One of the leaders from the Strike Committee calls you in tears. “The meeting turned into chaos! People just yelled and…” They take a breath. “It all split apart and now there are four different factions, all with different plans.” They stop short of saying you could have made a difference, but they close, “I wish you had been there.”

With the movement fractured, Trump moves to stay in power. He invokes sketchy emergency orders to “temporarily suspend the 22nd Amendment.” Desperate, parts of the disobedience wing of the resistance movement try to mount a one-day strike. Sadly, they aren’t able to build a broad coalition. They just never grow fast enough.

Trump jams the courts with challenges. By election season, election workers, police, courts, politicians, and the military are all given conflicting orders. Without any clear strategy to resist and no viable alternative, most individuals take the path of least resistance — and put Trump on the ballot. You try to get your groups to take risks, but they aren’t ready. He wins a heavily biased election.

You know movements are cyclical and there will be another chance to defeat Trump at a later time. Still, you wish you had been able to help see things through.

THE END.

You didn’t win this time. Luckily, this is just a game. In this situation, we’re gonna face a moment when groups who are protecting people and defending institutions have to switch up their approach. We’ll have to expose our groups to greater risk. We’ll have to risk our organizations’ existence. We’ll have to take great personal risks — otherwise the movement will fail.

Read Closing Thoughts from the author.