Can We Build a New Populist Movement? (Letter 5)

Washington ain’t where the revolution’s gonna start—it’s where it’ll show up late, out of breath, looking for a poll-tested slogan to slap on the movement we already built.

This is the fifth in a six-letter exchange between Lukium, author of The American Manifesto, and Lady Libertie of The American Pamphleteer.

Links will be added as the letters get published: letter 1, letter 2, letter 3, letter 4, letter 5, letter 6.

Dear Lukium,

You just dropped the gauntlet—and baby, I caught it mid-air, twirled it, and slammed it down like a judge with a gavel in a busted courtroom that’s about to be reclaimed by the people. Because yes. Yes to all of it. Every word rang like a liberty bell in my ribcage.

You’re exactly right: Washington ain’t where the revolution’s gonna start—it’s where it’ll show up late, out of breath, looking for a poll-tested slogan to slap on the movement we already built.

The real work? It’s already happening. It’s in break rooms and barbershops. At PTA meetings and picket lines. In quiet conversations between neighbors who don’t trust the headlines but do trust each other. You nailed it: this is a bottom-up, roll-up-your-sleeves, no-savior-coming, all-hands-on-deck kind of moment.

You also hit the nail square on the skull when you named the villain. Fascism isn’t a slur—it’s a diagnosis. And honey, America is showing all the symptoms. The cult of personality. The purity tests. The hunger for vengeance disguised as patriotism. We’ve got a front-row seat to history, and I’ll be damned if we just sit here tweeting while the country burns down around us.

We need to organize, yes—but first, we need to believe. Believe that we deserve a democracy that works for working people. Believe that we have the numbers, the heart, and the spine to turn this ship around. You don’t get to say “there are more of us than them” unless you mean it, unless you're ready to knock on doors, call your cousin who fell down a Facebook rabbit hole, and show up like your future depends on it—because it does.

You laid out the values: fairness, truth, merit, responsibility, transparency. And I’d add one more: solidarity. Because if we don’t stand together, we’re gonna fall one by one. That’s the truth the oligarchs don’t want us to figure out. That’s why they pump out culture war garbage and bait us into bickering while they run off with the loot. But that spell is breaking. People are waking up.

And yes, we can use the Democratic Party as a vessel—but let’s be clear: we’re not patching up a sinking ship. We’re rebuilding it mid-sail, ripping out the rot, and slapping a fresh name on the bow if we have to. This isn’t about party loyalty—it’s about movement loyalty. About fidelity to the working class, not the donor class.

This is the season for moral courage. Not lukewarm centrism. Not respectability politics. Not “bipartisanship” with fascists. We need to call things by their true names, stand for something real, and give people a vision that’s as bold as their despair is deep.

And when the movement is ready—and I believe it’s getting close—it won’t have one face. It’ll have millions. Teachers, drivers, janitors, coders, caregivers, dreamers, farmers, soldiers, and organizers, standing shoulder to shoulder, saying: not on our watch.

We don’t need permission. We don’t need a map. We’ve got each other. And we are already on the move.

With fire in my heart and steel in my spine,
Lady Libertie
The American Pamphleteer

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