Chapter 619 - 292: Turning Loose Sand into Bricks

Leo turned around, his eyes burning as he stared at Ethan.

"So, our mission isn’t to hand them guns."

"It’s to give them a strategy, an organization."

"Look at what we’ve done in Pittsburgh."

Leo began to count on his fingers.

"Step one: shatter identity politics."

"Right now in the United States, the forces of resistance are fragmented by ethnicity, gender, and sexual orientation."

"We have to pierce through these superficial divisions."

"In the Industrial Revival Alliance, we put Black plumbers and white truck drivers on the same assembly line. In the Mutual Aid Alliance, we have Latina single mothers and retired veterans of Irish descent receiving the same life-saving medication."

"We need to make them understand that there are only two kinds of people in this world: the 99% who labor, and the 1% who are the financial monopoly capitalists."

"Hunger doesn’t see color, and illness doesn’t pick a party."

"Once they find their common class interests, all those scattered guns can coalesce into a collective power."

Leo held up a second finger.

"Step two: inject a soul."

"Without the right political perspective, a movement has no soul."

"We need to use the lectures at the Carnegie Steel Factory and Sarah’s media blitz to expose their alienation."

"We have to make the masses understand they aren’t just facing a bad president or a greedy CEO."

"They are facing systemic exploitation."

"We must eliminate xenophobia and infighting."

"Through logical analysis, we will point out that the main contradiction is with the ruling class, not the undocumented immigrant who ’took your job,’ and not your neighbor who supports abortion."

"We need to redirect that aimless, internal anger into an external force of will."

"We must shatter their blind faith in the elites and make the workers believe that it is not the bureaucrats in Washington who make history, but they themselves."

Ethan looked at Leo.

He realized that when Leo spoke of these things, he possessed a chillingly incendiary charisma.

"Step three: solve their isolation."

Leo continued.

"You said earlier they were weak. That’s because they are isolated."

"That’s why we built grassroots strongholds."

"When the organization can provide more reliable support than the government, their weakness will vanish."

"Because they know that even if they fall, there will be others to carry on for them."

"’Serve the people’ is not just a slogan, Ethan. It is our concrete action to win the people’s trust and eliminate their worries for the future."

"And the final step."

"Shift from defense to offense."

"Once their ideology is unified, the organization is established, and their future is secured."

"Resistance will no longer be a suicidal stunt like storming Capitol Hill."

"Instead, it will follow the logic of a people’s war."

Leo’s eyes turned exceptionally cold.

"We will engage in asymmetrical warfare."

"Facing advanced surveillance and police forces, we fight on our own terms. We will exploit the loopholes within society, use their own rules against them, and wage a multi-dimensional, protracted struggle."

"We must be pragmatic and never engage in blind adventurism."

"We must conduct in-depth social investigations to find the weakest links in the ruling class."

"Like right now."

Leo pointed to the investigative report on the health insurance companies lying on the table.

"Their weaknesses are greed, arrogance, and their disregard for the lower class."

"As long as we accomplish all this."

Leo looked at Ethan, his voice as firm as iron.

"We can mobilize Pittsburgh, mobilize the entire working class of the Rust Belt to fight."

"They will fight for their own futures, for their children’s medical bills, and for their dignity as human beings."

"That kind of fighting force is more terrifying than any army."

Ethan was silent for a long time.

He realized that Leo wasn’t crazy.

Leo was more clear-headed than anyone.

He was using an extremely rational method to reforge the backbone of these forgotten people.

"I understand."

There was admiration in Ethan’s voice.

"Get it done."

Leo waved his hand dismissively.

"Tell Sarah to coordinate with this plan and create new propaganda materials."

"Tell Marcus to upgrade the system and prepare for a massive influx of data."

"We are going to make this fire burn in every kitchen, on every dinner table in Pennsylvania."

Ethan turned and left, his steps hurried.

Back in the office, Leo sat down in his chair again.

The pundits on the television screen were still droning on, but their voices had become irrelevant.

Leo closed his eyes and rubbed his throbbing temples.

’Mr. President,’ Leo asked in his mind, ’by doing this, am I just creating a new special interest group?’

’Of course.’

There wasn’t a hint of evasion in Roosevelt’s voice.

’Any major political change is, in essence, a restructuring of interests.’

’If you don’t create a new interest group, you can’t defeat the old one.’

Roosevelt said, ’The United States I took over in 1933 was a country firmly controlled by the old money class.’

’Those old-guard industrial tycoons, those financial giants on Wall Street, they latched onto this country like vampires, sucking away all its wealth while refusing to take any responsibility.’

’I wanted to change all that.’

’But I knew that speeches alone were useless. I had to build an army of my own.’

Roosevelt’s voice grew excited.

’And that was the New Deal Alliance.’

’I used the power of the Federal Government as a lever to weld them all together—the scattered lower-class workers, the bankrupt farmers, the marginalized minorities, and even the new capitalists who were eager to break the old order.’