As I sit with the news that yesterday ICE horrifically killed another person, this time in Maine, I feel the need to do…something. Often times that want to do something is go out in the street and protest or shout or make my voice heard. I’m grateful to those in Maine who were able to do that yesterday, but it is generally a dubious task in a lot of the United States to have impromptu movements against our government.

If we look at other revolutionary times or actions, such as the French Revolution, the Russian Revolution, 1848, or even the beginning of the American Revolution, we can see the pattern. There is a struggle of power, economically and physically, between the government and an angry people in a close quarters city. Paris, St. Petersburg, Berlin, Boston, New York…these cities all allow for spontaneous and effective demonstrations against actions of a government. And these actions were often successful in getting the government to change what they were doing, in one way or another.

In the United States, there is a unique problem. Not only is our geography incredibly spread out, meaning when something happens in Maine that’s a long way from Oregon, but our city planning is not condusive to protest or civil disruption. Our suburban sprawl makes it hard for organic, focused protests and disruptions with a few exceptions like New York or Washington D.C.

What this ultimately means is that when the Trump Administration does horrible things, like allowing ICE to kill unarmed civilians with no recourse, we don’t see the explosive protests nationally I think we might otherwise see in other countries that don’t have our logistical problems. It makes letting the Trump Administration or local administrations know that we are fed up is much, much more difficult than if we were French and could take to the streets of Paris.

So, how can we show our anger? Ultimately it is going to come down to economic disruption and social media. We can still plan protests that are relatively successful, such as the No Kings protests, but these do not disrupt the economic goals of the Trump Administration.

We will have to get bolder as Trump gets bolder, and as the 2026 midterms approach he will get bolder. We will have to call on each other to strike, to boycott, and in any other way we can disrupt the economic flow of things in this country. We will have to coordinate these on social media and through the internet since we do not live close enough to each other. I do think we can be successful at this, we will just have to work harder. We will have to do it more logically and less emotionally. It will take a lot of work. But as Trump tries to undermine our democracy and attack our neighbors, we will have to work harder than him. We have to.

-TMR