"We hang the petty thieves and elect the great ones." -- Aesop
So, what now? It’s the biggest question, and the most chilling one.
You and I, as we march or huddle, as we scream or whimper, as we gather or disperse, may say wise things to one another, and we may state facts that are borne out by empirical reality and the common tradition of humanity, but all seems irrelevant to those who see reality as a plastic extension of will, tradition as personal biography, and humanity as only the subjective self’s appetites. We may say, “No president can declare a wall. That takes Congress,” and we may say, “No president can just ‘order’ a review of all votes for imaginary illegalities; that takes the states,” but the television acts as if the president’s will is already law, Congress acts as if this president’s words are reality, and this president’s party is ready to act in illegal ways — unconstitutional ways — and stack the courts after the fact to make that which is unconscionable permissible.
Once upon a time, Wag the Dog was a satirical movie occasioned by the invasion of Panama that presaged an intervention with Albania (Kosovo). In it, a cynical White House fixer stages a fake war with the help of a Hollywood producer and media team. He further makes the point that what’s on TV is far more real, politically, than anything happening in the physical world. Everybody sees what’s on TV, but only intelligence professionals see satellite data. He threatens a CIA director’s funding by saying that he had seen his manufactured war on television, and any CIA that couldn’t find a war that was on television was no good to anyone. Funny, right?
Well, the reality on television is that Mr. Trump is declaring walls, torture, jobs, taxes, crime waves, drugs, urban collapse, and all sorts of things, like an inverted Kubla Khan who a torture dome decrees. The American public at the best of times has a hard time understanding that presidents don’t create and pass budgets, much less declare wars and peace, but Trump, who was certainly one of those ignoranti a year ago, is now acting like the creature people believe the president is: a dictator.
Greenpeace has hung a large RESIST banner above the White House Thursday morning. It might be a brilliant thing, because President Baby Huey will certainly react. “Resist” is also the slogan promoted by ThinkProgress. (One can purchase a t-shirt (in black, of course), with the simple message on it here.) While Democratic members of the Senate have largely failed to act on their own words, average Americans of all opposition flavors have been joining Indivisible and making their own grassroots organizations. (The Indivisible Guide is great, but the main site is cool, too. It points out that “government” is not a bad word.) Scientists are beginning to run for office.
2001 was very like today in many ways. Back then, our Democratic representatives and senators made brave speeches and cast meek votes. They swore to work with the new administration to make what progress they could. These wise gray heads of conventional wisdom have since had to explain away their support for USA PATRIOT Act, the Iraq invasion, No Child Left Behind, and other horrors, but we who were infuriated, stunned, and swearing defiance were told by our professional leaders that it was better this way. 2017 is different. Even more than in 2001, Trump’s martinet show has inspired the people, and, even more than in 2001, the placating and mollifying voices of professional Democrats are infuriating the voters.
When I first saw the “Resist” shirt, I thought of Ohm’s Law. V/I/R is pretty easy to remember (especially if you know any Latin), although folks don’t use it very much anymore. Perhaps if you’re wiring stereo speakers, and you see that the power is rated at 1000 watts “at 8 ohms,” you might want to calculate the impedance of the wire you’re using, but, to be honest, if you’re under the age of 50, you probably just plug the speakers into your TV and hope for the best (or listen to symphonies on 1/8” neodymium earbuds, consarn philistines!).
“Resistance” seems a bit weak to me.
I would argue that our reed-like bulwarks in the senate have, indeed, been showing resistance, and that’s the problem. They’ve made noise. They’ve wittered and thrashed about. They’ve given quotes to the newspapers. They’ve been as spectacular in opposing radical grifters like DeVos and Price as John McCain has, and then they’ve voted to approve them. They added drag to the process. What they haven’t done is impede Trump.
"Ignorance is the mother of admiration." -- George Chapman (1612)
Resistance is important. For all of its lack of result, it nevertheless has an effect. It gets on television, and Trump’s empire and power, his second body, is television. He is a pixel king, a “business tycoon” of television commercials and reality shows. Every time a Democratic senator or progressive activist gets onto the magical TV box and offers a verifiable fact, a discomfiting opinion, a sarcastic evaluation, or, worst of all, a personal aspersion, this vaporous but omnipotent Trump dies a little. Since television (and online headlines) are more real than what specialists and educated people know, getting into television and radio and Facebook newsfeeds is destroying the reality of Trump.
Resist, by all means. However, resistance is dragging one’s feet along the ground while they pull one’s limp body out to the van.
What I hope we can find a way to do is the other bit: IMPEDE. We must seek impedance as well as resistance. When we resist, we protest; we grip the doorjamb. When we impede, we make the other guy’s job harder. We vote “no” to his cabinet. We refuse illegal military orders to the National Guard. We resign commissions. We decide that it is better to be unemployed than employed in evil. We decide that our talents will not be used to harm our fellow human beings.
When we impede, we devise actions that will work contrary to the devices of malice. This we must do. We must not merely say “No” to Dakota Access Pipeline, but we must work specifically to have no terminals for it, no demand for its product, no shares for its publicly traded corporation. We need not merely say “No” to Betsy DeVos, although we must say that, too, but we must place our children in public schools or place ourselves there. We need to be developing counter plans, not merely trying to be a drag on the wickedness coming.
When resistance and impedance are too great, there is no voltage transmitted on the line. I > R > Trump.