Portside

“In the year 2025, if man is still alive, if woman can survive, [we] may find…”

Yes, the reckoning has come 500 years earlier than Zager and Evans predicted singing “In the Year 2525”, which reigned for 6 weeks at Number 1 during the summer of Woodstock. The futuristic lyrics contained a great historical truth: the forces that suck a society into a dystopian vortex go far beyond the machinations of individual politicians, the worst of whom are only the sores on the surface of the body politic, symptoms of a deeper disease.

Resistance to the Republicans’ assault on legitimate government appears daunting, given their control of all three branches of the federal government, a majority of state legislatures, and a following of fanatical true believers and docile sleepwalkers. The crusading zeal that marks rising authoritarian movements makes resistance an apt term for the position that half of Americans find themselves in—and more if one acknowledges that issue by issue, many Trump voters disagree with the Republican platform.

But what does “resistance” mean in these circumstances? Certainly more than quixotic or token gestures. What constitutes effective political action that works without our toppling into chaos? Highly complex societies are funny. They have built-in redundancies and adaptations that cushion shocks that would overwhelm smaller and simpler communities. Yet when “fail-safe” systems fail, as they always eventually do, an entire society can collapse, whether literally overnight (solar storm that fries the entire electric grid), in a human-driven panic (financial collapse), or over time (a slow burn of alienation and neglect). The United States faces environmental, economic, and social stresses whose solutions require a balancing act between what really works and the gratuitous gesture, between policies that revitalize democracy and those that plunge us into the violence and disintegration that marks a society’s decline.

Resistance is just another word for constructive policy

Here are general suggestions for keeping authoritarian government from happening here.

1. Coordinated job and community actions: Twenty one states now have laws restricting teaching of the civil rights movement, the history of American racism, issues related to gender and sexuality, or otherwise “divisive concepts” (secular philosophy? Freudian psychology? causes of the Civil War? critiques of US foreign policy? history of religion?). In other words, critical thinking about history, society, psychology, social relations, race, sex. What’s left? 

Those laws should outrage anyone with any understanding of education and citizenship. In response, teachers’ associations can organize state-wide presentations of banned units. It is a creative alternative to strikes and walk-outs. States would either have to arrest or fire teachers en masse for teaching, or close down schools. Similar actions by community leaders addressing community-police relations, childhood hunger, or inadequate health care could trigger a new activism among suppliers of vital services. At some point, it is humiliating to realize that the work to which you devote your life has become a meaningless political charade. Such implicit contempt for one’s basic values has been as compelling a call to action as wages and benefits.

2. Strong rhetoric backed by solid argument: Do not solely argue over a woman’s right to choose an abortion. Raise the specter—already here in some states—of pregnant women being arrested at state lines because they are suspected of seeking abortions. Argue that unlike virtually every other law, abortion bans apply only to women; thus, male legislators and judges should have no part in determining abortion access. Are these iron-clad arguments? No, but they are legitimate with emotional resonance that counters the anti-choice hysteria that overturned Roe vs. Wade.  Similarly, when campaigning for gun control show that you know the difference between deer-hunting rifles that load up a total of 4 or 5 bullets with a couple of seconds between shots and automatic rifles that release hundreds of rounds a minute.

Do not argue over Republican talking points or allow them to define the terms of the issue. Gun control, for instance, does not mean taking everyone’s guns away. Call out anyone who distorts your view while pinpointing what they have to gain by misleading the public about it. Challenge the source of the power and the ugliness of policies that cut services to the poor and infirm. Consistently address the agenda behind the malevolence and lies: who profits and how much. Build it and they will come. Or at least vote.

3. Organize locally and nationally: Grass roots efforts strengthen the bones of a party; national and regional messaging extends its connective nervous system. The Democratic National Committee (DNC) has proven itself not only inept at both, but obstructive. The DNC needs to be fixed in a way that distinguishes between political tactics and political positions. Recognize that the immediate challenge is resisting extremism. Fight hard and even a bit dirty. Later on, when a measure of equilibrium is restored, you can resume fighting one another.

4. Pressure mainstream media: Even corporate-based publishers are capable of shame when they abandon or violate the core mandates and values of traditional journalism. Pressure mainstream newspapers and networks to acknowledge the danger posed by the incoming regime. Email and phone campaigns, public critiques, cancellation of subscriptions—whatever works. A lot of incredible investigative reporting is still being done on subjects that timid major outlets refuse to pursue. Let’s use social media to publicize corruption, rights violations, or environmental destruction until the national media is compelled to report it, not one token violation at a time but by identifying the broader interests behind damaging policies and political manipulation.

5. Publicize effective programs: Focus constantly on policy outcomes and what they mean to individuals and families. Publicize programs that are working and grassroots initiatives that created positive results for communities.

6. Resistance starts NOW. Fair electoral processes may not even be in place by 2026. Lining up one’s ducks for “later” while Republicans aggressively push their agenda now is politically clueless. Nor can the environment stand two more years of gleeful fossil fuel bonfires. We don’t have two years to waste.

7. Complacency is complicity. Complacency might have worked in the 50s, 70s, or 90s. But today, bemoaning the latest outrage or sending an occasional check to worthy causes won’t cut it. We each have to find a way to allocate time and energy to politics, despite busy lives and perhaps feeling uncomfortable doing so.

8. Forget Trump. Trump is a reality TV host. Republican policies, not Trump, are what hit people where they hurt. Effective resistance and reform happens at the nuts and bolts of power. The Republican strategy—as it was under Reagan—aims to roll back socially beneficial programs simultaneously on every front. The Democrats react with confusion and distraction, playing whack-a-moley with each new threat. Yet there are clear consistencies across Republican policies and clear winners and losers, the latter being the great majority of Americans. Lay bare the common agenda behind all these assaults on the common good: who profits, why, and how much, and the disinformation campaigns that support them.

9. Demonstrations alone are inadequate. The power structure is adept at deflecting mass expression of will. Million man and multi-million woman marches feel great but like weekend binges, the high wears off. That is not a reason not to protest, but it does show why relying on demonstrations obeys the law of diminishing returns.

These efforts do not need to sway “the other side” or even 90 percent of it, only to galvanize non-voters and 5-10 percent of those who voted Republican. Efforts at resistance can also solidify into renewed vision and inspiration that has a permanent impact on the nation and its political culture. We have to start turning it around now. 

To join the resistance, Americans are urged to mobilize to protect those at risk if Trump achieves his worst impulses.