I log onto Facebook and fear is everywhere: will I lose my rights, my bodily autonomy? Is this a prelude to the end of a steady arc that began in the days of Earl Warren, and his continued through recent Supreme Court cases and through executive orders?
Nor is this fear unjustified. Mike Pence has already announced that the executive orders protecting LGBT Americans will be rescinded on Inauguration Day. We have every reason to believe that Roe v. Wade will be under fire in a Supreme Court with vacancies filled by Donald Trump, and federal protection for Dreamers may soon begin to look like a nightmare.
So what are we gonna do about it? It’s absolutely understandable that we are gripped with fear right now. Let’s give ourselves a little time to get it under control, I say a week, Max.
Then we need to remind ourselves how we got so far. Pres. Obama has been a luxury of sorts. When was the last time we saw our issues championed by Executive Order? Certainly not in the Clinton era. Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, all presidents during times of amazing social change. But they weren’t leading the charge. Our predecessors marched, they occupied, they protested, they ran for office. We don’t have protest songs because Joan Baez and Bob Dylan were bored, we have them because of the imperative of moving a generation to action.
Well my friends, we just lost the luxury that was Barack Obama. There will be no executive orders championing our issues (quite the opposite), the solicitor general will not be an advocate for our rights in the courts, and the next Supreme Court will be unlikely to give us the next Obergefell. That sucks.
So we’ve got to fight. We’ve got to march and we’ve got to challenge. We’ve got to recruit allies at every level. Can’t win Congress because of redistricting? Let’s take over our city councils and our state legislatures. Can’t put our people in office, vote with our feet in the streets until those in office have no choice but to listen. The still unfinished arc toward racial justice started with bus riders and restaurant sitters. We had a national movement of conscience and then Congress began to act. The rehabilitation act of 1973 was a toothless piece of paper until people with disabilities occupied federal buildings, and forced people to see our humanity. Time to brush up our protest songs, or write new ones, and take to today’s battlegrounds, maybe marching to use restrooms that don’t match the gender of our birth, even if we identify with the gender of our birth , in solidarity with our trans brothers and sisters. The EPA was a reaction to an environmental movement, and if a climate denier is going to be in charge, and we need to step up where the agency fails, and make it so that those that would take us off the climate cliff embrace green policies because to do otherwise would make it untenable for their business. I was on a conference call today or someone said we have to take to the streets. If the next four years mean that government is not the answer, and indeed we must
But even protests are not enough. If we can’t get employment protections for LGBT brothers and sisters, then we use the awesome power of social media to boycott the businesses that take adverse employment action. If our brothers and sisters with disabilities find themselves losing the basic services that they need to live, let our able-bodied friends lend a hand while we fight to get them back. If immigrants are harassed on the street, form a protective circle of love and defense against the hate to show that we’ve got their back. A cat call or physical assault on any woman should invite the defense and rebuke of us all, let none walk idly by.
On its best days, government harnesses our collective energy for the greater good. Our government looks like it might temporarily fail us. So we have to do is in the way that’s a little more messy, and harness ourselves. Over 50 million people voted with us on Tuesday and more than a few of the ones that didn’t were duped, and I believe will defend their fellow Americans when the truth is known. If our leaders won’t unite us for change then we must unite ourselves. Too every person who justly feels afraid, let us send the message, we’ve got your back.
So here’s my perspective. Did the fight just get harder? No question. If we look at the Obama years as a baseline, despair is right around the corner. So I recommend a shift in perspective. Pres. Obama’s leadership was an unprecedented positive deviation from the norm. Now the barriers for change are going back to where they always were. It’s important that we remember that this, not the Obama years is the baseline, and remember the progress made, even under presidents like Nixon and Reagan.
I can’t address some of the angst that comes with Trump. I certainly share everyone’s fear of someone with his demonstrated temper with access to our nuclear launch codes. And his personal social mores make me nauseous. But Lyndon Johnson was a misogynist buffoon while feminism was rising in power, Richard Nixon was a racist, and whatever we think of the Kennedy and Clinton years from a policy perspective, none of us are going to really argue that those men demonstrated great respect for women. They could not stand against the tide of progress, and neither will Donald Trump, because we won't let him. We will fight.
Compared to the last eight years, we are facing a dark time. But we have thrived in such times before, and I choose to take the lesson that we have the tools to do so again. We have 10 weeks to prepare to fight. I'm gonna do everything I can to have the backs of my brothers and sisters, all figurative and literal. Who’s with me?
