We Too Must ‘Flood the Zone’

After weeks of following the news about the systematic dismantling of the federal government by U.S. President Donald Trump and his appointed and ad hoc acolytes, I have been driven to outrage and the realization of the need for a clarion call to action. However, this week, after listening to an hour-long interview with a leading researcher and journalist who studies the manifestations and damage wrought by plutocrats and authoritarians, for the first time I felt fear.

Not specifically fear of what is happening to our great nation per se, but fear that this well-respected expert repeated several times during the interview that what we are observing is unprecedented in our nation’s history and that they had few if any recommendations on what can be done to wrestle back this beast.

To that end, action is what I put forward in this letter. Steve Bannon coined the now much used phrase “flood the zone,“ for the strategy that the Trump administration is employing with their phalanx of executive orders and invasions of executive agencies and secure databases by individuals without requisite security clearances. While many of these actions are apparently unenforceable and unconstitutional, the intent of the strategy is to overwhelm the opposition with far too much to act upon—akin to encouraging the proverbial cat to chase a laser light.

Unlike the early days of the American union, where citizen soldiers were freezing in the winter woods without boots and bullets, those opposed to the current takeover of our government and democratic institutions have many arrows in their quivers.

I suggest, as a countervailing strategy, that we employ the same technique against them. Truly patriotic Democrats and Republicans must now borrow Steve Bannon’s “flooding of the zone” in a different context. Generate so many lawsuits to in effect flood the Supreme Court docket. As a result, most cases brought against Trump administration actions will be forced to stay within the purview of the lower courts where some semblance of democracy and due process still remains.

While I certainly understand that the Supreme Court has the power to stay the decisions of lower courts and place cases on their docket that are consolidations of multiple lower-court decisions on cases with similarly limited legal questions; nonetheless, the strategy will indeed keep them jumping.

It is also important to note that this barrage of legal actions must be based on solid legal grounds. Any hint at frivolity in any of these lawsuits will rapidly reinforce right-wing outcry against such actions. I am particularly sensitized to this risk after watching a video of federal employee protesters decrying Elon Musk’s dismantling of the federal government. The protesters were challenging Musk’s actions while counterprotesters were asserting that their protests were misguided as they were opposing Musk’s so-called efforts toward “transparency and government efficiency.”

At the outset of the American Revolution, many considered it absurd that a ragtag bunch of colonists could actually weave together a nation while at the same time fighting a war against one of the most powerful nations on Earth. But that is exactly what America succeeded in doing. This was the result of vision, commitment, innovative strategies, and the juxtaposition of global events beyond the scope of the American Revolution that served to distract Britain from their intention to quell this colonial discontent.

However, unlike the early days of the American union, where citizen soldiers were freezing in the winter woods without boots and bullets, those opposed to the current takeover of our government and democratic institutions have many arrows in their quivers. We have legal scholars, state attorneys general, engaged NGOs, skilled lawyers who can crank out 200 page legal briefs overnight, the majority of the American public who have some understanding of civics and the critical importance of the American experiment, and many powerful corporations who understand that their business interests lie in producing products and services that not only create profitability, but also benefit people and the natural world. This capacity, effectively marshaled, without qualification cannot be stopped.