Losing The Fight
A Lack of Courage Is Already Costing Progressives Dearly
The cold winter winds chilled the prairie again, for the first time in quite a while. Yet another casualty of climate change: where cold usually reigns supreme through January and February, spring-like temperatures dominated. It was a chilly reminder that T had only taken office a bit over 30 days ago. In those 30 days, so much has happened. Yet, so little has happened.
I would think that a fascist coming to power would bring the citizens who genuinely love freedom, liberty, and all the things this nation has ever promised straight into the streets. I would think that, given the very clear signals this Administration is sending on the path they wish to go down, we would have our very own Maidan. I would think that the absolute assault on civil liberties, the core institutions of our Democracy such as Education, the Environment, the Constitution, that the people would be up in arms. I would think that clear signs of collusion with a foreign oligarchical dictator would send the American public into a fervor.
But I would be wrong.
For all the talk out there about opposing T and his Administration, far too many progressives talk about opposing the issues. The fear is, ‘Oppose the Man, and you harden his Supporters’. This is a risk, but like it or not: it’s happening whether you oppose “The Man” or “The Issues”. The white nationalistic fascists support him more fervently than they did yesterday. That includes the minorities duped into believing that a billionaire would have their interests in mind at all. Stockholm Syndrome is a serious thing, but we’ll discuss that later.
The fact of the matter is, opposing “The Issues” isn’t winning us any ground. If anything, we’re losing. We’re normalizing T. The outlandish things that the WH staff does, the absolutely craven lies and propaganda put forth, even when we oppose it, it is done so half-assed. We’re normalizing T and everything the fascists stand for. They’re winning.
They’re winning because Progressives yet again are unable to summon courage. We’re not willing to actually draw a hard red line, look at our neighbors and say “You crossed it. You are indeed a fascist.” We’re not willing to go toe-to-toe with our elected officials, we’re not willing to take to the streets and not rest until this utter lapse of democracy (not to mention human decency) has been corrected. Part of this is because we’re made to feel hypocritical by the reich-wing by taking such a hard stance. “Why don’t you appreciate my freedom of speech?!?” And we swallow hard. Within a few breaths, we allow them to spin it all back on us. We’re the ones being unreasonable. We’re the ones threatening free society and the very foundations of our republic.
They know how to manipulate us. Part of that manipulation is convincing you that you are wrong for telling them they’re wrong. It doesn’t matter if it’s completely hypocritical for them to say in one moment how staunchly they are against “safe spaces” and “political correctness” then jump your shit when you call them out for their racist, islamophobic, freedom-hating, fascist crap. They manipulate you, they manipulate us.
They, sadly, have convinced us that being Liberal, or Progressive, or Socialist, or Communist, or whatever label of “leftist” you prefer… they’ve convinced us it’s bad. Take a moment and go into any book store. I did recently take a trip to my local Barnes and Nobles, and what I saw dominating the Current Events shelves were crap publications by reich-wing propagandists. They have at this moment countless radio stations and radio propagandists spewing out their message, in addition to Fox News, various online publications and armies of paid and unpaid conservative trolls. All these propaganda sources have been working hard to make sure that The Resistance is held at bay by The Left’s own conscience and politeness. They know they’re outnumbered. They need to merely talk louder and brow-beat you into submission. They find inroads into sewing doubt in your beliefs and values. They’ll work hard to get you to say things like “both sides do it” or “both parties are just as bad” or “yeah, news orgs have bias”.
We’re losing because we lack the courage to stand up as a united people and to disavow the fascists and to ignore their sly attacks. They’re master manipulators, very well honed in on their craft.
We need courage: we need to tell T’s supporters off. We need to show them we’re here, we’re loud, we outnumber them, and we’re pissed. We need to arm ourselves with our voices, we need to show our numbers, and we need to be prepared to fight… literally and figuratively.
Above all, we cannot fight Fascism one outrage at a time, we MUST fight it full force, from beginning to end. We must fight the very existence of it, and those who support it. We need our Maidan. We need demonstrations that don’t go away. We need organizations and unity that ensure that the people are housed, fed, and protected while we work to overthrow this dark chapter of American history.
We cannot just continue on living our lives thinking that “all we need to do is get to the mid-terms” or “just look forward to 2020”. We need to leave the primary season behind us and work toward the future.
We need hacktivists and activists working day and night to bring fascism to it’s end.
We must not be silent. We must not allow ourselves to be manipulated any longer. It is time we stopped being passive in our resistance and be active.
Otherwise, we’re losing. The very basic foundations of our civilization are under threat, and the things that protect those of us not fortunate enough to be ‘born on third’… the promise of equal education, the promise of a clean environment, the promise of labor protections, the promise of a social safety net… all those and more are being stripped away, all while people who seek our shores for the safety and opportunities that exist here now live in fear.
A failure to have courage will result in a loss of things we have not even yet imagined we could lose.
Brothers and Sisters, we are marching headlong into fascism. We need to not allow this march to continue to be normalized. We need courage, we need courageous people, we need courageous journalists.
Passive resistance such as safety pins are nice touchy-feely things that make us feel warm, like we did our part… never mind the Jewish, the Muslims, the immigrants, the trans-gendered now living in fear… we feel warm because we ‘did our part’. This isn’t sufficient. We must be courageous, we must be bold, we must be loud. We have to break a little glass if you know what I mean.
We are strong if we work together, but our window of opportunity is closing.
Courage. The days of the passive liberal are done, it is the dawn of the militant progressive.
