In this Freedom Over Fascism Fireside Chat, host Stephanie Wilson interviews Dmitri Melhorn about war-gaming scenarios for a destabilized, authoritarian-leaning United States. Melhorn describes work at the Atoll Society creating fictional scenario “salons” inspired by Sinclair Lewis’s 1935 novel “It Can’t Happen Here,” using three teams—nationalists (red), institutionalists/constitutionalists (blue), and capitalists (green)—to simulate moves from March 2026 through December 2030.
In salons across the country, policymakers, journalists, legal scholars, technologists, business executives, operatives, civic leaders, faculty, and students play out a likely contested-elector scenario in which urban votes are delegitimized, alternate slates of electors are submitted by rural state legislators, and the president of the Senate (identified as JD Vance in the example) could accept alternate electors, echoing January 2021 dynamics.
Melhorn notes a peaceful transfer of power is historically rare when the incumbent faction controls coercive power and faces legal jeopardy if it loses. He presents historical analogues for enforcing election outcomes through mass collective action, including the Velvet Revolution, Chile’s protests against Pinochet, the Philippines’ People Power Revolution, Israeli civil society protests in 2023, and most centrally Serbia 2000, where Otpor helped drive a general strike-style shutdown until Slobodan Milošević left office after losing. He frames the central plan as: win in 2028 and enforce the win in 2029, potentially requiring broad “arm-in-arm” coalitions across civil society, capital, and gun owners.
Melhorn emphasizes the need to focus on January 2029: win in 2028 and ensure the win “sticks” in 2029. He points listeners to Voices of the Atoll on Substack and atolllsociety.org for more information.
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