Splitsville: the US today consists of one group which understands that the criminality and viciousness of this administration must be addressed openly and vigorously; then there’s everybody else.

Unfortunately—tragically; maybe fatally—that group of everybody else includes a lot of Democrats, who seem to believe that if only “we” can “hold on” (whatever that means) until next year’s mid-terms, the Dems will re-take Congress and set things aright. But what makes them think those elections will be free and fair? What makes them think the utterly compromised and hypocritical GOP (who are doing all they can, today, to subvert those elections) will go along with them? What makes them think the increasingly-desperate (and demented) lunatic Trump and his soulless apparatchiks will obey the law?

The ultimate power, in the US and, indeed, anywhere, resides in the people, who either do or don’t give their consent to those who govern them. It’s long past time for the Democratic elected officials whom the putative Cheney letter addresses to fully grasp what that means. It means treating all supine, Trump-enabling Republicans not as colleagues but as their mortal enemies. It means fighting, not merely objecting. It means not dismissing the latest acts of brutality and corruption as “a distraction” while pondering the latest kitchen-table poll. It means leaving their offices, stop making floor speeches, stop asking for money with which to pay for politics-as-usual, and start rallying the public.

Because—God knows—we’re ready to be rallied. We are reminded of what Alec Baldwin says to his salesmen about the world of potential customers at the start of the film of Glengarry, Glen Ross: “They’re sitting out there waiting to give you their money! Are you going to take it? Are you man enough to take it?”

All over the country, millions of Americans show up at every demonstration. They’re waiting to be led against Trump and the GOP. Are the Democrats man enough and/or woman enough to lead them?