Anniversaries are basically meaningless. Just because something happened at approximately the same point in the earth's orbit in a previous year doesn't mean it's more important today than on any other day. But they do provoke rituals of remembrance so that's happening today. But the atrocity didn't actually happen on a single day or occasion -- it began long before the 2020 election, when plans were already being laid to overturn the result. It ramped up after Biden's decisive win, and it has continued and if anything grown more dangerous since January 6 of last year.
Remember, on that day, Republican congressional leaders condemned the insurrection and blamed the former president. But in the days that followed, they all went on pilgrimages to Mar a Lago to kiss his ring (or some body part) and fell in line behind his lies and the fascist movement that embodies them. That movement has reorganized to focus its energies locally, on school boards, election officials and public health officials, targeting them with violent threats and screaming abuse. At the same time, Republican controlled states are rewriting election laws not only to suppress votes, but to allow state officials and legislatures to override the voters and install losing candidates, including electors for the presidency.
It has taken most of this year for the corporate media and most Democratic politicians to understand what is going on and talk about it truthfully. Calling willful falsehoods lies, and calling fascists by their rightful name was thought unseemly until now. President Biden's speech today, coming in mid-morning, would have been heard by few, but more will see excerpts on the nightly news and see quotations. He isn't a stirring orator but he was unflinching in characterizing the fascist plot threatening the nation.
Because of our undemocratic constitution, democracy is at a disadvantage that can't be overcome simply by having some politicians and journalists speak truthfully. We need to mobilize, and organize, to directly confront the enemies of truth, democracy and liberty. They need to know that we are not afraid of them.
10 comments:
If you mean to "confront" them in the standard liberal manner, count me out. You're just committing an elaborate form of suicide. The american left needs to get over it's distaste for guns, fast.
Not sure exactly what you mean by that but if you're saying people should prepare to defend themselves that's not a scenario I want to entertain. But I think it depends on whether you believe yourself to be someone who law enforcement is likely to protect. We'll have to see how that goes.
Well, as far as federalism is concerned, we do of course have a good deal of power reserved to the states. However, we're talking here about the election for president of the United States, so that seems rather irrelevant. And it doesn't work for many other issues, e.g. pandemic response. You can't have a pissing area in the pool.
The problem here is your expectation that LE is on your side when it's becoming increasingly clear they're not. They may very well channel these people away from your nice neighborhood and into ours. Even of they try to defend people like me, there's a very good chance they're overwhelmed or simply undercut by "activists" in their own ranks.
Federal forces will not be involved: the army will hide behind posse comitatus and run to the senate for help. You'll get a national guard response varying by state: the whims of governors, the sympathies of guardsmen, and the readiness of those units.
Eventually people like you will have to decide if you're willing to help people like me or just cut uss loose again. At some point, taking up arms becomes a moral responsibility and all talk to the contrary is just cowardice.
Mo — I am totally agreeing with you. Perhaps I did not make that clear.
I figured you were, DQ. Most of that was directed at the esteemed Senior Cervantes. While I admire his intellect, especially his ability to compress complex ideas, he does suffer from the usual middle-class professional delusions about collective violence.
Not at all. I am well aware of the reign of terror that ended reconstruction and enforced Jim Crow, violent suppression of labor actions and protest movements, police violence, ongoing right-wing terrorism today. . . . When I was a community organizer in Philadelphia Frank Rizzo's police were essentially an occupying army.
If we do descend into mass communal violence then yes, that's where we'll be and we'll have a responsibility to defend our families and our neighbors. What I'm saying is that is an unacceptable eventuality and we need to do everything we can to prevent it before we must succumb to it. It is very challenging, however, that law enforcement is not necessarily on the right side of this. But it's not as bad as it was even a few years ago, viz. Ahmaud Arbery. Those guys thought lynching was still legal, and it was as far as the local sheriff was concerned, but the state of Georgia wouldn't allow it and the jury convicted. I have to put some hope in that.
Estemado Cervantes, forgive me if I have misjudged you, but your use of the word "unacceptable" does leave one rather in doubt. Such things may be unpalatable but that does not equate to turning away from the prospect. I may be the world's most horrific pessimist (hence my love of being wrong) but the possibility of being right should compel you to rethink the acceptable alternatives.
Well said, Cervantes. What is unacceptable is that as a society we venture further and further into the unthinkable. It seems to be some kind of unavoidable trajectory of empires. Just as individuals who achieve ineffable power are ultimately corrupted, the same dynamic seems to apply to institutions and countries. I don’t know of any answer besides true education, which seems to be increasingly hard to universally implement.
We're well beyond that point, my dear Don, not that education ever mattered for this in the first place. We're perhaps 10, maybe 20, years from "pay or quit" in our relations. At that point you will either be armed and organized, wealthy enough to buy protection, or simply roadkill. I really hope I'm wrong but it looks less likely by the day.
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