Long before this latest body blow, the most depressing aspect of our current socio-political climate for me has been watching the crowds at Trump rallies. The elderly white woman screaming, “Get the fuck out!” at CNN’s Jim Acosta during one of Trump’s rallies last week being just the latest example of the ugliness that the rise of Trump has unleashed. Every ignorant, racist xenophobe has been given permission to crawl out from under his or her rock and act out. We’re seeing it everywhere, all the time.
Like probably every thinking, empathetic citizen of this country, these dark times are extremely disheartening. I just got off a long group text string among a large group of friends who are feeling depressed. I have been wracking my brain the last couple of days thinking about what the correct courses of action are for us in the face of this onslaught of backwards momentum on every front.
What I keep coming back to in the biggest picture sense is that there are more of us than there are of them. Way more. So we start there.
From that base, we begin to define concrete steps to take power back from these violently regressive forces now driving us straight down.
Obviously, elections are critical. GOTV is critical. Running strong candidates and supporting these candidates is critical.
And we must do so much more. Organizing is critical. Protests, rallies and more should and will happen. We need to support them. And we will. There are more of us than there are of them. Way more.
But how do we slow the growth of the regressives, of the ignorant, of the racists, misogynists and homophobes? Fighting for public education funding in all forms is important. We’ve been losing that battle and we need to step up our fight for that.
We need to figure out more powerful ways to humanize those the right demonizes. Tearing children away from parents, and watching people cheer those vile policies is not only depressing, it is deeply disturbing. Watching the Supreme Court approve Trump’s incredibly racist Muslim ban is not only depressing, it is deeply disturbing. But those cheering these policies are a minority. An ugly, vile, ignorant minority. There are more of us than there are of them. Way more.
Plans will quickly come into focus. We must participate at every level, from helping candidates to protesting. All of us to best of our abilities. There are more of us than there are of the,m. Way more.
I think “resistance”is the wrong word. To me, it implies a minority position. We are not “resistors.” We are the majority. The people opposing us are the “resistors.”
Let’s express our power.