March 31, 2017
The abominable Trump administration has generated the broadest sweep of active opposition and resistance since the long era of the 1960s. A quick sampling of The Resistance Calendar reveals the nature and vast scope of this resistance.
The abominable Trump administration has generated the broadest sweep of active opposition and resistance since the long era of the 1960s. A quick sampling of The Resistance Calendar reveals the nature and vast scope of this resistance.
Bold
resistance is important in and of itself.
It also becomes a crucial catalyst for mass movement take-off: the sense
that change is possible. The more
resistance there is, the more likely it is that others will join in.
But
resistance is not enough. As outrageous
and dangerous as Donald Trump is, we need to recognize that much of the current
political regime has been in power for a long time, and they represent forces
that began to redefine our politics in response to the last time we experienced
a comparable surge of public protest across a wide range of political issues—
the long era of the 1960s.
By
itself, resistance is also difficult to sustain for long in the face of
systemic intransigence. Too easily, its
demands will be redefined by the forces that shape our political discourse and
our two dominant political parties.
The
issues people are addressing –racism, sexism, homophobia, xenophobia,
healthcare, economic inequality, war and militarism, union organizing,
fracking, pipeline expansion, gerrymandering, public education, deregulation,
and looming above it all, climate change and ecological deterioration— are far
too critical to leave to those forces.
We find ourselves at a moment when
conditions are so grave that the United States must turn a corner and launch
into a new and far more democratic direction.
The time for a continuing see-saw between centrist-liberal Democrats and
right-wing Republicans has passed. The
current upsurge of resistance has great potential to be the catalyst for this
change of course.
