Day 2

In this time of extreme polarization, it’s no surprise to find two diametrically opposed views duking it out on news and social media.  Over the airwaves, in Tweets and memes, in articles, editorials, and blogs like this, two camps are facing off and having at it.  One exhorts us to keep it civil, the other urges us to civil disobedience.

With “peaceful transfer of power” as their catch-phrase, the Get-Over-It contingent puts forth some sound arguments and good points.  Divisiveness is . . . well, it’s divisive.  A nation divided cannot stand.  We need all hands on deck.  Even if Mr. Golden-Shower did lose the popular vote big-time and win the White House by virtue of a flawed electoral system, Russian interference, and FBI intervention, he’s the next Prez – so quit being a sore loser.  It’s time to stop undermining the Despicable D, denigrating his Cabinet choices, mocking him, and embarrassing him with video that proves he’s lying.  If we want what’s best for America, it’s time to start giving him the respect his office deserves.  A real American (as opposed to a terrorist-loving crybaby), will give the new guy a chance and hope for the best.

I think that’s the gist of it.

As evidenced by the derogatory epithets above, I’m in the other camp, shouting “no normalization!” with the Not-My-President faction. If we’re sore losers, it’s not because we lost an election. We’re sore that American democracy – such as it was – lost out to oligarchic oppression.  Show respect to a pussy-grabber who owes his victory to fake news and an FBI Director’s violation of the Hatch Act? The smarmy creep is an insult to the Oval Office, an illegitimate pretender to the presidency, and only deserving of censure. He’s had a zillion chances – to backtrack on his racism, misogyny, conflicts of interest, nepotism – and he’s blown every one. If we want what’s best for America (and the rest of the planet), it’s time to resist, refuse, disrupt, and demand. A real American (as opposed to a short-sighted pawn of the plutocracy) will dig in and get ready for life in the trenches.

What irks me most about the Get-Over-It argument is that it’s too damn familiar.  Anyone of the feminine persuasion has heard it all before.  Calm down. Take it easy. Give it time.  Don’t be so angry. So aggressive. So strident. Be nice. Be patient. Smile.

The unsubtle message underlying the anti-feminist rhetoric is that real women are compliant; uppity women are traitors to their sex.  The unsubtle subtext to “peaceful transfer of power” is exactly parallel.  Real Americans are compliant; uppity Americans are traitors to their country.

Kind of ironic when you consider it was uppity-ness that got this nation started. Back in the day (meaning the Revolutionary War days, 1765-1783), non-compliance was the single defining characteristic of an American. Support for non-compliance is embedded in our Constitution, protected by our Amendments, manifest in our States’ rights, and intrinsic to our national character.

All that’s about to change, of course. Freedom of religion, speech, the press, right to assemble, vote, get a fair trial . . .

It’s probably smart to keep a list of the perks at least some of us have been enjoying up till now. America’s new leadership is following the Authoritarian Playbook.  They don’t mean to topple every bastion of democracy in one devastating strike.  They mean to dismantle it a piece at a time – removing a lynchpin of the Affordable Care Act for starters, eliminating the Public Broadcasting Service and the National Endowment for the Arts next time around – and every blow struck in late-night, ill-attended sessions when we’re all sound asleep in our beds.

All they need for their game plan to work is for people to be nice. To take it easy.  To give the new guy a chance.  All they need is our compliance.

The Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote from the Birmingham jail, “One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.”

These words are an inspiration to the Not-My-President camp, words to live by.  But tonight, on the eve of a pussy-grabbing, sociopathic ignoramus’ inauguration, the words that stir my heart come from lawyer, liberal icon, and 66^th Attorney General of the United States of America, Ramsey Clark.  “Had Rosa Parks not refused to move to the back of the bus, you and I might never have heard of Dr. Martin Luther King.”

 

Grassroots political activity has been on the upswing since the election. We’ve been calling our Senators, sending supplies to Standing Rock, joining the ACLU, signing petitions, buying T-Shirts that fund Planned Parenthood – all while enjoying those perks I mentioned.  All with the ACA still in effect, PBS still on the air, and qualified people still on the job in our governmental agencies and bureaus.

Tomorrow, a salacious, bigoted Russian tool will become our 45^th President.  The self-serving Republican Congress will enable his idiocy, install his fascist, white-supremacist Cabinet, and use their law-making power to sell out the American people to Big Oil, the NRA, Christian fundamentalism, and their own personal interests.

So, Day 1, we tune our TVs to something – anything – that’s not the Inauguration.  We hit the ego-maniac where it hurts.  In his ratings.

Day 2, we march.  It is altogether fitting that the first major act of political resistance under the new regime be the Women’s March on Washington.  Peaceful? Yes, we will be peaceful.  But we see right through those exhortations to be civil.  So, no.  We will not calm down.  We will not give it time.  We will not be complicit.

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Just FYI –

The Women’s March isn’t just for women.  It’s for anyone who knows a woman, was born of a woman, once saw a woman on the street . . .

There are 616 official Sister Marches happening all over the US and the world. Every body counts, so please, go and be counted.  Here’s a link, so you can find your nearest march locale.

What’s our agenda?  Glad you asked, here’s the Women’s March platform.

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Also FYI, you may have noticed, I’ve rather fallen off the “every week” blog-post wagon.  Now the holidays are past and my work schedule has eased, I could get back on . . . but I’m thinking I’ll post every two weeks instead, and devote more time to my fiction.