I’m back.
It has felt pointless to write anything for some time. It felt redundant, unnecessary. Was there anything more to be learned about this President? I won’t even repeat the obvious here for clarity. If his essential failure at the simplest levels of humanity are unclear to anyone then it is unclear with clear intent.
But it occurred to me that is only true to those that are paying the most tangential bit of attention, and that leaves out millions of potential voters. The GOP convention targeted the other people. Unengaged, all they know is that they love America and some of it is burning and they like the team that is trying to put out the fire. They know America is the greatest and anyone who says otherwise is obviously the enemy. Kids belong in school and should say the Pledge. It used to be so simple, why can’t it be again? They just don’t get why things are upside down, things were so good once, weren’t they? Why are people so upset?
Anyone reading this may think this is a fabrication, that no one is that removed from the news of the day, unaware and unconcerned. They may be on the other side of the debate, but they aren’t ignorant. They are intentional and dangerous.
They aren’t the problem. They are lost, dedicated to an antebellum mindset that has continued through wars, conflicts and economic ups and downs. A through line to the American narrative, from its very inception to the present day, it is the seminal American sin, the glaring crack in the myth.
No, they are not the problem. If it was just that I believe they could be defeated at the polls. If the Rev. King was correct in his assessment that the arc of history bends toward justice, the defeat of this mindset would be inevitable. Infuriatingly slow, but inevitable.
The problem is the ones who just don’t pay attention at all. And they are legion.
As you and I watch the minutiae of the American story unfold on the network of our choice and focusing the narrative for our preferred tendencies we imagine this is playing out in everyone’s household. Whether it be CNN or FOX people are hearing the stories at least. They know what’s going on, right? It might be spun into unrecognizable visions of the events, but the events are known, surely.
Right?
It’s not the case. Millions and millions of people simply don’t engage, and to them the GOP message can make complete sense. The base is not an issue for either side of the debate. The fault lines are clear and non-negotiable. You and I will vote if we have to crawl through glass. So will the Boogaloo Boys. Those votes are secured.
But if you don’t follow any of it, if you don’t care about the day to day atrocities occurring in our country in systematic ways, if you don’t want to hear any of that because you grew up embracing a love of country that was un-challenging and mythical and supported by all the structures that trained you, from schools to churches to social clubs, and that was a settled issue, then the GOP convention made a good deal of sense to you. It was a very effective commercial for the audience it targeted, and as we mock its cloying piety and simplistic patriotism the disengaged heard the familiar strains of their childhood indoctrinations that have lasted a lifetime. It made a great deal of sense, and the more nuanced arguments presented by the Democrats seemed scary and perverse, an attack on the things you grew up knowing were true. We are great. Indisputable. All others wish they were us. Obviously. The GOP stands for that. The Democrats don’t.
The Republican Party knows this voter. In the last campaign the now President made a naked appeal to them. “I love the uneducated!” he declared from his pulpit, and no one had ever said that before.
The base isn’t the issue. They are secured. The uninvolved that vote as a civic duty, as just something you do, more of a requirement than a mission are the ones who are at stake, and they aren’t passionate about the country moving forward. They aren’t aware of the need for it to do so. It was already perfect, unblemished. “I don’t follow politics” could be on their hats, not a slogan but a lifestyle.
Trump’s convention provided a comfortable justification for those people to give him 4 more years. If you don’t follow the news at all, and these people don’t, the GOP message rings true to you. His cataclysmic shortcomings are not on your radar, the existential threats to democracy are unknown. He loves America, the greatest country the world has ever seen. The Democrats seem to think it sucks. They don’t think it sucks.
These voters could be the difference in Pennsylvania, Arizona, Michigan, North Carolina and Wisconsin.
They are not going to be swayed by argument. They aren’t engaged, they don’t follow what you and I are selling. They will be swayed by pure childlike patriotism, third graders with their hands on their hearts standing before the flag, and that is not the patriotism we aspire to. We have no language to reach them. The Republicans do.
While we watched the first three days and laughed or recoiled in horror, our outrage is like Sanskrit to those who just want things to settle down.
Be very afraid. Be very pro-active. Assume we are massively behind despite the polling. You might be right. These folks hang up on pollsters. They don’t want to be bothered. To answer questions on the phone is a political act. These people are the opposite of that.
And they’re out there.
This is happening against a backdrop of the new Fort Sumter.
While no one was looking, the Civil War has already begun. Incurable fault lines have been drawn, and what side will have official support is on the ballot. Trump has made it clear that those that find America wanting are the enemy, that criticism is the equivalent of treason and if the status quo isn’t good enough for you, you aren’t welcome here. The Democrats are saying some of what has become embedded in the American Way is unacceptable and must be changed, that huge swaths of people are being ignored and marginalized, that global needs matter and local needs must be heard.
For many of us the Democrats don’t go far enough, but that is a self-defeating position this year. Survival comes before fulfillment in the hierarchy of needs, and this is about survival. The system has to be saved before it can be used to pursue our most perfect self.
We know that the opposition is armed and dangerous. Dylan Roof showed us what is being grown and nurtured, Kyle Rittenhouse showed us it wasn’t a fluke. There is an army out there that isn’t shy about pulling the trigger. The warlords are sending out their child soldiers to do their dirty work, and they are too immature to say no. The official response, the police response, has been to buy Dylan a hamburger and to let Kyle go home, even as he raised his arms going back to his friendly lines. The Kenosha PD welcomed militiamen that came to be an armed, unaccountable force against the protesters that gathered for a third night, providing water and thanks to the gathering white presence intent on controlling their brown countrymen, assuming a self proclaimed power to be enforcers.
When adult children entered the Michigan state house demanding the governor ignore the growing pandemic, they were heavily armed with tactical rifles of every stripe, unmasked and screaming inches away from the faces of law enforcement officers who did nothing. It was unclear what the weapons were for. Would they gun down government officials if they did not comply with their wishes? What was the point? It is undeniable that the weapons were an implied threat, and it is ignorant to ignore what that threat really means. They are letting you know that Kyles of every age are out there and willing to take matters into their own hands.
That would be less of a concern if we didn’t see the official support that these people are being afforded. The armed mob that entered the state house faced no consequences of any kind. The militia that showed up in Kenosha were thanked and encouraged. Dylan Roof’s treatment seemed to say, “Sorry man. We gotta take you in.”
All the while the White House is cheering them on. Patriots all, heroes to the faith. Law and Order has been the code word in the Republican Party for officially sanctioned racism enforced with violence. Blind allegiance to the Thin Blue Line has been a staple of the party for more than a generation, accountability tantamount to an attack on Western Civilization (another code word). The administration has encouraged the violent fringe at every turn, and they have openly thanked him with enthusiastic support. Every white supremacist organization has endorsed him as a personal ally. Single issue Second Amendment voters are beyond supportive, seeing this President as the only hope for American Freedom through gun ownership.
Those who oppose this trend, who protest the marginalization of human beings, are finding themselves on the wrong end of a baton, and that is their best hope. Worst case they find themselves on a gurney. Police have not been seen defending the rights of protesters, and in a previous post you know that is what finally pushed me to become a gun owner myself. There is an army forming out there, it’s real and it’s becoming more and more empowered by this President, encouraged to be aggressive in the enforcement of their hatred. Whatever percentage of the police that share this racial animus is also empowered, and the more militarized the force the more dangerous it becomes. Under this administration I feel threatened by extremist right wingers and their official protectors as well. That is what is on the ballot.
If we win this, get ready. The newly empowered nationalists will be armed and very pissed off. The 2nd Amendment folks out there are openly talking about why they are stockpiling weapons and ammunition. They sell “I Will Not Comply” t-shirts and they are very serious. They won’t. They will fight, and they welcome it. The will of the people is not what they are fighting for, though that is how it is sold. It is the will of the losers of the intellectual battle that is being fought for. A weapon is the last resort to a failed argument, and they know that and are preparing with what they have left to fight with. Guns. And they are willing to use them. We know this is true. We have seen it.
Over and over and over. It is the tiny tip of the iceberg. If the far right loses this election, using all the old code words and winks that have always worked, if the last argument is lost, they will secede, and they will fight.
The hope is the new administration will once again make it clear that this is unacceptable, both in civilian life and within the system of law that protects the rights of all people, finding those within the system accountable. But that’s what happened in 1860, too. Bully Brooks couldn’t beat the North into submission on the Senate floor, so having lost the argument, they picked up a gun.
What if you were in a Civil War and nobody noticed?