Under Fire

It’s not the time the Despicable D (hereinafter referred to as “45”) has been in office. It’s how much has happened in that time – how many appointments, hearings, nominations, confirmations, executive orders, policy changes, tweets, phone calls, purged government web-pages, firings, hirings, leaks, lawsuits, demonstrations, bills, interviews, judicial decisions, and altercations with the press have come down the pike.

It’s been a barrage.

Barrage, derived from the French barre (bar, barrier); barrer (to stop); tir de barrage (barrier fire), means “A curtain of military fire laid down to keep enemy forces from moving, or to cover or prepare the way for one’s own forces, esp. in attack” (Webster’s New World College Dictionary, 5^th Edition, 2014).

News and social media outlets are rife with commentary on the political tactics 45 and his cohort have so-far employed.  Rushing confirmation of cabinet appointees to circumvent the ethics review process, shutting down informational communications from official departments, and the use of a shock-event (the “not-a-ban” Travel Ban) to throw society into chaos have come under particular scrutiny.

As important as tactical analysis may be, as critical as it is to understand the individual strategies 45 (or, rather, 45’s fascist handler, Steve Bannon) is using to achieve the alt-Reich’s dubious aims, the over-arching problem here is the sheer volume of attacks 45’s White House and Senate Republicans have levied against our nation’s democratic institutions, rights, and values.

How does one survive a barrage? Ask any soldier, I guarantee you the answer will be:  find a foxhole and hunker down. The whole point of a barrage is to get the foe to duck and cover, so you can advance your position on the field.

So many essential bureaus and departments are being censored, so much information is being suppressed and distorted, so many marginalized and minority populations are under threat, so many social services and scientific agencies are facing the axe, so many protections and regulations are being stripped – there are so many attacks on so many fronts, the Left is reeling under the onslaught.

Which is the intention, clearly.

Snowflake, bleeding-heart liberals have long cherished the notion that, somehow and eventually, their persistence, willingness to compromise, and arsenal of facts will bring about a mutually-beneficial reconciliation of Right and Left. This, despite 8 years of Republicans publicly and vociferously proclaiming they would never reconcile on any point of governance, no matter how benign; that their sole purpose in Congress and in life was not to serve the American people, but to obstruct, undermine, and discredit the legitimately-elected and popular (Democratic) President.

As Aaron Loeb eloquently illustrates in his piece “The National Divorce,” the concept of a loyal opposition hit the skids a good 20 years ago and has since been polarized out of existence.  Some progressives still look to compassion, humanity, and common sense to coax errant reactionaries back to the egalitarian American fold. Many more view the Right as the enemy, but as a political-intellectual enemy, at war with the progressives’ more socialist-leaning ideals and policies.

The radicalized Right sees itself as the true America and the progressive Left as the enemy in the most personal and physical sense of the word. The Right is not in disagreement with us.  It is at war with us, and has been since 1996, when Bill Clinton was elected and Fox News first went on the air.  Women, Blacks, Muslims, Latinos, Native Americans, Jews, LGBTQIAs aren’t just suspect; we are hostiles.  Anyone associated with these or other marginalized, vulnerable populations, whether by appearance or belief, intention or accident, is likewise branded an enemy of the State.

Thanks to a Republican and media abetted coup (foreign and domestic subversion targeted at exploiting a technical weakness in the American electoral system), the alt-Reich now holds the fort and has access to all the big guns. And it’s using them; a daily barrage of destruction.  As we scramble to fight the inexorable consolidation of autocratic power and daily slaughter of our most salient freedoms and institutions, stray bullets pick off essential rights and protections; they are gone before we even realize they are in danger.

Not three weeks in, and it feels like three years. The barrage is more than a practical military ploy. It’s psychological warfare. As we fight to save whatever small pieces of democracy we can, we’re also fighting depression, despair, exhaustion, and fear.

And holding our own. Yes, it’s a blitz, but the Resistance isn’t diving for cover. We’re taking to the streets, jamming the phone lines, and storming Congressional offices.

Wait, what? A hint of political optimism in a Neither Here Nor There post? How did that happen?

My atypical buoyancy might be due to the fact that the proverbial shite is now literally hitting the proverbial fan. The dreadful anticipation is over; the dreadful reality is upon us.  Looking ahead to incipient disaster freaked me the hell out, but I’m actually pretty good in a crisis.

Sure, things are worse since 45 took office. We’ve got a white supremacist calling the presidential shots. We’ve got the evil triumvirate of Ryan, Priebus, and Pence having their destructive way with every bastion of democracy we hold dear. We’ve got power-drunk Republicans eagerly gratifying their corporate and billionaire overlords’ every whim and desire. We’ve got racists, Christian Dominionists, Big Oil whores, war-mongers, and complete ignoramuses taking over all the key positions of government. Our safety, our rights, and the rule of law are in jeopardy, war is looming, we’ve already lost the goodwill of all nations save the one that hacked our election . . .

But my worst fears are allayed. I feared good Americans would follow in the footsteps of the good Germans who stood by and let it happen.  I feared the press would meekly promulgate alternate-fact propaganda. I feared the wimpy Dems would betray their base and move even further to the Right. I feared the bureaucratic machines of the State and the States would chug along under authoritarian bosses without pause or moral compunction. I feared the vast majority of my fellow Americans would normalize 45’s regime.

The vast majority of Americans never wanted this, did not vote for this, and – I am proud to say – refuse to stand for this. 45 declared war on the press (“not smart,” as he might say), so though they continue to divide the nation by tailoring their news for the Left or Right, some are actually reporting again. The Dems in Congress are starting to realize that the only ones who are going to keep their seats are the ones with fire in their bellies. Far from caving, bunches of State governments, local officials, judges, and federal agencies are throwing hefty monkey-wrenches into the Orange machine.

So, about that barrage . . . yeah.  Keep it coming. There are millions of us. Enough to stand in the line of fire and meet 45’s assaults on every front. Hopeless or not, win or lose, we are fighting every battle.  Once we could only theorize about the horrible things 45 would do as President, and resistance was just a promise. Now 45 is in office and doing horrible things, resistance is our daily practice.