I was criticized when I said that the January 21 women’s march wouldn’t amount to anything unless it resulted in a real movement instead of a mere show of hands. But those protests were only to demonstrate opposition to Donald Trump taking office. Now he’s been in office for more than two months and wreaking havoc, and where has the resistance been? Nonexistent. Lesson learned: there’s no point having a bunch of stupid demonstrations if you don’t have any follow-through.
Two Days of Rage
Ted Rall
Ted Rall is a syndicated political cartoonist for Andrews McMeel Syndication and WhoWhatWhy.org and Counterpoint. He is a contributor to Centerclip and co-host of "The Final Countdown" talk show on Radio Sputnik. He is a graphic novelist and author of many books of art and prose, and an occasional war correspondent. He is, recently, the author of the graphic novel "2024: Revisited."
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Point taken. However…
It does require a great deal of shared commitment – and willingness to make sacrifices – to keep this up regularly. Energy which could arguably better spent at local organizing.
They did keep demonstrations going each week in East Berlin for months, taking a lot of personal risk (the security state did keep detailed tabs). And were still co-opted in the end by the tender mercies of the West-German capitalist class and given a kind of freedom that they were by and large not demanding.
Perhaps the best response is to organize resistance locally and grow our awareness in local meetings, even on-line. And then be able to galvanize into global actions, i.e. should it feel like their healthcare “plan” or supreme court nomination is actually imminent. Both issues have the potential to split a movement. Obamacare for pharmaceutical corporations in which Democrats are invested vs Universal Health Insurance, and e.g. “pro-choice” vs “pro-life” – a lot of “pro-life” people squarely belong to the 99%. It will take a lot of resilience and trust not to be split, which needs to be carefully nurtured. I do hope some of this is going on right now.
There is no serious Resistance because the real and pseudo-Left (Democratic Party, progressives, etc.) focused their idea of resistance entirely on the badness of Trump, and he isn’t bad enough (yet). This is the same mistake HRC and the Democrats made last year. Naturally, they’re going to repeat it ad infinitum. Now that Trump has dodged the bullet of having his health uncare bill defeated, he’s become just the usual bad old Republican type, which the Democrats can live with. Trump says they’ll soon be negotiating with him. Maybe he’ll switch parties.
Hint: Robert Reich & “The Resistance Report”!
I think the problem is one of expectations from the beginning. Like this:
1. Trump IS Hitler. He isn’t kinda like Hitler. He isn’t sorta like Hitler. He IS Hitler. That was the rhetoric [sic] we got form all the bloviators in the mainstream media.
2. Did Trump line people up in front of mass graves and shoot them through the head? No.
3. But what about all the increased violence and anti-Semitism? What about that graveyard that was desecrated? It’s the blue Volkswagen effect. Doesn’t sound like there are all that many blue Volkswagens around. Until you start looking for them. Then you start to see them everywhere. Before Trump, if some horse’s ass put a swastika on a bathroom stall, it was simply painted over. Or someone simply covered it up while they were in the stall. Now, with Trump, everyone’s out to prove how everything’s going all Hitler, so a whole lot of these “low-level” events are getting outsized coverage. Graveyard desecration? That’s been going on since the 1970s (that doesn’t mean I’m saying it’s okay; I’m just pointing out, this sort of crap was going on long before Trump got into office), but now, because Trump’s in office, there’s a far-rapider, far-more in-depth coverage of each event.
It’s hard to accept, but even though Trump is a jerk, the objective amount of mayhem he’s causing with his policies in still quite low. People being held at airports trying to enter the country? Happens every day. People being turned away at the border? Ditto. And that’s the problem.
We were “promised” concentration camps, Krystallnacht, lynchings every other day, forced registrations, etc. And we haven’t had anything even close. And that’s also the problem.
Why? Because it makes all the “protesters” look like idiots, running around like Henny-Penny screaming “the sky is falling” (Or “the wall is going up”), and they were wrong. Timing matters. But now, the protesters were (mostly) wrong on two things: 1. They were wrong about Trump not winning, and 2. They were wrong about the existential threat he represents.
Three minutes from now, he may prove to actually be even worse than Hitler, but that’s not now. And that’s how people are judged in politics. The protesters brought the showdown way, way too early. And this is the payoff. It’s like shorting a stock. Do it right, you make a fortune. Do it too soon, and you lose your shirt.