Way back in the sixth century B.C., a Chinese philosopher named Lao Tzu reputedly said that “a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step” – an aphorism that today’s marching foes of MAGA fascism would be wise to remember.

It was great to see so many patriots take it to the streets over the weekend, even though the mainstream media couldn’t agree on a tally (CNN said “millions,” USA Today said “tens of thousands,” while the New York Times simply punted, saying it was “difficult to estimate”). What we don’t know is whether, or to what extent, the nationwide protests can rekindle the flickering flame of democracy. The totalitarians have Uncle Sam in a chokehold, and rest assured they will take any and all necessary means to tighten their grip.

And a word of caution: While it surely felt great to pound the pavement with like-minded peeps, big crowds don’t necessarily move the political needle. Kamala Harris drew big crowds in the swing states, but lost all seven. Bernie Sanders, during the 2016 primaries, drew massive throngs before losing his nomination bid. Simply put, most folks don’t vote with their feet.

But the “Hands Off” organizers – speaking for a broad coalition of groups ranging from the ACLU and the AFL-CIO to the League of Women Voters – insist the actions thus far are only the beginning: “We are setting out to build a massive, visible, national rejection” of the MAGA infection.

That had better be true, because I also remember the huge marches that greeted Trump when he was first inaugurated in 2017. “Resistance” T-shirts were everywhere, never to be worn again. The seemingly incipient movement fizzled, and we were left with a loon who told us to fight a pandemic by drinking bleach.

This time around, he and his emboldened apparatchiks are hoping that what has worked so well in Russia can be replicated here, that people will just give up in despair. But we’re not like the Russians, who’ve been deadened en masse by centuries of despotism. A sizable share of our citizenry seems to be increasingly repulsed by what Congressman Jamie Raskin called “the politics of Mussolini and the economics of Herbert Hoover.” If a “massive, visible” protest movement can be built and sustained, it would undercut the MAGAts’ most cherished hope.

And maybe such a movement would even breathe life into the Democratic corpse, signaling to those wimps that if they can get their act together, millions of people will have their backs. The polls already signal that this is so.

Three weeks ago, a Reuters/Ipsos survey found only 32 percent of Americans gave Trump a thumbs-up for handling “the cost of living” – and that was before he decreed his inflationary tariffs. When Americans in that poll were asked what issues Trump should prioritize, 61 percent said inflation and, by the way (yo, Elon Musk!), only 13 percent said “shrinking the size of the federal government.”

Some Republicans – the sane ones, anyway – sense trouble ahead. Kristen Soltis Anderson, who polls for the GOP, wrote the other day that “it becomes easy to rest on one’s laurels and miss the bubbling rage of the other side…Trump is supercharging the anger” via his tariffs and mass federal government firings. “This is exactly the kind of dynamic that deepens the frustration and anger of a large group of very personally affected voters, who will seek to send a message” – ultimately “at the ballot box.”

She’s assuming, however, that the 2026 midterm balloting will be free, fair, and on the square. That would be nice, but I’m not so sanguine. Unpopular autocrats do whatever it takes to retain power. Chris Murphy, the indomitable Democratic senator, spelled out, in a recent interview, what I’ve long been fearing:

“Every single day, I think the chances are growing that we will not have a free and fair election in 2026…What I’m talking about is that the (Democratic) opposition – the infrastructure necessary for an opposition to win – will be destroyed. No lawyers will represent us. (Trumpists) will take down ActBlue, which is our primary means of raising small-dollar donations. They will threaten activists with violence, so no one will show up to our rallies and to our door-knock events. This is what happens to a lot of democracies around the world – the opposition is just kept so weak that they can’t win. That’s what I worry about.”

Talk about buzzkill.

Believe it, though. As I wrote in December, “Anyone who’s still in denial about what awaits us should be indicted for failure of imagination.”

The only option left is to march in the streets – just as hundreds of thousands of Israelis did in 2003, protesting Benjamin Netanyahu so fiercely the right-wing autocrat backed off on his plans to seize power from the judiciary. I don’t know whether sustained protests would kick-start the Democrats and curb MAGA’s momentum, but does anyone have a better idea?

If not, what I can say with confidence is that a long slog is in the offing, one step at a time. Lao Tzu got that right.

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Copyright 2025 Dick Polman, distributed exclusively by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate.

Dick Polman, a veteran national political columnist based in Philadelphia and a Writer in Residence at the University of Pennsylvania, writes the Subject to Change newsletter. Email him at [email protected]