by David Wheelock
In a recent copy of the New Mexican, seven of eight letters to the editor were condemnations of outrageous acts committed by the new federal administration. While it’s important to call out what’s-his-name’s atrocities and support our allies in resistance, the season of whining – if there ever was one – is now over.
Now that we have learned the weaponized consequences of losing control of all three branches of federal authority, we must multiply the powers we still have in order to turn the tide back in democracy’s favor. At a minimum, we must weather the current attacks and go on to win the 2026 midterm elections. This requires us to strengthen our greatest power, that of an energized citizenry. It is the one force despots have always feared the most. The current “shock and awe” flurry of multiple crimes and outrages is born of MAGA’s inherent fear of mass resistance.
The improbable triumph over a repressive regime sparked by Polish shipyard workers in the 1980s is but one of many examples of what peaceful mass resistance has achieved. Appropriately the workers and the citizens who joined them dubbed their movement “Solidarity”.
MAGA has overreached and will continue to blunder. Their clueless, cruel, and yes, inefficient solutions are causing more and more Trump supporters to begin to doubt their blind faith. To win a liveable future we must forgive them and add their strength to our momentum.
Then there are the estimated 36 per cent of eligible voters, some 56 million strong, who did not vote in the elections (or could not, due to Republican gerrymandering). While disinterest in a process so grotesquely marred by the influence of money can be understood, we can and must find more authentic ways to reach our fellow citizens. Despite the strong temptations of digital technology and mass advertising, respectful face-to-face dialog is still the best form of communication.
For our part, we will have to raise our game to defeat the forces of ignorance and hate. In my humble opinion, many Americans have unwittingly allowed decades of comfort and distraction to erode our appetites for “good trouble”. Yet we now find our fates inextricably tied to groups of Americans for whom we previously may have felt only token sympathy. We have much to learn from our long-suffering neighbors and must not be ashamed to ask for pointers.
Among the opening salvos of a wanna-be American dictatorship, many good people are bravely facing direct fire, from immigrants to journalists to civil servants to elected officials. Those who are fighting back serve as inspiration and deserve our support. Defending them provides an opportunity to heed the hard-won advice of one who’s been there, Equality Florida executive director Nadine Smith. “We must prepare ourselves mentally” for what this fight may bring.
There may come a time when doing the right thing involves risk. Even as we consider our own limits (Pepper spray? Peaceful arrest? An errant rock?) we should go armed with the safety tips of more experienced campaigners, including those at Indivisible.
None of us can know how we will respond in a dicey situation, but it’s easier to arrest 100 peaceful demonstrators than 100,000, or to fire striking workers at one business than to deal with a nationwide day off.
Victory over tyranny will require a massive effort, yet we should also plan for the day after we get the knee off our necks. The opportunity to design the kind of society we really want will open and we must be ready. Will we be satisfied with a return to a more subtle form of DINO – democracy in name only – in which wealth has the last word? Or will we learn from our experience and go on to create a society founded on worthy principles like honesty, justice, and truly shared prosperity?
These are fundamental questions that cannot and will not be answered from the couch. Derisive pronouncements about what’s happening, made in private settings, will have zero effect on history or your place in it.
So please get involved, in person if possible. Although group action can have its challenges, it is the antidote to the fractured and individualized society that despots crave. It is in fact the definition of the democracy for which we at Indivisible stand.
The moment you even begin to think about deepening your involvement, you are on your way, and we become stronger.
