You find things you hadn't planned on seeing again, but something inside you had decided that it would be worth it if you did. It happened exactly that way today.
While futilely looking for my favorite hardness of pencils, 2.5 instead of just 2, I ran into three bumper stickers from the Common Dreams website. Common Dreams is a gatherer of liberal articles and blogs, and can sometimes get pretty far out there.
Early on, it decided to get organized and raise money for itself with the sales of a blue bumper sticker that said merely:
#NotNormal
RESIST
The implication, even at that early date, didn't need to be stated. That's the world we were now in: not normal. We didn't have a government that was normal, and we didn't have a president who was normal in any possible way.
It was February, 2017. Seems like a lifetime ago. The first few hundred of 45's more than 13,000 lies, most of them ridiculously transparent, had already been told. Efforts to normalize them were flying around, but the pundits and comedians were just sharpening their knives, in case the 2016 campaign hadn't already done so.
Much else has happened. Impeachment seems imminent. Republican apologists insist that the Democrats had it out for 45 from the beginning. Nonsense: Not only had 45 set the table for his own excessive inspection himself by the outrageously insulting and humiliating campaign, but he has, with his lies and utter incompetence, led Democrats to conclude nothing else but that he must go, and not a day too soon.
Back then, Common Dreams encouraged people to buy multiple copies of that bumper sticker. Working as a union organizer and having spent much of my teaching career involved in it, I was energized to get the addresses of several of my friends from all over the country, most of them union colleagues, and send one to each. I hoped they put them where they could be best noticed. For myself, I made room on the rear bumper of my old Toyota Corolla. I worked in northwest Wisconsin, which had turned in 45's favor ferociously, so it was no small act of defiance.
The idea of this democracy's patient but observant Loyal Opposition had gone right out the window with 45's technical election by Electoral College. To respect the norms of the republic while recognizing that there wasn't much one could do to direct its policy for a while has been the normal bastion of those defeated, and essential to the civil continuance of the republic. That was one thing. But this president wanted something far more: Utter fealty to him, not the country. He wanted us to bow to the concept that the country, in fact, was him in his mind.
That would be tantamount to making him a king. That peaked my outrage, and still does. Resist this monster? Hell, yes. I continuously called him that on Facebook, and someone I know well challenged me, saying that he wasn't one. I wonder what he thinks now. He can't possibly think any better of him. I can't imagine anyone that can.
But the phrase, The Resistance, characterized much of the early days of the pushback against this monster. Where did it go? Isn't this still a resistance of sorts? Isn't he still in power? Or did the Democratic House takeover constitute its victory? Does resistance end when something akin to a balance of power is re-established? Or will we have to wait until the results of the nearly certain impeachment are in?
Something of a corner has been turned since Fox News, of all outlets, reported through its polling that 51% of Americans believed that 45 should be impeached and removed. It's not decisive and Republicans in Congress may yet ignore that number, but remember: We haven't heard from Democratic witnesses yet. That begins next Wednesday.
Meanwhile, it's been revealed that at least 57% and up to 61% of voters hold a negative opinion of how 45's done his job in the states of Pennsylvania, Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin--three of which states 45 needed to get where he is, and where he needs to win again. The thin thread that provided the attachment to the power that he has so horribly abused is fraying.
Did the Resistance accomplish this? Well, it organized and marched, that's for sure. But I doubt if anyone who's been following this seriously could say anything other than that 45 has done this to himself and continues to do so each and every day (thus answering those whiners who say, you had it out for him from the beginning). But without it, nobody could say that any kind of effort to stand up to the monster could exist, and might have diminished public objections to him within media and outside of it.
If people believe they're getting beaten up and nobody thinks anything's possible to resolve it, everyone else grovels in despair and energy is lost. People stiffen their spines far more easily in a crowd, whether literal or online. Cursing the echo chambers won't beat actually being in one to sustain a movement.
The Resistance does represent a rare victory for liberals in their messaging. Conservatives are normally far better at that, as succinct and quickly judgmental their evaluations are. But they had no real response to The Resistance. They had to deal with it. It kept coming on.
Now what? Should we put The Resistance to rest? Or double down and re-emphasize exactly what we're doing here? Let's ask a better question: Will we feel less in a crisis because 45 has been threatened and weakened but survived, or until and unless he no longer has any power to affect this country, which is to say causes it perhaps irreparable harm?
That seems too clear. He's just cancelled the Paris Climate Accords. He's endlessly cultivating being the victim of attacks he's richly deserved, but nothing bothers whatever his agenda is. He's relentlessly threatening not only our way of life, but the world's. Those people at the border remain trapped and helpless. The farmers keep losing money. And in frightening fealty, his political friends keep lying and obfuscating with increasing transparency to protect him against a building avalanche of facts.
That relentlessness must be mirrored by ours. I have a different car than I did two and a half years ago. It'll get one of those bumper stickers, too.
Be well. Be careful. Resist. I'll see you down the road.
Mister Mark
Much else has happened. Impeachment seems imminent. Republican apologists insist that the Democrats had it out for 45 from the beginning. Nonsense: Not only had 45 set the table for his own excessive inspection himself by the outrageously insulting and humiliating campaign, but he has, with his lies and utter incompetence, led Democrats to conclude nothing else but that he must go, and not a day too soon.
Back then, Common Dreams encouraged people to buy multiple copies of that bumper sticker. Working as a union organizer and having spent much of my teaching career involved in it, I was energized to get the addresses of several of my friends from all over the country, most of them union colleagues, and send one to each. I hoped they put them where they could be best noticed. For myself, I made room on the rear bumper of my old Toyota Corolla. I worked in northwest Wisconsin, which had turned in 45's favor ferociously, so it was no small act of defiance.
The idea of this democracy's patient but observant Loyal Opposition had gone right out the window with 45's technical election by Electoral College. To respect the norms of the republic while recognizing that there wasn't much one could do to direct its policy for a while has been the normal bastion of those defeated, and essential to the civil continuance of the republic. That was one thing. But this president wanted something far more: Utter fealty to him, not the country. He wanted us to bow to the concept that the country, in fact, was him in his mind.
That would be tantamount to making him a king. That peaked my outrage, and still does. Resist this monster? Hell, yes. I continuously called him that on Facebook, and someone I know well challenged me, saying that he wasn't one. I wonder what he thinks now. He can't possibly think any better of him. I can't imagine anyone that can.
But the phrase, The Resistance, characterized much of the early days of the pushback against this monster. Where did it go? Isn't this still a resistance of sorts? Isn't he still in power? Or did the Democratic House takeover constitute its victory? Does resistance end when something akin to a balance of power is re-established? Or will we have to wait until the results of the nearly certain impeachment are in?
Something of a corner has been turned since Fox News, of all outlets, reported through its polling that 51% of Americans believed that 45 should be impeached and removed. It's not decisive and Republicans in Congress may yet ignore that number, but remember: We haven't heard from Democratic witnesses yet. That begins next Wednesday.
Meanwhile, it's been revealed that at least 57% and up to 61% of voters hold a negative opinion of how 45's done his job in the states of Pennsylvania, Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin--three of which states 45 needed to get where he is, and where he needs to win again. The thin thread that provided the attachment to the power that he has so horribly abused is fraying.
Did the Resistance accomplish this? Well, it organized and marched, that's for sure. But I doubt if anyone who's been following this seriously could say anything other than that 45 has done this to himself and continues to do so each and every day (thus answering those whiners who say, you had it out for him from the beginning). But without it, nobody could say that any kind of effort to stand up to the monster could exist, and might have diminished public objections to him within media and outside of it.
If people believe they're getting beaten up and nobody thinks anything's possible to resolve it, everyone else grovels in despair and energy is lost. People stiffen their spines far more easily in a crowd, whether literal or online. Cursing the echo chambers won't beat actually being in one to sustain a movement.
The Resistance does represent a rare victory for liberals in their messaging. Conservatives are normally far better at that, as succinct and quickly judgmental their evaluations are. But they had no real response to The Resistance. They had to deal with it. It kept coming on.
Now what? Should we put The Resistance to rest? Or double down and re-emphasize exactly what we're doing here? Let's ask a better question: Will we feel less in a crisis because 45 has been threatened and weakened but survived, or until and unless he no longer has any power to affect this country, which is to say causes it perhaps irreparable harm?
That seems too clear. He's just cancelled the Paris Climate Accords. He's endlessly cultivating being the victim of attacks he's richly deserved, but nothing bothers whatever his agenda is. He's relentlessly threatening not only our way of life, but the world's. Those people at the border remain trapped and helpless. The farmers keep losing money. And in frightening fealty, his political friends keep lying and obfuscating with increasing transparency to protect him against a building avalanche of facts.
That relentlessness must be mirrored by ours. I have a different car than I did two and a half years ago. It'll get one of those bumper stickers, too.
Be well. Be careful. Resist. I'll see you down the road.
Mister Mark
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