The current state of the American Republic is approaching that of a failed state. We are together by a far thinner thread than many would admit. Our new President is a danger to the fabric of not just this country and the social world order, but the survival of humanity itself.
The danger he presents range from nuclear war to runaway climate change; both being existential threats to humanity. This threat to humanity also aligns with the devolving of our scientific progress.
The media is letting it slide far more than they should. The 5th estate has completely failed us. We should not respect these bigots and racists. Neo-Nazis should not be getting fashion covers. This is beyond the failing of the journalism industry, this is about what is right. Being objective doesn’t mean giving both sides equal time and treating them with equal intellectual validity because facts are facts and need to be treated as such and not as an intellectual debate, i.e. global warming.
What is the most disturbing part of this is that the legislative branch, run by the GOP, is choosing party over country, over humanity. They are enabling Trump with hopes that he will enact a destructive GOP platform.
Trump has global warming science deniers, war-mongering generals, anti-intellectuals, neo-liberal kings, white supremacists, anti-Semites, xenophobic, sexist, and anti-LGBTQ rights people filling out his cabinet.
All of this as a foreign nation moved to impact the election, as our CIA has done many times over in the past, and many of the GOP aren’t troubled by a dictator influencing the election. Many Dems and the electorate pause for outrage, but when time for action comes … sit on their hands.
What can be done?
For Democrats, an appeal to the working class means ignoring calls from people of color to do better, and running away from them, the real dem base. Especially millennials. Black women are the democratic base. They are their most consistent donors and alienating them cost them the election and will cost them any future elections.
Dems risk splitting the party chasing white middle-class voters. They have to fully embrace a multicultural coalition and non-colorblind populist messages.
“Because our nation has failed on multiple occasions to confront and reconcile with its own past and present, Trump was inevitable. Because we let our drive of materialism push us, the accumulation of things, Trump was inevitable. Because we let our nation’s military take precedent(or president, depending on who you are) over that of our education, health, housing, and science-based human advancement, Trump was inevitable. Because we made capitalism a prerequisite of democracy and freedom and created the conditions for extreme capitalism with an authoritarianism slant possible, Trump was inevitable.”
This is also a larger crisis of democracy as well. We’ve never been fully democratic for various reason, but the hacking by Russia, FBI, and fake news, as well as the role larger media, has played all show a crisis of our electoral system, as faulty as it may be.
The left must learn not to fight on facts, because very clearly facts no longer matter. Instead, they must create a reality based on facts. Base a vision, an emotional appeal that is based on facts. Create an opposing reality to what we are being presented with on the right, as they are creating a reality.
Because our nation has failed on multiple occasions to confront and reconcile with its own past and present, Trump was inevitable. Because we let our drive of materialism push us, the accumulation of things, Trump was inevitable. Because we let our nation’s military take precedent(or president, depending on who you are) over that of our education, health, housing, and science-based human advancement, Trump was inevitable. Because we made capitalism a prerequisite of democracy and freedom and created the conditions for extreme capitalism with an authoritarianism slant possible, Trump was inevitable.
It’s beyond just our nation, but right now we are the cancerous center of modern Western Civilization. We are the cancerous center of white supremacy and the chickens are coming home to roost.
We can see this on the micro level with the creation of the suburbs, the protection of the white class from that of the dangerous negroes, to gentrification, our imperial foreign policy, neo-liberal economics, and more.
Whiteness has always asserted itself when threatened, this happened after the civil war with reconstruction, and not restitution or reparations for those enslaved. We decided to reconcile with the part of the nation that fought explicitly for the “states’ rights” for a white supremacist state. This happened with the election of Richard M. Nixon and the authorized FBI push back against black dissidents, with infiltration, framing, and assassinations of black leaders across the country.
It’s hard for some to comprehend because of what it really means about America. It means that white Americans will always hold their social superiority as the most important issue, as long as white Americans hold their social advantages nothing else matters. Or even worse yet, some voters didn’t even decide that, they decided that the subjugation of black and brown people were less important to them than other interests. But this is a faulty analysis of those types of Trump voters, as it assumes that issues that negatively impact black and brown Americans do not negatively impact most white Americans.
Race is used to keep economic oppression viable: it keeps the rich rich, and the poor poor. It is what is, and always has been, squeezing the middle class.
But what can be done?
Don’t get caught up in the outrageous things Trump says, but pay attention to the intent. It paints a picture. When he talks about illegal votes, he’s pushing things in a direction with intent to take away voting rights. When Bannon talks about land-owning males, don’t go to the obvious like Shaun King and talk about how that’s rooted in slavery, cus duh, but let’s talk about how it’s a set-up. It means that that’s the extreme in their head, but they’ll settle for something “mundane.” It telegraphs intent to restrict rights, and solidify their hold on the country.
But even more importantly, if you spend your time being outraged by what is said, not looking at intent and at the actions, it’s a waste of energy. It feeds into the distraction they are intended to be. Think steps ahead, and look at what the line of thinking takes you down. Think of that path, then fight against not what they say, but what they plan to do.
“Race is used to keep economic oppression viable: it keeps the rich rich, and the poor poor. It is what is, and always has been, squeezing the middle class.”
You must think macro. With their micro-statements, look at how it connects to create a picture in your head of battlefronts and battlefields. Fight the battle in front of us, and prepare for the unthinkable battles ahead. Because if you don’t prepare for that battle, it will come, and people will be unprepared for it as people would be fighting the last one and not the one in front of them.
Truth matters not here, but hearts and mind. They create their own reality, so we must counter that with a reality of our own. Painting a picture of the monsters they are. Power hungry individuals, power hungry con-artists, that are looking to gain power and money off the backs of everyone else.
Right now, we can still fight politically. The next two years need to be spent trying to take back as many states as we can. Holding back the tide. Organize locally, fight locally, fight in local elections, fight in state elections. Unions need to go back to their organizing roots and resist in any way possible.
Don’t look for others to do it, find those around you that are resisting. There are meetings and organizers popping up all over the place. Don’t sit there and ask “what can I do?” or ask someone “what’s the larger strategy?” Get in those spaces and act. Find ways you can, too. Look through the resistance manual, attend tomorrow’s “Leading Locally Event,” and support candidates of color locally, from Ali Muldrow for Madison School Board, to Fitchburg’s Wanda Smith running for City Council there, to Madison’s Common Council candidates of color facing opposition.
We must not always react to the absurd moments he will bring. Don’t get caught up in the immediate outrage, but use that as fuel to be proactive in your resistance. The Black Lives Matter movement has helped build some infrastructure, but we must also think bigger to mass resistance and to strategic ways to impact pocketbooks of the wealthy elite, to general strikes, and more. The bottom line is that all options must be on the table at this point. Yes, all options.
But first, get in those spaces and ask those questions. Look within yourself. Dare yourself to be more, and dare those around you to be more. Then dare us, as a people, as a nation to be more.
Rise up, unite, organize, strategize, resist, and prepare yourself to pay the price for freedom. That’s the only way we’ll get through this.
