If we all believed columnist Jon Huer’s obituary for U.S. democracy (“The Constitution is dead at Trump’s hands,” Gazette, Feb. 23), we’d all be cowering in some unpleasant cellar, tails between our legs, waiting for the next blow to fall. Fortunately, a more accurate quote is “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they attack you, then you win.” And our democracy, along with the huge movement to protect it, is definitely under attack.

The current assaults on democracy and its defenders, as vicious as they are, are the last gasp of a powerful elite who realize that their hold on power is crumbling. We the people hold the better cards. Researchers Erica Chenoweth and Maria Stephan found that over and over again, just 3.5 percent of the population nonviolently withdrawing consent and cooperation is enough to topple even very repressive governments — and that nonviolent struggles are more effective than violent ones. The most recent No Kings protests drew about seven million participants. Each of those probably represented at least one more person who couldn’t get away from work, was afraid of being kidnapped by ICE, had no way to get there, or had a medical condition that prevented showing up. Three and a half percent of the U.S. is about 12 million. So we already have the numbers. Now, we need to reclaim our power and coordinate our strategy.

It’s time to nonviolently take back our country! The next No Kings protests will be Saturday, March 28, which is also the 47th anniversary of the Three Mile Island nuclear meltdown. The national safe energy organization Clamshell Alliance has endorsed the No Kings protests and encourages signs that link these struggles, such as “No Kings, No Nukes— Remember TMI.” (Disclosure: I am on Clamshell’s national steering committee and also co-represent Clamshell on the steering committee of the state-wide commonwealth Coalition for Democracy and Safe Energy, which is fighting to keep a protective law that requires basic safety standards for nuclear power). See you on the streets and at the barricades!

Shel Horowitz

Hadley