Approaching the election of 2016 I had the sense that the
Trump campaign would prevail. I had a lot of friends who didn’t give it a
chance in hell but I was getting the sense from my social media feeds, some of
my other social settings and the news sources I was tuned to, that
there was a significant segment who were supportive of him and there was
another segment that was totally disenchanted with the Clinton campaign. My
worst fear was that this combination of factors would produce a victory for,
what I considered, a truly abominable candidate. I was actually in the Trump camp at one
point. I remember a conversation in September of 2015, with some people I barely
knew, where I actually spoke the words “I would like to see a Trump presidency”.
I was one of those who was disgusted with politics and thought that Trump might
actually stir things up. I knew that he was touting some absurd policies but I
wrote that off as theater and felt that he was playing the game well. I believed his continued success would force him to the center, like it had all previous
candidates, and that he may just go the exceedingly functional route to address
those in the center just like Ross Perot had. I followed the campaign avidly, as
I had all previous Presidential races, and with every passing week my support
for Trump decreased. I had given him the benefit of the doubt that he was an
intelligent person on some levels. After all he had built an empire of sorts.
Could a buffoon really do that? Each absurd statement and publicity stunt
indicated to me that he did not have any real intelligence but was just the
inheritor of wealth and used that to secure himself a spot in that echelon. For
me the final straw was his “2nd Amendment people” speech in the early summer of
2016. It was clear to me that his insinuation was that gun zealots assassinate Hillary Clinton despite the contorted disputations of him and his minions that gun zealots were being called to exercise their political power. It was apparent
that he had zero sense of decorum and absolutely no comprehension of the
intricacies of politics. He could not be trusted with the ultimate power our
president was granted. I posted a rare political Facebook statement raising the red flag
and was somewhat dismayed to find that my sense of outrage was not widely
shared. There were a few who shared my sense that this had crossed a line but
this was not the fatal blow to his campaign that I felt it should be. It was
just another blip on the radar. I watched in horror over the next several
months while the campaign ebbed and flowed for him but the Democrats were never
able to deliver the knockout punch but instead repeatedly undermined their own
campaign. By the time the election arrived I could only put my faith in the
humanity of the electorate of the United States that they would not allow such
a travesty to ascend to the ultimate seat of authority. On Election Day I
checked my phone at 7pm Pacific Time as I was on my way home and saw that there
were several red states on the board to only a few blue and I knew then that it
was over. If Trump was not repudiated by Middle America the election was his.
And by 10pm it was clear that he had won. My initial thought was that there was
a dark underside to my country, larger than I had even expected, who voted him
in to office to reaffirm their gloomy world view. It wasn’t until a couple days
later that I finally saw the statistic that showed me my fears were even worse
than I had imagined. On some political talk show analyzing the
unexpected results of the election a graphic went on screen and exposed that
Trump had gotten roughly the same number of votes that Romney and McCain had
gotten in their losing effort. Clinton
had gotten several million fewer votes than Obama and third parties did not account
for the difference. So the truth of the matter was not that there was a larger
dark side to my country than I originally had expected but that the moderate
voters who had embraced Obama’s message of hope and change had simply let Trump
win because Hillary just wasn’t sexy enough for them. Granted the Clinton
campaign did an abysmal job of reaching out to those voters but still the
presidential campaign does have consequences and millions of people failed to
see the significance and let the worst of our country prevail rather than
holding their nose and doing what was right. My team was lame.
This perspective affected me greatly in the weeks following
the election and I could not share my compatriots’ outrage at the result. He
did not do anything extraordinary. This was a colossal failure by the left.
Nothing more. Even as talk of Russian interference increased I could not put
any stock in that. Trump got the same number of votes as Romney and McCain and
they lost! The blame for this situation lay at our feet. No one else. As the inauguration approached I was
similarly jaded. Some of my closest friends were talking about the
demonstration that was being planned for the day after the inauguration and I
was still uninspired. First of all it was being largely referred to as a
protest. This seemed to me a strange reaction and I could not discount the
Trump proponents who characterized the reaction of the left as essentially a
tantrum. There was simply no evidence of anything nefarious. This was simply a
bungle on an epic scale. The Democratic Party couldn’t even defeat a clown! If
anything needed to be protested it was ourselves. Secondly, I had seen protests like this before and found them to be initially uplifting but ultimately impotent if not counterproductive to real change.
Still the consequences of this election were becoming
decidedly real with Trump’s cabinet appointees and I had to ask myself what I
was going to do. My initial reaction was to flee. I couldn’t picture myself in
a society that would allow this to happen. But on serious reflection I had to
admit that I hadn’t done my part at this moment and I did have a deep
attachment to my country and the ideals I thought it was founded on so I needed
to step up. I have been similarly stirred to a sense of action
in the past. I was in the camp that saw the Iran-Contra affair as the ultimate
abuse of power. One that, if allowed to go unpunished, would spell the end of the
foundation of our society. Again I was somewhat surprised that others did not
share my outrage but there was a movement of sorts and there were some
repercussions, of sorts, so it all played out in a way that didn’t totally
discourage me. It did leave a bad taste in my mouth. At the same time I was
trying to reconcile the inanity of the drug war and was firmly convinced that
it was all based on corporate profit. The government was acting as an agent of
the pharmaceutical companies to ensure their profits over others. Not for the
good of the country. Similarly, it seemed to me that the pursuit of nuclear
technology was suicide by another name. I volunteered for organizations that
lobbied against the nuclear arms race and was baffled that this issue was on
the periphery of social discourse. I was very active in the counter culture, traveling
with a band that was overtly critical of the current government. The community
seemed strong to me at that time. There was a large group of like-minded people and
benefit concerts were too numerous if anything. Live Aid had convinced too many
people that concerts could change the world. We got Bill Clinton elected and
things seemed to be moving in the right direction. But Bill was fatally flawed
and I believe the morass he got himself in to ultimately pulled him more
towards the right than was necessary in order to appease his detractors. Ending
Welfare, bombing, NAFTA … It all started to seem like more of the same. By the
time George W. Bush got elected my mind was jelly. I just could not get my head
around how things had gone so sideways. I had taken every political science
course at the City College and maintained a deep reading list of domestic and
foreign affairs even though I was only marginally involved in the counter
culture which seemed to me at that time largely impotent and ineffectual. I was
haunted by Noam Chomsky’s “Manufacturing Consent”. Particularly the part where
he talks about how the powers that be actually benefit from the appearance of
dissent and the counter culture served that purpose to a tee. As long as
nothing ever changed “they” were able to point to us and say “We are not
tyrants. There are dissenters!” I was determined to find a path toward change.
Not merely dissent. When the invasion of Iraq was announced I was again
stimulated to make my voice heard. I traveled to Washington, DC to participate
in the march against the Iraq war. It was a brutally cold day but still 100,000
people showed up and I was invigorated to know that I was not alone in my
dissent. I was disappointed to find that I was alone in my desire to change
things. All I heard there was dissent. A lot of “NO!” Very little “This is the alternative”.
The reelection of George W. was a major breaking point for me. I had volunteered for the Kerry campaign and it seemed quite obvious to me who was the best choice for the job even though Kerry didn’t present himself very well in that contest. I was finally convinced that there was absolutely no logic nor reason in the political process and that it was largely controlled by forces that were hidden and, from what I could glean, much more powerful than I could possibly combat on my own. By this time I had gotten myself in to main stream America and found that the creature comforts provided by the corporatocracy far outweighed any emoluments that integrity and grace and nobility could provide. I was originally in the McCain camp in 2008. I liked Barack Obama. I thought he was a good speaker but I thought he was too green and that he would be easily out gamed at politics and ultimately his failure would tar the left. When McCain announced Palin as his running mate I had to reconsider everything and voted for Obama with trepidation. As the economy collapsed months before the election I was convinced that it was an intentional act. That “they” were going to saddle him with an intractable crisis and they would let it dissolve for four years so that they could come to the rescue. “They” could survive for four years and the whole "create a crisis so you can provide the solution" ploy had been demonstrably proven as their modus operandi for 500 years or more. Now, despite the fact that President Obama outwitted them for the most part, we can see that they are still following that script, because that has been their modus operandi too, decrying the carnage of America during the Obama administration. Stick to the script. The rise of Donald Trump seems off script too so, in that way, it provides a glimpse of hope that things can change.
So, now, I’m watching the current events with an eye towards whether there are the sufficient components for change still unsure what that change might actually be. One of my core beliefs is that a few essential mindsets need to change. Part of my frustration with the dissenters has always been this prevailing attitude that we just need to beat them at their game. Well what kind of victory would that be? We would be the owners of the spoils we disdained. No. What needed to change was the game. Not the winners. The entire game. Their game is acquiring and domination. Fear and hate are their tactics for winning that game. My game is providing and cooperation and my tactics are peace and love. Yes I came up in the reggae scene but I ended up there because it corroborated my belief that it was the best way to achieve a more perfect union not for any sentimental reason and not because they changed my point of view from some previous held position. I had come to the peace and love conclusion from reading Kant, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Locke, Rousseau, Plato... The list goes on. The western philosophical tradition is all about peace and love. So as the Trump dissenters began to foment I didn’t see much of a change on the horizon. It all sounded like fear and hate to me. I planned for the long haul. I had seen what peaking too early could do. The enormous outpouring at the initial moment of inspiration dissolves rapidly as it is impossible to sustain a full sprint for much longer than a couple hundred yards. I knew that real change was hard work that required real sacrifice and that marching through the streets with other like-minded dissenters was too easy and ultimately served the powers that be, not our cause. What I would have liked to have seen was a national strike, something that had real impact. A party on Saturday is nothing more than a dalliance.
Ultimately though, what really needs to happen is the dissenters need to do the hard work. Run for office. Get elected. Make tough choices. Show through action and policy that love and peace can provide a more perfect union than the politics of greed. Maybe this could be the spark to make that happen. I watched. I eagerly tuned in. And I was pleasantly surprised to see Naomi Klein talk about making the Democrats better and not losing site of the mistakes that were made. And to hear Josh Fox talk about the water protectors at Standing Rock employing love of their adversaries not because it was easy but because it was necessary and that this was the true revolution at hand. And to hear Van Jones talk about how love means being honest with your adversary as well as yourself and holding them and yourself accountable to what is right. And all the talk of intersectionality and its implications that we are all one. And to hear Kamala Harris point out that although it is convenient to frame the current issues as women’s issues that distinction is ultimately specious. The critical issues on the table apply to people. All people. Even “them”. They are people too. And as soon as we lose sight of that we have lost.
"Without path from protest to power, the women's march will end up like Occupy"
The reelection of George W. was a major breaking point for me. I had volunteered for the Kerry campaign and it seemed quite obvious to me who was the best choice for the job even though Kerry didn’t present himself very well in that contest. I was finally convinced that there was absolutely no logic nor reason in the political process and that it was largely controlled by forces that were hidden and, from what I could glean, much more powerful than I could possibly combat on my own. By this time I had gotten myself in to main stream America and found that the creature comforts provided by the corporatocracy far outweighed any emoluments that integrity and grace and nobility could provide. I was originally in the McCain camp in 2008. I liked Barack Obama. I thought he was a good speaker but I thought he was too green and that he would be easily out gamed at politics and ultimately his failure would tar the left. When McCain announced Palin as his running mate I had to reconsider everything and voted for Obama with trepidation. As the economy collapsed months before the election I was convinced that it was an intentional act. That “they” were going to saddle him with an intractable crisis and they would let it dissolve for four years so that they could come to the rescue. “They” could survive for four years and the whole "create a crisis so you can provide the solution" ploy had been demonstrably proven as their modus operandi for 500 years or more. Now, despite the fact that President Obama outwitted them for the most part, we can see that they are still following that script, because that has been their modus operandi too, decrying the carnage of America during the Obama administration. Stick to the script. The rise of Donald Trump seems off script too so, in that way, it provides a glimpse of hope that things can change.
So, now, I’m watching the current events with an eye towards whether there are the sufficient components for change still unsure what that change might actually be. One of my core beliefs is that a few essential mindsets need to change. Part of my frustration with the dissenters has always been this prevailing attitude that we just need to beat them at their game. Well what kind of victory would that be? We would be the owners of the spoils we disdained. No. What needed to change was the game. Not the winners. The entire game. Their game is acquiring and domination. Fear and hate are their tactics for winning that game. My game is providing and cooperation and my tactics are peace and love. Yes I came up in the reggae scene but I ended up there because it corroborated my belief that it was the best way to achieve a more perfect union not for any sentimental reason and not because they changed my point of view from some previous held position. I had come to the peace and love conclusion from reading Kant, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Locke, Rousseau, Plato... The list goes on. The western philosophical tradition is all about peace and love. So as the Trump dissenters began to foment I didn’t see much of a change on the horizon. It all sounded like fear and hate to me. I planned for the long haul. I had seen what peaking too early could do. The enormous outpouring at the initial moment of inspiration dissolves rapidly as it is impossible to sustain a full sprint for much longer than a couple hundred yards. I knew that real change was hard work that required real sacrifice and that marching through the streets with other like-minded dissenters was too easy and ultimately served the powers that be, not our cause. What I would have liked to have seen was a national strike, something that had real impact. A party on Saturday is nothing more than a dalliance.
Ultimately though, what really needs to happen is the dissenters need to do the hard work. Run for office. Get elected. Make tough choices. Show through action and policy that love and peace can provide a more perfect union than the politics of greed. Maybe this could be the spark to make that happen. I watched. I eagerly tuned in. And I was pleasantly surprised to see Naomi Klein talk about making the Democrats better and not losing site of the mistakes that were made. And to hear Josh Fox talk about the water protectors at Standing Rock employing love of their adversaries not because it was easy but because it was necessary and that this was the true revolution at hand. And to hear Van Jones talk about how love means being honest with your adversary as well as yourself and holding them and yourself accountable to what is right. And all the talk of intersectionality and its implications that we are all one. And to hear Kamala Harris point out that although it is convenient to frame the current issues as women’s issues that distinction is ultimately specious. The critical issues on the table apply to people. All people. Even “them”. They are people too. And as soon as we lose sight of that we have lost.
"Without path from protest to power, the women's march will end up like Occupy"
