I’ve been voting for a half century. I have doubts as to whether or not that can work at this point but rest assured I WILL be voting if I am physically able to get to a polling place to do it (and attempt absentee if I’m not, but that’s getting more and more iffy these days…)
The fact that changing things will be difficult is not an excuse for not trying. I support the right of anyone to express how difficult change for the better will be at this point, but I also encourage them to keep fighting.
We CAN but that does not mean we WILL… or that we might not have to make multiple attempts.
The people in charge - not the people charging in but the people IN CHARGE and instigating things like January 6 - have studied that event and have no doubt learned something from it, which will make them more likely to succeed next time.
Personally, I’d prefer to NOT die in a “shower” like too many of my relatives did in WWII, thank you very much.
There’s fighting for a cause and making your death, if that happens, count and dying like slaughtered cattle. Maybe they can’t deport all of us but they can deport thousands, even tens of thousands, or more. Modern technology enables governments to kill by the millions.
Most people don’t want to be first. Even if they’re willing to give their own freedom (because a lot of people are going to prison in the near future) and potentially life facing the prospect of their families being treated likewise can give them pause. This administration has already deported young children in leg irons and waist chains like they were hardened adult criminals. They have done this to children for the “crime” of being brought here by their parents. The regime is becoming more and more ruthless.
Except when they don’t. At one point in my early teens I tried to fight back against a bully and was left unconscious in a school hallway with broken ribs. The fucking school counselors tried to bury it under the rug.
No, bullies do NOT automatically back down when you challenge them. Just paying attention this last decade should have shown you that. Trump is a bully with power. He runs the fucking US government. He has a LOT more resources than the average citizen and he’s becoming more and more bold in using it.
It’s not that you can’t win against bully, but it can be fucking hard and fucking costly. People need to opposed this regime with intelligence and strategy, not feel-good slogans.
Even if you don’t think your vote will count you should still vote… because it might matter. Or you do it because it’s a way of resisting losing your rights even if they’re being whittled away by death by a thousand counts.
Gestures and symbols can be very important. We still need to acknowledge we won’t win every battle and what the cost of those losses will be.