The goal is to do absolutely nothing, take no risks whatsoever, and grasp any/all straws. “It can’t happen”, “He won’t actually do anything”, “The politicians will stop him”, “The courts will stop him”, and the ever present “It’ll swing back the other way”…everything except “Shit! I should actually do something instead of sitting on my ass!”
If Trump manages to steal the midterms, everyday Americans will be in the streets and then the civil rights violations will begin in earnest. Some will say the greatest civil rights violations ever. Like nothing nobody has even seen before. Maybe with a generous helping of extrajudicial murder.
It’s exactly where they want us.
And because unions support a vanishingly small fraction of Americans, and we are all employees at will.
But… If i decide to stop working, why would anyone other than my friends and family and immediate coworkers care? That doesn’t feel like an effective protest. And i can’t refuse to buy American goods. I need to eat.
It’s easy to point from the outside and ask why we aren’t doing more, when so many of us feel like we are being held hostage to this insanity every day against our will. I have elderly parents to take care of, a mortgage to pay so I have a home, a few hopefully somewhat minor health issues that happen in your late 40s that I need my health insurance for, and as puzzlegal said above, what good is me standing on a street corner myself going to do. I live in Chicago. We already hate him. If there was a lever I could pull to get rid of Trump and MAGA from our politics forever, I would pull it, but the reality is we have been prisoners of this lunacy for over a decade now. Even when Biden was president, he still was in our faces every single day. We are the family trapped in the house with the abusive, psychotic narcissist. It’s easy to say, why don’t you just get rid of him or leave when you aren’t the one trapped there with the abuser. This is not to mention the absolute flood of propaganda we are deluged with all day every day.
Yes. It’s hard to find the path from the individual to effective collective action while keeping a roof over your head and supporting the family members you’ve got to support. I often feel guilty that I’m not doing enough, and I don’t know what else I should do. What I should probably do is find other like-minded people and create a local Resistance Movement, which would then join with others. That’s a step up from whining on a message board, at least. I don’t know that I’m up for bombing train lines, but maybe we could disrupt high-level Republicans when they’re in town.
I have a friend who is picketing a local ICE facility every week. She is also working with others to avoid having everyone’s cars towed while they do it, to grab the space early in the morning, before counter protesters show up…
Honestly, i doubt it does any good.
If you can’t win, slowing down and/or lessening the loss is a very admirable goal, and a good response to those who say “Since I can’t get everything I want, why try at all?”
Sometimes I think continuing to be positive and kind and hopeful in a world that is anything but is an act of revolution. I can’t end this nightmare myself, but I can stand firm in who I am and continue to be and I think that’s something.
Well said. As an American. I agree.
We will never be trusted again. We shouldn’t be.
Trumps narcissistic ego driven view has hurt the entire world.
All for one simple stupid ‘man’.
I have written congress six times. They continue to look for bellybutton lint.
Stay as you are: positive and kind. “To thine own self be true,” as Shakespeare said. If that’s you, then stay that way.
As for me, I stand by three axioms:
“Be excellent to each other.” Bill and Ted, of course.
“Do unto others …” From Jesus, in the Bible; Book of Matthew, I believe.
“Being nice is as easy as being nasty, and it makes you a lot more friends.” Neil Gaiman.
These have served me pretty well so far, and I have no doubt they will serve me well going into the future. I hope they will help you.
::sigh:: I too wish I knew what more I could do. But in the face of MAGA’s inoculation against public opinion through its self-propaganda and cult of personality, I’m not even sure where to begin.
Tripler
Pitchforks & torches would be answered with a hail of gunfire from ICE.