Liberty's New Army

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”

— Margaret Mead

I’m a visual image human. I need to see it to be it. Hell, I need to see it to believe it.

Last night, an image came to me. The Statue of Liberty, bleeding heavily from a wound in her leg. People are huddled around her, holding a tourniquet tight. One person is walking away.

The thing is, there are many fronts to this war they’ve started. Historians say Hitler failed because he fought a war on two fronts. If he had stayed east or west and finished the job there before moving to the other side, he might have won. He divided his strength. He didn’t have the resources to fight on so many fronts. So many battles.

This regime in power, which includes Trump, Project 2025, and all the others, started this term fighting wars on tens of fronts. Immigration. Tariffs. Education. Law firms. Need me to go on? Maybe that will be their demise. Maybe they divided their strength too much. Because what I see happening right now is this.

It took us a while, but on each of those fronts, individual people are starting to stand up, and their collective demands are starting to weaken his ability to keep his successful momentum flowing. Flanks of people, small American armies, are starting to stand up and, dare I say, win a few?

Watch Senator Murkowski from Alaska. I grant you, she is tentative. Like a small child just learning to walk, but she gets the words out. She is afraid too. She’s afraid of retribution. Apparently, she went on to say that she was elected to push anyway. And she is doing it, maybe not as stridently as you and I would as we judge from the safety of our couches in our living rooms. But she got it out. One word at a time.

Maine’s Governor, Janet Mills, is sure-footed and unbending. God, I’m on her team. Maybe Governor Walz will show up in Maine and call other governors to stand with her on the flank of the battlefield she is fighting. Walz is traveling all over the country, but he should be where the fighting is most dangerous. Maine, Tim. Come to Maine. And, you know what? Maybe twenty other governors should show up at her press conference next week as they go to court. Wouldn’t that be something?

Then there’s Nayib Bukele, the thug running El Salvador, who yesterday allowed Senator Van Hollen to visit just one detainee—Manuel Ernesto Cruz, a Salvadoran-American from Van Hollen’s own home state of Maryland. A week ago, even that small access would have been unthinkable. Bukele is afraid now. I don’t know exactly what he’s afraid of, but I think he is concerned. And I assure you, Trump is one very angry person because of it. I would love to have been a fly on the wall when Trump called him after he gave access. Oh happy day.

And we have judges—not just stating their decisions, but writing opinions that feel grounded in something deeper than politics. Grounded in the Constitution itself. The gravity of this moment is showing in every word they choose.

From Heather Cox Richardson today, “Conservative Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson, who was appointed by President Ronald Reagan, wrote the order. Notably, it began with a compliment to Judge Xinis. ‘[W]e shall not micromanage the efforts of a fine district judge attempting to implement the Supreme Court’s recent decision,’ he wrote.

“Then Wilkinson turned his focus on the Trump administration. ‘It is difficult in some cases to get to the very heart of the matter,’ he wrote. ‘But in this case, it is not hard at all. The government is asserting a right to stash away residents of this country in foreign prisons without the semblance of due process that is the foundation of our constitutional order. Further, it claims in essence that because it has rid itself of custody that there is nothing that can be done. This should be shocking not only to judges, but to the intuitive sense of liberty that Americans far removed from courthouses still hold dear.’”

It’s in the stadiums as well.

While a banner saying "This is MAGA Country" flew overhead, Bernie Sanders and AOC stood in Idaho (you remember Idaho, red state central) with tens of thousands of people screaming as they raised a different flag. A flag of rebellion and hope.

Big business is stepping up too. Again, Heather Cox Richardson pointed to it. Hedge fund founder Spencer Hakimian posted: “Cleanup of orange vomit on Aisle 3.”

The Federal Reserve refused to bend and lower interest rates for Trump’s political benefit. Powell held the line. Maybe that’s the most important flank. Maybe the one that holds steady—where no one bends—will be the one that changes everything.

Harvard University, refusing to gut their curriculum even under federal pressure. JP Morgan coming out publicly about the destruction of the markets. Individuals everywhere, holding their flanks. Going to the battle that best fits their skill set.

These are the people tightening the tourniquet on Liberty’s bleeding leg.

But here’s the thing. The wound is getting bigger. This is not even close to over. I can’t see the end of the war on the horizon. It’s going to depend on more and more people joining those who are finally coming to the forefront.

So it’s going to need more hands, not fewer.

Everyone who is holding on must keep holding—harder, tighter—and more people need to join them.

No one, absolutely no one, can walk away now.

Behind those in the public eye who are coming forward, there are smaller, quieter armies joining the fight. A woman I don’t know, who reads my column, who is a successful businesswoman, sent me the letter she wrote to Paul Weiss yesterday. She said she has no affiliation; her comments are her own. She sent it not just to Paul Weiss but to other law firms too. She laid it out simply. If you won’t stand up for America, how can any client trust you to stand up for them?

She’s holding, adding her ammo. Not publicly, but that pressure from a human who has agency is going to help Paul Weiss to come back from the dark side to the light. Someone wrote yesterday—I wish I could remember who, because I hate not giving credit—that there is no danger for a left-wing firm like Paul Weiss to cave. Democrats do not hold things against people who don’t do the right thing. MAGA does. But Democrats don’t, so Paul Weiss doesn’t worry that their left-wing clients will walk. Wake up and smell the litigation. It should matter. If you are on our side, saddle up and let your law firms know they best walk the walk.

I have spent a lot of the last few months feeling hurt, angry, desperate, recommitted, and even sometimes hopeful. But my internal focus, my pain and anger and sadness in the middle of the night, has been around what people are not doing. Oh my God, how can we get along without them? Oh my God, how could you have been my friend all these years and not want to talk about how we’re going to rebel? How can I go to a dinner party and have it not come up?

But this week it was different. I was on the phone with SBC this week, you remember her. My confidante for all things political, and for the first time in a long time, we sounded happy. We ticked through moment after moment from this week, each one a small victory, each one lifting us a little higher. It was the shortest call we've had in months. I think neither of us wanted to say the word "But" and risk bursting the bubble.

So I won’t go full Pollyanna on you by saying this is the actual moment when the tide will shift. Those who know me personally know that if I did, I would have truly lost my mind. But this week is showing us something. And, it’s individuals fighting in different battles starting to hold up the flanks against the bullies who have not had any real obstacles until now.

It’s showing us that it really is only going to take enough individuals in each flank standing up, loud and big, for the people behind them to know they can stand up too. One at a time. Inch by inch.

And we need to find our battlefield. The one where we can be of the most help. What is yours?

In the last three months, a mob has broken in and trashed every aisle of the grocery store that Hakimian referred to. They have knocked over every can of beans, wrecked every shelf. Littered the aisle with the fired bodies of amazing Americans who save lives and keep this country chugging along. There’s really nothing left standing without damage. And there’s only one thing to do now. Start again. Which, I should remind you, we Americans are very good at doing.

Today, I just want to start the weekend in a good mood, with not one thread of fear. Two things I promised myself all along. I am not allowed to give up. And I am not allowed to act out of fear.

The woman who wrote the letter to Paul Weiss, who I referenced earlier, shared her mantra at the bottom of the email she sent me.

Just one word.

Persist.