America, My America - Part 3

Part 3: Let America Be America Again

Talking to my fellow activists this week, there were many who felt as we had reached an inflection or a stepping-off place; a door had closed behind us and we’d entered a new section of the maze that is America under Trumpism. It would be easy to attribute this vertiginous sensation to the lack of clear outcome in the Mueller hearings, but we’d already minimized our expectations. There are stories we could tell the causes, about fatigue or burnout, or our disappointment that Democratic control of the House has led to few concrete gains or cessation to the harms that Trumpism is causing people every day. But, more than any single thing, it was the collective realization that no matter how bad things are right now, it is entirely rational to expect that they will get worse. 

And that is where we start.

First, we need to recognize that the only way to absolutely guarantee that Trump and Trumpism retain power is for people to give up. We must understand that ceding power is not an option. Historian Timothy Snyder’s first rule in his Twenty Lessons on Tyranny is “Do not obey in advance.” Tyranny thrives when people are quiet, perhaps complaining in private, but otherwise passive and disengaged.

Moreover, there is nothing that Trump, the GOP, and Trump’s supporters would like more than for “the libs” to quit complaining. Those “complaints” saved the ACA and have kept the spotlight on abuses of immigrant families by CBP and ICE. When we call out or stand up to racist bullying, it forces Trump supporters to exercise their defense mechanisms (see Part 2), pushing them to confront their own internal contradictions and waste their energy in ranting. It also emboldens those who are on the sidelines (yes, still) because no matter how quiet they’ve been, they know it is wrong to yell “send her back” to a U.S. citizen, much less a sitting congresswoman. Remember that your speech and actions will have a positive effect on others.

[A brief note on self care is appropriate here. For any sort of emergency or disaster situation, first responders are taught that their number one priority is to keep themselves safe. They must survey the scene and understand the residual danger before helping someone. In much the same way, we have to survey the scene (our lives and our America) and understand what is safe (possible and sustainable) to do. We are each human, with human limitations. Acknowledging those limits and working within them will benefit us all in the long run.]

Where we go next depends upon whether one believes that America is facing an existential crisis or if this is just business as usual – another political struggle in which there are two sides having a reasonable disagreement about how to best achieve American goals. In fact, there is a debate on this topic currently ongoing within the Democratic part, and amongst progressive activists and strategists and media pundits.

The "business as usual" theory says that we must focus on persuading voters using a moderate policy agenda to peel off independents and Dems who voted for Trump. They assert that if we instead headline the racism and white supremacy that underpins Trumpism, we will drive away or discourage those independents and more-conservative Democrats (e.g., Obama-Trump voters). There are three inherent problems with that approach. The first is that experts in authoritarian governments, or those with experience in countries taken over by similar populist movements have noted that normal political tactics and strategies frequently are insufficient to remove the authoritarian from power and retire that movement from a position of influence in politics. In other words, “business as usual” politics will not suffice. 

The second is that soft-pedaling the GOP's racist agenda will be seen as acquiescence. It also centers the conversation on concern for the feelings of white people who might be made uncomfortable by open and forthright discussions of race, instead of centering on those bearing the brunt of racist speech, policy, and actions. Such timidity will only discourage minority voters, and drive down turnout. (It seems relevant to note that soft-pedaling or denying racism is both a GOP strategy and one adopted by Russian trolls on social media). In an excellent pair of twitter threads, Tim Wise (@timjacobwise) makes the case for using anti-racism as the unifying theme, based on his own experience with campaigns against David Duke in 1990’s Louisiana. He also dispenses with the idea of beating such a candidate on the conventional issues. In such a defeat, the white supremacist side simply regroups and tries again, because its basic premise remains intact. (Links to both threads can be found below.)

The third reason is the simplest.

It’s wrong. No, not incorrect. Immoral. Intolerable and incongruent with the ideas that make America our America.

For the first time in my lifetime, elected leadership of my country is actively and openly spewing rhetoric that helps white people feel comfortable with their racism. In past decades (pre-Tea Party), the Republican party had used white identity politics and racist tropes to win elections, but had also (usually) abided by civil rights laws and had (usually) publicly disavowed racists, keeping them on the fringes. Their cynical strategy was to do just enough to keep the white supremacists energized and voting, but deny them any real access to power. Because GOP leadership has since abdicated to the Tea Party / Trumpist wing (and the Kochs, Mercers, and other billionaires who fund them), and because the Democrats were complicit by their silence in all too many cases, and because white people in general treated white supremacy as taboo, or invisible, or just another political issue are all part of how we have arrived at this particularly dangerous juncture.

We can no longer wait and fix this later. To my fellow white men and women, I say that we cannot tell black and brown people to be patient and wait until the arc of history bends back to where it should be; the clock has run out. We must now do the work that white people in my father’s and grandfather’s and great-grandfather’s generation failed to do — to fulfill the promises of America to all Americans. If that is a bridge too far, if white “moderates” cannot bear to own the fact that the past injustices are not all past and forgotten and that they must work to do right by their brothers and sisters, then the rest of us must move forward and hope they catch up.

At this time, in this crisis, we have the painful gains of the past 150 years of American history as a platform and as moral leverage. It is time to stand up for the unequivocal fact that white supremacy deserves no place at the American table, and that the sins and horrors visited by systemic racism on our own citizens and those of other countries are the opposite of what we want our America to be.

We must be clear that, in our America, there is no excuse for allowing a white supremacy to set the public agenda, and that such an ideology is antithetical to the Constitution and the very idea of America.

We must confront white supremacy directly. In 1861, the white supremacist-controlled states seceded from the Union, turning their back on the idea of America. Half a million Americans died in the battles to keep that idea alive. In the 1950’s and 1960’s, black Americans and their allies. tired of the unfulfilled promises of the American ideal, forced the national conversation on racism and white supremacy that resulted in the Voting Rights Act. Most Americans look back on those events as being part of American progress — because they represented America being America. 

Today we face our original sin of white supremacy again. Trump has made it clear that he will be unswerving in his dedication to denying even our most accomplished and skilled Americans of color full participation in the life of our nation. And while there are real policy disagreements between the right and left, the underlying, fundamental source of those disagreements is whether or not we will treat all our citizens, regardless of race, as full participants in America. Our founding documents, our 24 decades of American progress, and the very idea of America all say that we must let America be America again.

Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death,
The rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies,
We, the people, must redeem
The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers.
The mountains and the endless plain—
All, all the stretch of these great green states—
And make America again!
– Langston Hughes (1935)

Threads by Tim Wise:

1. https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1152930670093787141.htm
2. https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1154158572407808002.html