Thread by @trygveolson

Some have asked for the Seven Rules of Dealing with Autocratis - here they are in a thread. @ProjectLincoln @TheRickWilson @TaraSetmayer @reedgalen @SteveSchmidtSES @stuartpstevens @JoeTrippi

Rule #1 Play the Game You Are in Not the One You Wish or Want to Play - This means when one side is playing the zero-sum illiberal there is no win-win to be played. You will either win and democracy survives or you lose to the autocratic forces.

Rule #2 Always Speak Truth to Power Because You Never Know the Tipping Point -- You must confront Big Lies of illiberal forces by speaking truth to their base of power -- people. There is a tipping point where your Truth or the Big Lies prevail.

Rule #3 Don't Hand the Autocrats Battering Rams with Which to Beat You -- The game you are in, the battle you are fighting, isn't about policy or ideology. They will use what you say to divide you from your allies who you need to win the battle for democracy.

Rule 4 Understand Authoritarians Must Live in a Truth-Free Present -- The past presents truths about the big lies and fear the illiberal forces use. The future for autocratic forces only matters for maintaining power at the moment. They only care about keeping/gaining power

Rule 5 Practice Zero-Sum Judo -- Use their tactics against them -- Big Truths, Marginalization, make them dependent, mock the disinformation, divide and conquer their power structure. Use their desire for the legitimacy of democracy against them.

Rule 6 The Stalin Rule: Stand Together with Anyone Who Will Join You to Disturb, Disrupt and Diminish the Illiberal Structures. Even if you share nothing in common beyond a love of democracy and how much you loath their politics in normal times you fight side-by-side with them

Rule 7 Wake Up Every Day Thinking Where Can the Vertical Power Structure Be Exposed, Confronted, and Destabilized -- Each of us and all of use on Team Democracy must wake up every day and ask what can I do to be on the side of restoring faith and confront the fear they use.

Ultimately, I am an optimist. When fear of the illiberal autocrat erodes by people show they are not afraid, faith takes hold and others want and will join the fight. It is one we must win in America. This isn't about only what kind of country we want our child to have

It is ultimately about the world we will all live in if the founder's great experiment, bestow to us by previous generations, of the world's exceptional and indispensable nation dies out. That is why we fight, that is why we must prevail. It is why we will.

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