Josh Marshall had a great piece this week about what the Resistance to the Magats so badly needs right now: Leadership that will send a clear message like Churchill did when he became British Prime Minister in 1940.
Churchill had a clear message: 1) We’re never going to give up. Literally, never. 2) We’re going to battle back with these tools. And 3) Finally, we’re going to win.
Yes! A thousand times, YES. Where are the Democrats? WTactualF are they doing? It seems like nothing. Literally nothing.
Sure, we’re all demoralized. That is one of the goals of the “shock and awe” attack on our country happening from inside our country. But that is just the starting point. We can feel that, and then we can stand up and get started doing something to stop and change the things that are demoralizing us, right? And we need to never give up. Literally, never.
Maybe it helps to understand, as David Frum explains, why this is very different than it was in 2017 for four main reasons:
- Trump is not alone this time. He brought a gang of idealogues wth him who are getting straight to work.
- We, the opposition, feel beaten in a way we didn’t in 2016.
- Democratic mistakes have given Trump early successes — Democratic policies have veered left of mainstream. (Not sure how much I agree w/this, but…)
- The new “information space” is perfect for chaos monkeys — no one pays attention to the “mainstream media” and that media isn’t doing a good job of covering what’s happening, anyway.
I won’t go into my quibbles with Frum’s analysis; suffice to say I agree that fighting the Magats is going to be far harder this time around, for the reasons he cites and more. But the fact that it’s harder only makes the work of fighting back more important. It’s do or die time, much like it was for Churchill and Britain. Please, democratic leadership, let’s learn from history. It’s time to stand up and freaking fight!
Online, Jason Kottke announced that he’s going to continue covering the ongoing coup almost exclusively (I hope not 100% exclusively?), and I am one of many who are glad. I’ve found his links helpful and I agree that anyone with a megaphone right now needs to be shouting from the rooftops about what’s happening so that we can all understand and try to do something about it. Kottke perfectly described this moment:
Witnessing the events of this past weekend, I felt very much like I did back in March 2020, before things shut down here in the US — you could see this huge tidal wave coming and everyone was still out on the beach sunbathing because the media and our elected officials weren’t meeting the moment. I believe that if this coup is allowed to continue and succeed, it will completely alter the course of American history — so I feel like I have no choice but to talk about it.
Sunbathing time is over.