I get it. We want to fight out why our own reaction to this is the morally correct one. I could care less what your reaction was. I won’t tell you mine and I won’t tell you how you should feel. I will tell you your reaction don’t mean shit regarding what is coming down the pike. No amount of moral correctness on our side is going to slow down the destruction of our democracy. That is not to say I believe we should abandon morals or we can’t have time to discuss them. But it should be a side discussion because we don’t have the time for it to consume us. What we really need is a frank and open discussion of what is coming next.
While I’ve been pretty good seeing the direction of travel of our country I’ve never been good at getting the timing of it right. I’ve been watching us slip towards fascism and trying to fight against it since the 1990s (when I was in college). In my view the time to act was 20 or 30 years ago (and some people tried to stop it then but were too few). But just like climate change, its been too little, too late.
Whether Kirk’s killer was a MAGA or someone who proclaimed to be on the left, they were delusional and sick. But the right isn’t going to let an opportunity go to waste and this is an opportunity for them. Whether it's to call for stochastic violence against Democrats or give them leverage to start “proactive” political prosecutions, its coming. And THAT is what we need to talk about as well as our practical responses.
This is where you all expect me to tell you what that action will be. (And plenty of hecklers are waiting to denounce me if I don’t). But my best ideas were to stop all of this 20 years ago with 50 state strategies, major progressive news outlets, and for democrats to stop siding with Republicans in tearing down our social protections such as removing telecom regulations. But we’re well past that point.
In Sun Tzu’s the Art of War the smart ruler is the one who acts either before the problem starts, or when it is small so that no war at all happens. And that is not to say act oppressively, but to actually solve the problem before it is an issue. For true non-violence to work, waiting for the violence to start is frequently too late. The time to non-violently deal with Russia was in the 1990s or early 2000s. And while many non-violent strategies remain viable even when violence starts, they become vastly more difficult.
Well, we have a violent situation now and it will get worse. And it will get worse no matter what our side does in the moment. This ship doesn’t turn around on a dime. So the question is, at this late hour, what do you all want to do about it? To be clear, I’m not calling for our side to be violent. I’m not sure what we need to do. I do know what we have been doing is not enough. I also know flailing ourselves endlessly about our own reactions is not useful while the other side is moving.
Do we need to picket every gun shop like the right camps outside of every clinic? Maybe, I don’t know. I know strongly worded letters to our senators doesn’t move them. We need strong, collective, moral action. What should it be? Let’s have THAT discussion.
