The popular guy in charge of the DSA is a greedy, paranoid sociopath, a malevolent narcissist, and is probably experiencing dementia. It’s a tactic that works for him, even as it destroys the DSA.
Governing by scare tactics has happened before in this country. Don’t let anyone tell you that this is not the America they once knew. This is the same America that’s been going for 250 years now. Run by narcissistic bullies who keep power by manipulating all the non-WASP groups to battle each other (both parties do this — but one side does it more shamelessly than the other). Divide and conquer. Frighten people into exhaustion and submission. The Hunger Games, except instead of children killing children, it’s DSA soldiers killing DSA civilians.
“Crown Thy good with brotherhood?” C’mon. That’s romantic flapdoodle.
As for other countries? Understandable spinelessness. If you thought the leader of a big country (no longer the leader in the free world, but still pretty big) was nuts and had the nuclear codes and surrounded himself with drooling sycophants, you’d try to keep a wide berth, too.
But the crazy-son-of-a-bitch leadership of the Sociopath-In-Chief is not doing anything new. He’s just doing what the equally sociopathic paranoid Reagan did when he announced the “Star Wars” defense initiative, invaded the tiny country of Grenada, and sold arms. He’s just doing what the equally sociopathic paranoid Nixon did when he bombed the bejeezus out of Cambodians (with an evil assist from Henry Kissinger). He’s just doing what Bush II did when he invaded Iraq because Saudi Arabians flew jets into the World Trade Center, even though Iraq had nothing to do with it, because he had daddy issues. The only difference in the current sociopathic paranoid is the quantity of his psychosis.
Don’t get me wrong: it’s not just republicans. Obama sent killing drones. Johnson used intense, physically intimidating methods to threaten or coerce colleagues into voting for his legislation. Woodrow Wilson directed that all federal workplaces were to be segregated, Black civil servants were demoted or fired, and separate bathrooms and lunchrooms were imposed, reversing all the gains in integration instituted by earlier administrations. Going way back, Andrew Jackson was responsible for the death of millions of indigenous people via his “Indian Removal Act.”
Bullying people works. It’s very difficult to fight a bully.
We wrote recently that words are simply not going to make a dent in defeating gun murders, and the same is true with quashing bullying leaders. Protests are generally ineffective in doing anything but providing the bullies a good opportunity to kill people, after which, “thoughts and prayers.” Nonviolent protests, as described by Gandhi (and later, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.), are mostly considered quaint.
How do you stop the bullying? How do you stop a sociopath when he has all the power?
The simple answer is, you can’t. Certainly not by yourself. Institutionally endorsed savagery does not end until a major event takes place (like a war). And even then, it usually grows right back, kudzu-like, stronger than before.
As we enter our typical, set-your-clocks-by-it, 10-year recession/depression years of 2026-2028, we have to fight the urge to die on individual hills. By that, our duty is to oppose authoritarianism, tyranny, and bad faith. In this age of social media, where every single person takes everything said so personally (and creates a cancel culture in doing so, to the delight of the right wing), we have to stop before reacting. It’s important for all of us to look at objectively just causes such as #MeToo, Black Lives Matter, Stop AAPI Hate, Stand Up to Jewish Hate, and all the rest of them — but it’s more important to foment a force stronger than the extreme power of the neo-conservative hate mongers who are not in power.
We have to find a way, all of us who believe that times are far worse than we even imagined they’d become (Whoever thought Nixon would be considered a centrist?), to stop with our individual slights and concentrate on the bigger picture. Just like the Tea Party folks did. It may take time — and we might not even succeed — but I’d rather hold off on scolding a publicly antisemitic celebrity if they can help me create a better whole society despite our differences. We can no longer afford to be so selfish in our pain, however valid that pain may be.
We have never been a united nation (is any?), so there’s really no point in continuing the charade. Let’s stop talking about “the real America,” because there isn’t one. Let’s stop talking about urban (often meant as a euphemism for “Black”) vs rural (“Redneck”). Let’s stop talking about the divisions we have as things to be celebrated — that plays into the hands of those who divided and conquered us over the last several years. We can all enjoy cultural diversity, so let’s do it with a “Yes, and” attitude, not one that says, “Only mine counts.”
And finally, can we please stop talking about the idea that the pendulum swings both ways? This particular country’s politics, with its baked-in love of slavery and its promotion of one (and only one) kind of Christianity — but at the same time, continues to talk about the separation of Church and State like that’s even remotely a thing anymore — does not run as a pendulum does on a grandfather clock. We’ve never been a country where things were fair and equitable, so how could a pendulum swing suddenly make the DSA fair and equitable? That pendulum, if there ever was one, broke 250 years ago.
As for the nonprofit arts community, if we do nothing, I’m afraid it’s only going to get worse. Real patriots despise the idea of banning books, art, words, speech, and the cultural varieties that enhance life. And there is no nonprofit arts organization that wants that, even those wholly supported by the same toxic elitists who currently control the government.
Oh, and happy St. Patrick’s Day, a day when even a nice Jewish boy can be Irish. Consider this fact: there have never been snakes in Ireland. And I leave you today with a pint in my hand and the following Irish blessing:
May those who love you love you
And those who don’t love you,
May god turn their hearts.
And if he doesn’t turn their hearts,
May he turn their ankles so you’ll know them by their limping.
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