It absolutely is. All protests are rude. Politeness is acquiescence of the status quo, and the Democrats must be rude. Not boorishly rude, or childishly rude, or constantly rude, but they must strategically willing to be rude at well-chosen moments. These are most effective if you are never otherwise rude. So Democrats should be polite and adhere to norms except for certain highly visible occasions, such as the State of the Union.
This year, the choice was largely to be politely rude. They held up cute little paddles, as if at an auction. This action was appropriate for a President whose policies you disagree with, but who is otherwise a rational actor. This year, that was a waste of time.
Refusing to applaud isn’t actually rude. Refusing to bow to peer pressure isn’t, either. Calling other people out on bad manners, real or perceived, is rude.
How about this as an idea, going forward: have a designated heckler.
When the president pulls one of these stupid stunts, Dems can stand and applaud. The designated heckler, standing and applauding, shouts, “WILL YOU COMMIT TO PROTECTING FEDERAL FUNDING FOR CANCER RESEARCH?” and if there’s not an answer right away, Dems join in the chant: “WILL YOU COMMIT? WILL YOU COMMIT? WILL YOU COMMIT?”
The designated heckler should be prepared with similar questions for almost any stunt. Turn the stunt into a confrontation on substantive issues.
Of course Trump won’t commit. The story can then be about his refusal to commit, rather than about his parading a child in front of him to score cheap points.
Another one that needs to be oft repeated, lest it lose its power and its bite:
“Nice people made the best Nazis. My mom grew up next to them. They got along, refused to make waves, looked the other way when things got ugly and focused on happier things than “politics.” They were lovely people who turned their heads as their neighbors were dragged away. You know who weren’t nice people? Resisters.”
“I don’t remember a Democrat ever heckling a president in a State of the Union or any other matter,” Rep. Jim Clyburn told CNN’s Don Lemon in a Feb. 8 interview. The South Carolina Democrat continued: “We may show disassociation with, unappreciated-ness of. We may do it with a smile or not smile, facial expressions. I’ll sometimes do it with my head … bow my head to pray, and I sometimes shake my head to say I don’t agree. But to heckle, I mean, that’s not the way adults act. You let the president have his say. You show your disapproval, but you don’t heckle.”
In a resounding triumph of style over substance … yet another post summarily ignores every single stunning act of commission by the current administration and, instead, blames the minority party for not “giving the Governor a ‘harrumph.’”
It’s up to you whether you respect Rep. Clyburn’s opinion or not. I think it goes back to the point that’s been made by other posters that Democrats can choose to act like the adults in the room or lower themselves to the level of Marjorie Taylor Greene.
Is staying sitting through an entire speech when half the people present are standing for applause, or holding up signs mocking the speaker, “behaving as if everything is fine”?
Nah. It is pretty much up to reality itself as to whether Clyburn’s totally fact-free opinion should be respected. I think it goes back to the biased opinion that if the Democrats do it, it is automatically wrong.
Glad to see this nothingberder is still the biggest complaint the right can come up with. Almost as shocking as that time Obama asked for spicy mustard on his sandwich.
This framing makes it sound like being an “adult” in American society is incompatible with standing up for justice. If that is the case, a) it explains a few things about why kids these days are have so many mental health problems when they see what kind of bleak expectations we have for their adulthood, and b) I want some non-adults in charge until we learn how to be adults in a more useful way.
Looking at the article, the objection is to people who did not resist the new regime in any way at all. It does not specify how you resist, so you as you do not remain continually silent.
Every Democratic Party member of congress is resisting Trump in their own way, except possibly Rep. Jared Golden (D-ME).
Here’s is a piece from my favorite writer on Substack, philosopher Mike Brock
He says it better than I can, so I’m not going to try to paraphrase. Here’s a quote from the piece
The asshole stance I’ve adopted isn’t about personal gratification or performative outrage. It’s a calculated response to a broken epistemic environment. When falsehood is presented with polish and sophistication, sometimes the only effective counter is raw, unfiltered truth delivered with enough force to break through the noise. When complex systems of manipulation are designed to exhaust your critical faculties, sometimes the only viable defense is the shocking clarity of moral contempt.
Consider what conventional civility demands in our current moment: that we treat deliberate attacks on democracy as mere policy differences, that we discuss the dismantling of constitutional safeguards as interesting theoretical exercises, that we engage with fascist rhetoric as if it were just another perspective deserving respectful consideration. This isn’t civility—it’s surrender disguised as maturity.
Decades ago, I was hanging out with a cousin who was in the military. I can’t remember what sort of iconoclastic lefty bullshit I was offering up (<grin>), but Cousin said:
Guys like me protect guys like you, David!
To which I replied,
Yeah, Cousin. They protect guys like me from other guys like you!
He laughed.
I’m glad the side I’m on is basically the side abiding by the rules, but we need a very large, well funded, well organized, and extremely capable Special Ops team of our own – now more than ever.
It’s a salient and compelling cartoon. I’d just rather it not be our epitaph:
Cutting food aid for hungry kids would get an exuberant round of applause from every single Republican. There would be torn menisci from the speed at which they leapt to their feet.
