revolution

“Revolution Begins at Home,” Jerome Stueart, (11 x 15), watercolor, mixed media on paper. October 18, 2025.

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Today, many (2 million?) of us are going to be protesting for #NoKings and maybe you’ve attended one of these protests across the country. They are exciting and powerful and you can see hundreds and maybe thousands in your city standing up for change. These protests are powerful things. I’ve seen the ones in New York City and Chicago (on TV) and they give me hope.

But maybe you’ve been part of something else, something smaller. Have you been to a house meeting where you meet your neighbors and strategize over soup how to be effective in strategic campaigns or actions that can help stop some of the negative consequences of Trump policies. Maybe your group is part of the Indivisible or No Kings movement. hey may not look like a movement–if you were looking for thousands of bodies to affirm your stance–but I can argue that they are the places–these living rooms–that will begin change in the country. Movements are born AND SUSTAINED in living rooms and dining rooms of your neighbor’s house.

These small house meetings are where you can find others who feel the way you do, where people can come together and think of ways to change the system. This isn’t about organizing the vote, it’s about voting to organize. All these small home meetings are where revolution happens–and I hope you find a good meeting near you, or start one in your home. This is what Democracy, what Revolution, looks like right now. These meetings of concerned citizens who want to create change.

And the big protests are an outlet for those people too–where we can all come together, peacefully, for change. Here’s where you hatch ideas that 20 people can carry out, and that can spread to other groups meeting in other homes. Our group talked about Cash for Change, the idea of using only cash to pay for things so that corporations don’t keep getting their share of your dollar every time you swipe a card. The store doesn’t get that money. The banks and larger credit institutions receive that percentage off of every sale. Cash for change–if a large number of people did it–would hurt the revenue they are collecting. And that’s kinda what these groups are for. How do concerned citizens get the attention of billionaires? How can we, small but mighty, make a difference against powerful people? We have power–but we have to cooperate to do it. These small groups can help foster new ideas. They still need the mass protests though–and large numbers of people. And until those numbers HURT the established order of things, until there is a general strike, people standing around for 2 hours may not make a huge difference to the oligarchs. But when people begin to stand around for days and shut things down–that may get their attention.

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I hope your #NoKings stays peaceful. But the more powerful we become, the more there will be resistance against us too. Please be safe. 2 million people protesting will keep growing and growing, no matter what happens today. Maybe you will have some frogs or TRexes in your group too!

Keep meeting. Keep planning. Keep that spark alive. Change will happen–we will bring more people together because we have so much common ground between us, and so much to do before us. We need everyone!

As events ramp up, as rights continue to be stripped away, and good people are hurt, kidnapped, enslaved, fired, bullied, silenced, and killed, and when it seems evident that fascism is taking hold in our country, we have few choices but to topple these despots before they build their gilded ballrooms and settle in like Long-Covid in our White House.

I call this painting, “Topple,” and I list some ideas for toppling at a local level:

call your representatives–bug the hell out of them.
vote them out when you are able to
speak out at town meetings, on the radio, on TV, on Youtube, FB, Instagram, anywhere you can
create art, music, little libraries, banners, flags, protest signs, dance, anything that allows you to either a) address what is happening in some creative way, or b) circumvent the hopelessness and despair that can creep in by creating something beautiful, fun, outrageous, daring, dynamic, peaceful to keep the Light going
refuse to work for corrupt governments. If everyone in Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s office refused to come to work, he would be alone; if Trump’s staff quit or refused to come to work for one week, he would falter (and at Mar-a-Lago). While I know that much of his cabinet are loyal to him, partly through fear, I wonder if Hyatt Hotels could shelter the staff as well as they shelter fleeing Texas Democrats.
strike–though this sounds like the previous point, a general strike is all of us just shutting down the whole country. Doing it now when they don’t have AI back-ups for your jobs, is better. Perhaps a few days of this would change things.
Run for Office. Challenge the Republicans in your district–run on ALL of the things that Trump and Republicans are taking away from every citizen. Make the Midterms about seeing what the LEGISLATIVE branch can do without the President.

I’m sure there are other things we can do to disrupt the system, take down the billionaires, and force change in this country. The rich have always, historically, underestimated the people and the people have surprised them every time.

Together, when we are fighting for the same things, we are unstoppable. We just have to realize that we are essentially on the same side and always have been. Realize and discern who are your allies (most likely anyone who makes less than a million a year is your ally by default! Run with that.)

TOPPLE. TOPPLE the Oligarchy.

*This illustration depicts a mass uprising to metaphorically disrupt billionaires, tyrants, and despots by metaphorically unseating them from their giant chairs of power through all the ways I iterate on the illustration and in the post itself and does not suggest or depict or condone violence. This ain’t Jan 6, y’all.

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