Siege of the Seat: The Left's DC Occupation Gambit and America's Tipping Point, By Charles Taylor (Florida)

In the shadow of a government shutdown that's left federal workers scraping by and food stamps on the chopping block, a storm is brewing, not from the Beltway's budget wars, but from the fevered fringes of the American Left. On November 5, 2025, one year to the day since Donald Trump's electoral triumph , a coalition led by Refuse Fascism plans to unleash what they're billing as "the biggest nonviolent mobilisation in US history." This isn't a flash mob with hashtags and hot takes; it's a blueprint for siege. Organisers envision thousands, swelling to millions, encircling the White House, Capitol, and Supreme Court, camping out à la Occupy Wall Street 2011 or the 2020 BLM summer of reckoning. Their endgame? Not reform. Not dialogue. The outright ouster of President Trump, branded as the head of a "fascist regime" that's allegedly shredding the rule of law, caging immigrants, enslaving women, and dooming the planet.

Their "Call to Action," splashed across RefuseFascism.org, reads like a manifesto from a parallel dystopia: "Fascism is not a looming threat. It is upon us now. Humanity's only hope is for the decent people of this country to rise in our millions. We cannot wait for future and rigged elections. We must drive the Trump Fascist Regime from power." Surround the symbols of power. Refuse to comply. Grind the gears to a halt. Return day after day, winter's chill be damned, until the "debauched lunatic tyrant" packs his bags. It's revolutionary romanticism wrapped in nonviolent rhetoric, but with echoes of January 6th's chaos flipped on its axis. And while the Left decries that day as an "insurrection," this blueprint dismisses electoral legitimacy outright: "The elections are way too late. Besides, no honest person can expect the tyrant who instigated and then pardoned the January 6th insurrectionists to respect an election he loses."

Refuse Fascism, a network birthed in 2016 from the Revolutionary Communist Party's orbit under Bob Avakian, isn't some ragtag collective. It's well-oiled, funded through shadowy channels like the Alliance for Global Justice (with ties to Sandinista sympathisers), and Soros-adjacent whispers that have Ted Cruz foaming on Fox. They've been mobilising since summer: webinars, bus rideshares to DC, partner orgs from Indivisible to queer rights groups. X is abuzz with calls to action – "TRUMP MUST GO NOW!" from @RefuseFascism, endorsements from @truthwinsout tying it to anti-extremism fights. No Kings Day on October 18 was the appetizer, millions flipping the bird at monarchy metaphors nationwide. November 5? The main course, with DC as the plate.

But here's the rub: This isn't spontaneous rage. It's calculated escalation, betting on media amplification and shutdown-fuelled fury to snowball into a self-sustaining uprising. Organisers eye the playbook of 2020's sustained occupations, where BLM encampments paralysed cities for months. If SNAP benefits evaporate as Thanksgiving looms? That's rocket fuel for the dispossessed. Yet winter in DC, dipping to 30°F by December, could frost their fervour faster than federal marshals.

Trump's camp isn't asleep at the switch. The Pentagon, under Pete Hegseth's hawkish helm at the "Department of War," has greenlit a massive overhaul: 23,500 National Guard troops across 50 states and territories, drilled in "civil unrest" tactics, batons, shields, Tasers, pepper spray, operational by April 1, 2026, with "quick reaction forces" (500 per state) ready to roll by January. This stems from Trump's August executive order, federalising Guard units for "quelling civil disturbances" – a Posse Comitatus tightrope walk that's already sparked lawsuits in California and Illinois. Deployments in LA (700 Marines, 4,000 Guard) and DC (2,000 troops patrolling tourist traps) were ruled unlawful by judges like Charles Breyer, who slammed it as a "contrived" bid for a "national police force with the President as its chief."

The memo's chilling: Train on "crowd management," "domestic civil disturbance," non-lethal munitions. It's Kent State vibes, 1970's ghosts, when Guard rifles felled four students. Critics howl authoritarianism; White House spins it as "making America safe again," citing crime drops in Memphis and DC. Senior aides like Stephen Miller are holing up in military housing, shielded from "potential violence." Polarisation's poison pill: When officials bunker with bayonets, the public becomes the enemy.

Both flanks are fortifying. Left: Sustained siege to "drive out" the regime. Right: Rapid-response legions to "restore order." Recipe? Flashpoint. If fists fly – or worse – amid shutdown scarcity, November could birth a Kent State 2.0, or worse, a cycle of reprisals that makes 2020 look like a block party.

Conservatives gritted teeth through Biden's term, recounts, Rust Belt reversals, and all, honouring the ballot's bite. "Accept the results," they preached, even as blue cities burned in 2020. But the Left's playbook? Rejectionism as sacrament. Refuse Fascism's creed – "no living with fascism" – isn't aberration; it's axiom. From Russiagate's endless coup fantasies to 2020's "stolen election" denial (flipped, of course), it's a pattern: When power slips, legitimacy evaporates.

Is Leftism inherently anti-democratic? History nods: Bolsheviks dissolved assemblies, French Jacobins guillotined dissenters, Mao's purges devoured the party faithful. Modern echoes? Antifa's street justice, campus shout-downs, the "by any means" ethos that birthed CHOP zones and campus "safe spaces" as no-go fiefdoms. It's not mere passion; it's a worldview where ends sanctify means, and the "fascist" label greenlights extralegality. Trump as Hitler? Hyperbole, sure – but it absolves the unthinkable. As one Refuse organiser tweets: "There are more of us than them!" Maths over mandate.

Conservatives, you've been the adults in the room – too long. "Ye cannot live with the Left," you say, echoing partition pleas from Buckley to Buchanan. The "national divorce" whisper, secession lite, red-state exodus, isn't fringe anymore. It's survival calculus. When one side sees elections as optional and the other as sacred, the contract dissolves. Blue enclaves already self-segregate: California as a sovereign sanctuary, Texas as a border fortress. Why not formalise? Balkanise the beast before it devours itself.

But divorce? Messy as hell. Who gets the nukes? The debt? Flyover buffers? Logistics aside, it's a surrender, trading union for utopias that fracture further. The founders baked in checks: Federalism's firewall, the Senate's senate, SCOTUS as umpire. Trump's court-packing paranoia aside, it's held (barely). Better fix: Enforce the rules symmetrically. Prosecute Antifa like Proud Boys. Ban federal troops from polls. Term-limit the swamp.

November 5 looms like a loaded die. Will millions materialise, or fizzle in DC's November drizzle? Will "nonviolent" hold, or splinter into Molotov mirages? X chatter suggests momentum – from @RevolutionBksB rallying "revolutionary communists" to @harryjsisson's viral No Kings footage. But turnout's the tell: Occupy peaked at 100k; BLM scorched billions in damages. Scale to millions? Game-changer. Or Guard-bait.

America's at the abyss: Shutdown skeletons, SNAP starvation. This occupation? Catalyst or canary. Conservatives: Wake up. The Left's not "losing patience" – they're playing for keeps. National breakup? Tempting tourniquet for a gangrenous limb. But true grit? Reclaim the centre. Starve the extremists. Remind the body politic: We're e pluribus unum, not e pluribus rumpus.

https://michaeltsnyder.substack.com/p/anti-trump-groups-are-planning-to