WHATELY — Civil rights and liberties attorney Bill Newman warned some 60 people at a “Stand Up! Fight Back!” event this week that there are many signs on display of an authoritarian regime and encouraged them to keep the faith and continue resisting.
An attorney at Northampton’s Lesser Newman Aleo & Nasser, LLP and director of the western regional law office of the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts since 1987, began his talk Monday by reading the Oath of Office from the Constitution. The oath is the promise the incoming president makes at their inauguration.
“I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the Office of the President of the United States, and will do to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States,” Newman read at the start of the event hosted by the Whately Civic Association.
He then asked the audience to raise their hands if they think President Donald Trump is “doing a good job of fulfilling those.” No one in audience raised their hand.
Throughout his talk, Newman returned to the tipping point of authoritarianism.
“The tipping point for when an ostensibly free country becomes an authoritarian regime can be unclear. A country can be in the middle of it and not know when it’s in the middle of it,” Newman said. “That transformation often is not happening with a single stroke… Rather, it’s an amalgam of policies and events that come together, and at some point the populace arises, or wakes up, and says, ‘Where did our freedom go?'”
He listed several signs of a nation on the edge, including a leader “with total control of his political party” who encourages violence, controls educational systems, universities and cultural centers, puts oligarchs in charge, consolidates executive power, rules by fear and is an omnipresent “master propagandist.”
Other clues according to Newman include troops on the streets, attacks on freedom of the press and freedom of speech, book banning, the demonization and targeting of minority groups, the police snatching people off the street, politicized armed forces, weak opposition and when “truth and facts become whatever the government and leader say they are.”
“Where our country is today checks many of these boxes,” Newman said.
Before he continued, he took a breath and promised the audience, “This is not going to be a total downer.” Laughs rumbled through the town hall.
Newman then stepped back into the history of the Constitution, mentioning amendments following the Civil War.
“There have been essentially progressive amendments, alterations of our foundational document, which indicates the arc of history is long, and it hasn’t been a smooth ride or continual progression, but the country has moved towards democracy,” Newman said.
Newman described Congress’ power to appropriate money as a check on the executive branch’s power and asked the audience to think back to Watergate. He compared the Supreme Court and Congress’s responses to former president Richard Nixon’s actions to their responses to Trump’s actions this term.
“Where are those congressional representatives, those Republican senators saying, ‘That’s outrageous!’?” Newman said. “The silence is deafening.”
Newman then returned to his promise of positivity and mentioned political scientist and Harvard professor Erica Chenoweth’s “3.5% rule.” According to Chenoweth’s research, it historically takes about 3.5% of a population engaging in nonviolent civil resistance to spark significant political change. This percentage of the United States population comes out to about 12 million Americans.
“Can we get to that tipping point? That answer will come,” Newman said. For the “No Kings” marches, three to six million protesters across nearly 2,000 marches rallied against the president. Newman said every protest matters.
He added that he is unsure if the 2026 midterm elections will be the tipping point of change in the federal government, “but we are not going to give up, and so it’s time to put our heads down and work hard,” Newman said.
Newman then reminded the crowd of outspoken pacifist A.J. Muste holding a candle outside the White House for several nights to protest the Vietnam War. When a reporter asked Muste whether his protest would alter policies, he replied simply, “I don’t do this to change the country, I do it so the country won’t change me.”
“I think that lesson applies today, because how long will we need to live through the ways in which our freedoms and democracy and things we hold dear are being challenged, are being wrecked, are being destroyed. How long will it take to live through that, and what will it take to rebuild that society afterwards?” Newman said, “I can’t really begin to predict, but I do think that if we stand together, and if we’re here for each other, we can do the work that needs to be done.”
Newman said this resistance may lead to a tipping point for the federal government if the Supreme Court senses “a sea change in this country’s view of what is acceptable and what is not.”
The crowd applauded before a Q and A session.
For the final question, an audience member asked Newman for advice to inspire resistance after the majority of voters picked Trump in 2024.
“We have the ability in Massachusetts to offset a fair amount of what the government is doing,” Newman said. “If we are successful in Massachusetts and we have some successes to point to, I think we will point the way for other places in the country.”
Between questions, audience members raised opportunities for local activism, like donating to the Movement Voter Project and protesting in the upcoming “No Kings” march on Oct. 18 in Greenfield Energy Park.
Julie Cavacco drove from her home in Deerfield to hear Newman’s talk. After the event, she said she appreciated Newman describing “that a lot of things start at a local level.”
Cavacco added, “I feel the path forward is a little clearer.”