The ugly spectacle that politics has become is unlikely to soon get any less nauseating. Nor should it. Not with the people in office today who call themselves Republicans. These are some serious nihilists. It’s zero-sum in their moral math, and the losers are everyone not on their side. There are more of us than them, but they have the power.
Despite the terrible reality show we find ourselves trapped in, and despite the damage Republican chaos causes, there are still people on the left and in the center who fervently wish or directly demand that everyone just get along and be nice. These are well-intentioned wishes. Ideally, we would all be polite and thoughtful in our exchanges.
But this is a fight now, no matter how lousy it sometimes feels. We are in a fight for the future of this country.
If you don’t believe me, ask someone who is not white and well off. Ask someone who comes from a wiped-out people or someone who puts in hours for a living and lives month-to-month.
Or ask anyone who saw the presidency of Barack Obama not simply as historic but as healing, as proof we had progressed beyond our worst urges. That seems now like fool’s gold.
Our first black president, classy and cool, was followed into office by a man of tangerine tint who first taunted Obama with racist claims about his birthplace, and has since been testing and pinching as many of the practices and customs of democracy as he can.
Trump is impulsive and reckless in a way that has its subversive appeal. There’s a pretty big voting bloc out there that wants to see the whole damn political system blown up no matter what that looks like. They’re not wrong in wanting that.
What is wrong is not fighting that.
Power is grubby and dangerous, but at its best can be used effectively to help us move forward together.
But when it’s used only to smash and grab and load the getaway cars of the greasiest pole-dancers, at the expense of everyone else, then we need to exercise the right to stop this, to restore some decency, and return us to the road forward.
That’s what effective resistance has to do.
It has to shove back hard on the moral regression that unfettered greed and selfishness cause. And it can’t happen without a raw slab of fierce opposition and unsettling challenges to the status quo. It can’t happen without fighting.
Let’s remember that the Founding Fathers were not pushovers. Lincoln was not a warm, likable sweetheart. FDR taunted and embraced the hatred of the wealthy who opposed him despite his coming from that class. Rosa Parks didn’t become a legend and a symbol because of one day—she was a brave activist all her life. JFK, RFK, LBJ—all could be, and had to be, at times, ruthless in the service of economic and racial justice. Martin Luther King, Cesar Chavez, Bella Abzug, none of these figures shied away from confrontation and speaking the truth to power.
Does this mean we are doomed to be forever divided? I don’t know.
I do know that civility is meaningless in the face of these facts:
The obscene concentration of wealth has worsened poverty; the destruction of the social safety net continues, as does the elimination of safeguards and rights for the most vulnerable; as does the exploitation of wage earners, the demolition of environmental protections, the discourse of deliberate lies and misinformation and rejection of facts; as does the corruption by money of decision-makers at every level and in every branch of government—none of this will be stopped or reversed without fighting.
We are in a troubling and precarious time, and no amount of feel-good boosterism or wistful wishing will get us through this. If you don’t have the stomach for the vitriol and ugliness of politics today, that is totally understandable.
You can, as so many have for too long, simply turn away and tune out. Or you can try to elect the ice cream man.
But that is a luxury of choice, a privilege, if you will. You may not have that freedom in the future without people fighting ferociously for it now. Δ
Supervisor Adam Hill represents SLO County’s 3rd District. Send comments through the editor at clanham@newtimesslo.com or write a letter to the editor and send it to letters@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in Health & Beauty 2018.
Your bias opinion of there is more of us than them is hilarious, you mention former leaders about how they were not pushovers and how they strived for equality against the rich (by the way they didn;t have many back then). Yes, but they also all followed the laws that were in place and made sure they were adhered to, not like your last administration. You make comparisons between a cool and classy guy that has only divided a country by his own charm, but Trump is impulsive and who is tangerine tint, you are probably thinking if he or she was hispanic you’d come up with another type of tint or fruit, you’ve become blinded like the rest of your party hypocritical even it’s your own kind.
If you don’t believe me, ask someone who is not white and well off. Ask someone who comes from a wiped-out people or someone who puts in hours for a living and lives month-to-month.
Yes, I am hispanic, latino, mexican and many have like myself (more than you think) along with many blacks have worked hard and long hours to become well off that no longer believe in your false beliefs but only see the results of what your party has truley become, a party for themselves.
This article says a lot of stupid things without really saying much of anything. Is every Republican bad, or are you just referring to a few. I don’t understand how any politician can be so condescending towards Republicans when the Democrats created the state with the highest level of poverty in the nation. Oh, and politicians who continue to believe they are above the law.
Great writing Adam. This should bring out action and opposition. First order, Elect Paulding!
Well said. Beautifully written and heartfelt. We have to stick together for dear life, all of us. Thanks for writing.
Help bring civility, common sense and relevant , real-world EXPERIENCE to the Board. Join the Republican/Democratic Coalition to elect JIMMY PAULDING to the Board of Supervisors.
Ever since the cynical, self-serving COLAB lobbyist Michael Brown and his mean-spirited co-hort Andy Caldwell with their perverse, far-right, self-serving Trump-sympathizing agenda moved into SLO County our local politics has been poisoned with lies, exaggerations and libelous rhetoric. When it comes to the upcoming 2018 elections, the best all the good, common, decent people can do to calm the waters and restore common sense and decency in local politics will be to support the growing Republican/Democrataic county-wide coalition aiming to elect open-minded and EXPERIENCED candidate Jimmy Paulding for Board of Supervisors.
When a piece starts out with nothing more interesting than name calling I do not read the rest. So good luck with whatever this piece is about. I for one will not listen, read or even consider anything that begins with a childish derogatory label as an introduction to the opposing side. Shame. Make a cogent point without childish name calling and an independent thinker like me might actually care what you have to say. Until then, I won’t.
B. Christensen
How about removing the labels and recognising that the people in power like being in power. From local councils and boards, elected officials somehow think some ordinance, regulation, rule, license, certificate or law will ‘fix it’. They, their staff and the hired consultant and studies know what is best for me and you when all any of us can be best at is running our own lives.
Not only that, some of the elected official can’t seem to run their own lives very well and voters don’t seem to care how many scandals occur at every level. They just keep on electing and re-electing the same names they know [even it how they know the same is the latest headline grabbing negative event].
Go ahead, out my name on the front page above the fold so it is seen in every news stand. Then see how many more votes I get in June.
The solution lies in the hands of the voters.
Check out the candidates. Are they honest? Do they live the life they preach? Do you trust them as individuals? Would you like them as a neighbor?
In fact, find the candidate you never heard of , check them out and elect that under, if ata ll, funded individual who simply wants to serve a limited time in office returning to their own life in 4 – 8 years.
America needs you and me serving, not career politicians and career staff completely out of touch with the rest of us.
I am ready for term limits on the bureaucrats as well as the politicians!