Lessons for the Resistance: D-Day, Gandhi, South Koreans and Right Wingers
Con artists in our government are gonna con. The only question is: What are the rest of us gonna do about it?
What have we been doing about it so far?
Preaching Truth to the Choir
We’ve been preaching the truth to the choir a lot. That does have the advantage of keeping the choir grounded in reality. But it has no effect on Senate Republicans, or on people who live in the Right Wing propaganda media bubble and vote for Right Wing con artists. Here are some actions that can have some effect on them.
Help! Our Nation Is Drowning in Right Wing Lies and Propaganda. Here’s How to Change That
Speaking truth to power works — but only when powerful people experience consequences for lying, cheating and breaking the law.
Pointing out inconsistency in propaganda does not stop it either. Propaganda is hypocritical, dishonest and inconsistent. That’s it’s nature. Yes, Republicans will make rules for Democrats but never follow those rules themselves. When they break the rules they make, they simply make excuses or lie about it.
Pointing out these factors won’t stop propaganda. These are features — not bugs. They are the reason propaganda works to get votes for con artists. As for consistency, the only consistency needed is to always bash one’s opponents — even in contradictory ways — and to praise one’s fellow con artists who are all working the con together.
Doing this wins elections. It’s essentially doing “negative campaigning” — even when an election isn’t near — with the goal of continually creating negative press for one’s opponents. By using this method, it’s possible to defeat one’s opponent even before the campaign season has even begun.
Right Wing propagandists have easily persuaded people to elect Republican con artists — by repeating lies, by doing fear and hate mongering, and by scapegoating immigrants, minorities and Democrats. Pointing this out can keep others in the Resistance aware. But it won’t stop con artists from continuing to do it quite successfully.
Dividing Our Activism
What else do we do? We splinter our activism into many separate movements and issues — all of which are going nowhere unless we fight Right Wing policies and corruption and win. For example, if we only go to marches or do activism on the environment, we’ll have a very limited effect. If we fight the Right Wing as a whole, and unite with others to get more Democrats elected, our impact is multiplied. Not much constructive is going to happen in any area, until we get rid of Right Wing rule.
Discussing Critical thinking
We talk and write about how to do critical thinking, as if people are all motivated to do it. However, in most humans, the desire for inclusion in a tribe is far greater than any desire to know the truth. Some people may just want to belong to a certain tribe and believe what that tribe believes. They may not feel any motivation whatsoever to think about whether what their tribe believes is factual.
People also discuss how critical thinking should be taught more often in public schools. I certainly agree with that. However, it’s a long term solution to a problem that is getting more urgent by the day.
Making Jokes about Liars
We also make a lot of jokes about the con artists in our government and Right Wing media. The jokes may have had some effect over the years, perhaps in getting Obama elected. But it’s nowhere near a strong enough effect currently to have much impact on our current crisis in government.
We’ve gotten used to joking about Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, Steve Bannon and the other propagandists whose chosen candidates now rule the nation. There’s no harm done in letting off steam by joking about them. But we shouldn’t be deluded into thinking that jokes will impact them.
Jokes won’t stop Republicans in government and Right Wing media from deciding the fate of our nation. To stop that, we’ll need sustained activism.
Soldier Role Models
There’s a reason why D-Day does not commemorate a day when the U.S. hired comedians to go into night clubs to make jokes about Hitler. The problem wasn’t solved by making jokes. It’s a day when American soldiers fought hard and many gave up their lives, to fight Nazism.
Of course, D-Day was only one day in a war that lasted for years. Although it’s unlikely that you or I will need to give up our lives in the fight against government corruption, those brave soldiers are role models of putting in sustained effort and making sacrifices to bring about justice.
How Comedians Can Be Leaders, if They Want to
For comedians, it’s their job to make jokes. Yet many people have given comedians the role of delivering the news. Since we’ve given them this role anyway, perhaps some comedians may be willing to help us out by doing some different kinds of jokes — commenting on some situations in our society that are rarely commented on and could use some attention.
For example, there’s the relationship of liberals to the news delivered on their TVs and phones. It’s as if we’re constantly playing a game of whack-a-mole — about what to pay attention to or what problem to try to become an activist about — and/or passing out from exhaustion from the sheer volume of stories that are treated as “news.”
Then there’s the situation of the public simply laughing at liars who spread lies that talk people into voting for con artists, even as we become more trapped and controlled by them — as if everyone else must think the lies are absurd too — instead of doing something to fight the lies or circulating the truth more widely.
Comedians could also comment on the public’s expectation that comedians’ jokes — rather than citizens’ efforts — should save democracy. “I don’t know why McConnell is still blocking all the legislation the Democrats in the House pass. I’ve made hundreds of jokes about it. How many more jokes do I have to make, before he stops?” Okay, I’m not a comedian, but you get the idea.
There’s also the situation of people sitting at home on the couch, thinking they’re addressing political problems by tweeting out their demands to politicians. “Why isn’t she responding to me? I’m sure that mine is the absolute best one of the 6,700 replies to Speaker Pelosi’s tweet.”
Demonstrating in the Streets
We’ve been using the above methods for decades: preaching truth to the choir, joking about the lies, telling people they should do critical thinking, separating our activism into splinter actions based on separate issues. These methods aren’t working. It’s time for something new.
The Resistance is going to have to push if we want Democrats to hold Trump accountable through impeachment. We’ll have to put in sustained effort. One thing we’ve done — but not many of us have done it for sustained periods of time — is to demonstrate in the streets. Kremlin Annex is one role model of sustained demonstrations over time.
Here’s a demonstration sponsored by another group. Mark your calendars for June 15, Impeach Trump Day of Action. If by the time you read this, that day has passed, no worries. There need to be continued demonstrations, sustained over time.
For some role models of activism through sustained demonstrations, we can look at how South Koreans demonstrated to root out corruption in their government.
Lately, people in Hong Kong have also been marching for their rights, in huge numbers.
Republicans Are Role Models in One Way
Republicans themselves are role models in one way. Let’s ask ourselves: How hard do Republican Senators and Trump administration officials push to get money and power for themselves through corruption? That’s how hard we need to push to end government corruption and to get Democrats elected. Although we don’t like what they’re pushing toward, they still can be role models in that one way — in how hard to push to get our goals achieved.
If we want our democracy back, Democrats will have to give up their old comfortable habits of passivity and timidity.
Democrats in Congress keep talking about how corrupt Republicans in the Senate are — and then calling on Republicans in the Senate to do the right thing — as if con artists are suddenly going to change their stripes. Of course they won’t. Democrats are going to have to become brave enough to take more action against corruption themselves.
Bravery and Sustained Effort
To paraphrase Gandhi, we will need to be the change — bravery — we want to see in our leaders. It’s unrealistic to expect leaders to be better than we are. If they are, that’s great. But most government officials are pretty similar to the people they represent.
We may ask “Why aren’t you House members brave enough to impeach Trump or to jail people for contempt of Congress?” Maybe they’re not brave enough in the same way that most citizens are not brave enough to do more than sit on the couch and tweet their demands to Congress. If citizens are willing to go out on the streets and demonstrate in large numbers, demanding impeachment, that may wake up some courage in our leaders.
Voters too often think that voting is enough. They think “I’m not going to make waves or put in any extra effort, but they’re the leaders. They should do it.” If we won’t make the effort to go out and demonstrate every weekend in our nearest major city, then why would we expect our leaders to be braver and more conscientious than that?
We can be the sustained effort and the bravery we want to see in our leaders.
As FDR is reported to have said “I couldn’t agree with you more. I agree with everything that you’ve said, including my capacity to be able to right many of these wrongs. … But I would ask one thing of you, Mr. Randolph, and that is go out and make me do it.”
We can be brave, keep our eye on the ball through sustained efforts, and demand that our leaders do the same.
Gandhi also said “When the people lead, the leaders follow.”
