A Biden/Harris Win: A Moment in Time to Celebrate Persistence
While the Trump crowd goes through its stages of grief --and gets plenty of media attention while doing so-- it’s time to focus on where we've been and where we're going.
I have lots of thoughts about the election results, and have decided to break them down into a series of columns this week.
Today’s essay is about gratitude. When I heard the news about the voting in the various states reaching critical mass for the Biden/Harris ticket, the knot in my gut that’s been there for four years finally began to relax.
There‘s also a piece today about joy, courtesy of professor/labor/activist/author Jim Miller, who will be contributing here on a weekly basis going forward. I feel blessed to be able to share his thoughts regularly; his writings on sometimes difficult topics incorporate a sense of humanity and consciousness I can only aspire to.
To be sure, there’s work to be done. Here's what's coming.
Tuesday, I’ll be focused on triaging the gaping wound in our nation’s soul. The political efforts and accomplishments of the man soon to leave the presidency were not a fluke. His enablers spent the last half-century building a political and philosophical infrastructure capable of turning back the clock and turning us against each other. Racism, patriarchy, and greed were their building blocks of division and hate deeply rooted in Western Culture.
Wednesday, I’ll zero in on the latest attempts to do nothing, otherwise known as the “center-left divide” our frenemies devoted to serving our corporate overlords are pushing on talk shows and op ed pages. Demonizing AOC et. al., is all about sidetracking action on issues like the environment and healthcare (and plenty more) because there are no rational arguments left against what the American people agree should be done.
Thursday, I’ll look around to make some educated guesses about the future of the activist energy that’s propelled progressive resistance over the past four years. Winning can be just as hard to do as losing. I’ve seen enough movements rise and fall to be able guess the challenges ahead.
By Friday, I’m hoping there’s enough clarity about plans for our Dear Leader’s departure to be able to say something. Suffice it to say here’s a large amount of denial coming, followed by some trashing of the joint on the way out the door.
***
Remember that feeling when it became obvious Donald Trump had won the 2016 election?
Fear...flight...despair...depression...anger...desperation… and a big knot in the pit of your gut.
I sure remember those days. And I have to say the past administration did its level best to live up to all my worse trepidations. I looked around for the helpers and realized things were more dire than I’d imagined.
What follows is a thumbnail sketch of my impressions, and is not intended as a comprehensive history.
None of the existing avenues for activism were robust enough, in my (and a lot of other people’s) estimation, to stand up to the evil we faced.
Back in those days I was part of the San Diego Free Press, which we’d worked hard at making into a platform for communicating the ideas and aspirations of activists in the region. I'll always be grateful for the lessons learned while working with those wonderful folks.
After we got over the shock of the election results, we at SDFP called a public meeting to discuss the future under Trump.
The response, in terms of numbers, exceeded our expectations. There was lots of fiery rhetoric. A really good history lesson from longtime activist Frank Gormlie provided a context for understanding what we saw as the challenges ahead. And then… nobody had a plan.
I went to a couple of other meetings organized to facilitate coalitions hoping to channel non-electoral activism… And nobody had a plan, unless you wanted to count the surplus of internet bravado built on the premise of masses mobilizing by way of mean Tweets.
The activist infrastructure I was familiar with, born of the struggles over past decades, simply wasn’t up to the task. Old rivalries, burnout, no money, no leadership, and no vision stood in the way of the kind of movement building needed to resist.
Nationally, at least, the ACLU was putting together a legal strategy mostly centered around the courts. The country’s lawyers and civil liberties advocates began carving out a path towards mobilizing people power.
A 23 page Google document entitled Indivisible: A Practical Guide for Resisting the Trump Agenda was created by a group of former congressional staffers. Although it was originally intended mostly for Capital Hill types, it soon went viral.
Meanwhile, the people our local “coalitions” didn’t include were taking matters into their own hands.
The Women’s March of 2017 drew, according to conservative estimates, a half million people to Washington DC, and ten times that number to more than four hundred other marches around the country. Solidarity protests took place in 673 locations in 81 countries on all seven continents.
Following the march, the organizers of the Women's March on Washington posted the "10 Actions for the first 100 Days" campaign for joint activism to keep up momentum from the march.
Local women from a broad spectrum of interests organized the San Diego Women’s March, with turnout exceeding their wildest dreams. A plethora of like minded groups emerged, with newly energized activists incorporating a variety of disciplines and institutions.
Then the administration made its first bold move, restricting travel from Muslim countries designated as hostile to the interests of the United States. Increasingly large numbers of people started showing up at airports to show the world that not all Americans agreed with the fear mongering coming out of Washington. Taxi drivers and other workers joined the picket lines. And the legal community pushed back, eventually forcing a (temporary) retreat by the government.
Out of the San Diego protests (some had started earlier) a group of mostly rookie and mostly women activists emerged and began the process of creating a local Indivisible movement.
I volunteered with the group eventually becoming known as Indivisible San Diego Persist. I will forever be grateful for the insights gained, and the willingness to keep on keeping on.
By February 4, 2017, less than two months from the publication of the Indivisible Guide, and about two weeks after Trump's inauguration, more than 3,800 local groups identifying as "Indivisibles" had formed and declared their support for the movement.
The administration’s first large scale attack on the Affordable Care Act failed, thanks to massive public push back. Congressman Darrel Issa decided to (temporarily) retire in the face of weekly protests outside his Vista office. The Blue Wave of 2018, which swept a new generation of advocates into elected offices nationwide, owed much of its energy to this activist movement.
There was just one teensy little problem with all these newly created activist groups: they were whiter than mayonnaise on white bread.
The Black Lives Matter movement, dating back to the acquittal of the man who killed 17 year old Travon Martin, was already growing organically long before the Donald of Trump put the fear of fascism in the “resistance.”
Unlike the perceived potential fascism the new (white) activists were responding to, the BLM movement was dealing with the everyday repressive realities in the lives of millions of Americans.
One lesson they brought to the table was that the quest for justice was more important than any single individual.
It may have driven the media (and law enforcement) crazy that identifiable leaders weren’t easily found, but this horizontal form of organizing made adapting to local realities a natural course of action. Thinking back on the various movements of the past, not having a hierarchy probably saved lives even as it encouraged intersectionality.
On every level of political discourse, the role of the state in enforcing racism is now a big part of the national agenda. Not bad for a movement that started as a hashtag.
***
So here we are, taking a deep breath. I want to express gratitude for a moment.
So many people I know are just.plain.tired. The Trump years, with all their drama, repression, corruption, and incompetence have been exhausting for anybody who’s been paying attention.
There is so much more to be done. And here’s the bad news: the next wanna-be fascist will have learned from the mistakes of the past four years.
But before I move on to whatever awaits me as a scribe, I’d like to acknowledge all the people and groups that have made life more bearable since November, 2016.
I started out writing a list, realized that I would a)create thousands of words of little public interest b) piss off some people I forgot to include.
So here’s a thank you to all the publications, writers, artists, trouble-makers, activists, contrarians, local politicos and politicians who kept my chin up.
Let’s keep making good trouble.
Tomorrow: UnTrumping America
Wednesday: The Fake “Center”
Thursdays: Future Paths for Activists
Friday: Trump’s Down But Not Out
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