Email from a friend, responding to What Emerges From the Wreckage:
It’s difficult to reply to this essay not only because I agree with you but also because I have little optimism left. I believe that the founding motivation, self-actualization or self-interest if you will, is so deeply embedded in the American populace that it will not change. Also, I believe that the damage Trump can cause in our foundational ethos will last far longer than the end of his term. I fear our individual interests will be reinforced to the extent that they cannot be changed to a societal interest. It was another excellent piece and I’m sorry that I am so far gone as to have lost most of my hope. I hope you and others keep yours.
Tocqueville would understand.1 In his analysis, the great tension running through democracy in America was the delicate balancing of the primacy of individual freedom with the necessities of working together for the greater good. He viewed the participatory democracy practiced in small towns in New England as the epitome of that balance. It was in local associations, government and civic, that people (well, men) (well, white men) of good will would figure it out. Or not.
The Republican party has been much better than the Democrats at understanding the importance of governance at the local level. It’s the authoritarian’s playbook: control the schools, libraries, city councils, the press2; take over state legislatures; systematically elect conservative judges to the state courts and appoint them throughout the federal judiciary3. Use these tools to promote a conservative agenda deeply in thrall to the principles of Christian Nationalism. It’s been the work of decades. And Donald Trump, that brilliant entertainer, magnified the dissatisfaction, hatred, anger and fear that fueled it all and rode it into the White House.
I’m sympathetic to my friend’s dismay. But it was around the same time his message arrived that I became aware of a phrase flitting insistently around my brain, as if it had been there for a while, trying to elbow its way through the clatter and clutter of noise I carry around in there, becoming more impatient and demanding, “I might be what you need right now! Pay attention!”
Hope is a muscle. Turns out the notion’s been around for quite a while, but in its current incantation is often linked to the journalist and podcaster Krista Tippett. In a GQ interview from a couple years back, she puts it this way: “It's not wishful thinking. It's not assuming that things will turn out all right. It's an insistence, looking at the world straight on as it is and rejecting the idea that it has to be that way, and then throwing your light and your pragmatism as much as your spirit at [that]. What does it look like if you don't accept it?” AOC is credited with the phrase “hope isn’t something you have, it’s something you make”.4 And since it’s a muscle, the more you properly exercise it, the stronger it gets.
It was at work April 5th at Railroad Park in Birmingham where a couple thousand people cheered, jeered, waved signs, laughed and chanted and did their part for the #handsoff protests. (Yes, even here in Alabama, the state that so many coastal know-it-alls have written off as if there were no one here but ignorant racist MAGA types, there were actions in ten cities across the state.) It was a joyous event. Above the anger and frustration that had brought us there was the giddy relief at seeing so many others who shared our sense of things gone terribly wrong and the existential need to stop the destruction.
Lynn and I had some good conversations. I would ask people what they thought the end game was. If the protests around the country achieve everything we could reasonably desire, what are we left with? Yes, much of what Trump has done is clearly illegal5 and probably unconstitutional6 but much of it remains within the legitimate power of the presidency and there seems little likelihood of Congress reasserting itself. USAID is not coming back. The Department of Education is not coming back. A robust public health infrastructure is not coming back. Our reputation around the world is not coming back. Trump’s 38% will stick with him no matter how bad the economy gets. No matter how successful the resistance is over the next months in slowing the damage, MAGA is in charge for (at least) the next four years.
Focusing on the midterms and the next Presidential election as if returning the Democrats to power will “fix” things makes the mistake of thinking this is a political battle rather than a psycho-sociological fight over fundamental values. What has happened across the South with schools and libraries wasn’t done by Trump and kicking the Republicans in the shins in DC will certainly succeed in enraging and motivating MAGA to come back strong in the next election cycles.
Still, the conversations encouraged me in a bleak sort of way. Nobody I talked to thought the protests would get the government back to what it looked like in October. So at least they’re not fooling themselves, risking disillusionment at the mess we’ll still be in, regardless of any resistance successes. For some, there was a sense of helplessness, for some a grim acknowledgment that repairing the damage could take decades. Right now, the focus is on energizing the resistance, channeling the anger, frustration, shock and fear into action, even if the longer purpose of that action isn’t at all clear. It’s about working that muscle of hope.
But I worry. I worry that people will allow hate to fester, that in their frustration and anger the resistance will betray all that they think they're fighting for. That they’ll adopt the weapons of their foes, that instead of working to heal the divisions they’ll lean into the polarization and make it worse. It’s easy to see on social media. The broad brush that everyone who voted for Trump is a racist or hopelessly ignorant. Deplorable. Unredeemable.
One of the surprising aspects of the last election was the discovery(!) that voters who identify as Hispanic or Latin didn’t all vote as a block. That many of them shifted to voting for Trump for many of the same reasons many white people did. Once again, the reality of the multitudinous diversity of people upends that very human tendency to simplify by categorizing people into groups, slapping labels on them and thereby freezing our expectations.
So it is with Trump voters. They are not all one thing, they were not all motivated by the same grievances, and the course of the election cannot be properly grasped if they are viewed simplistically. That the Democratic party has utterly failed to connect empathetically with broad sections of the working class population of the country is an uncomfortable truth that so many in the party leadership are still unwilling to accept, or at least to confront with any vision. I have little faith that the spirit needed to overcome our divisions is going to come from the Democratic Party. Their focus will be on winning elections, not on fighting the culture wars. But it's the culture wars that matter most and they can't be won in Washington DC (although many important battles will be fought there). That should be one of the primary lessons of the last election.
The education goals for MAGA are clear and are being firmly put in place in Florida, Alabama, Texas, Kansas, much of the Midwest and West. The children of MAGA will learn that there are only two genders and they are irrevocably established at birth, that the true American heritage comes from white Europeans, that most Southern slaves were well cared for, that poverty is the result of poor life choices, that traditional roles for men and women are the proper foundation of the family, that the accumulation of personal wealth is the result of individual initiative blessed by God, and that the United States is fundamentally a Christian nation to be governed under biblical principles. That skewed view of the country’s history and promise is not going to be countered by putting more Democrats in office in DC. If we are to recover a society that truly believes in the importance of taking care of the least of us, of being open to people from all cultures and ways of worship, the work has to start with schools and libraries, city councils, local churches and civic organizations. And it is the work of generations.
The most encouraging moment I had on the 5th came from a long-time activist, raised in Chicago but living in Birmingham who told us how much she enjoys spending time talking to the young boys in her neighborhood, listening to them, engaging with them. She spoke of the importance of human connection. That the more time we spend in the company of those who see the world differently, the broader and richer our own view of the world becomes. I was reminded that Lincoln’s American dream — “a new nation … dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal” and all the complexity that phrase implies — lives in millions of souls all across the country. It demands from us openness, generosity, a willingness for self-doubt, and a bottomless sense of humor. Too often, when I see comments from people who’ve tried to talk to Trump voters and have been discouraged by the interaction, it’s been clear that they’ve been talking at Trump voters and not listening to them at all. You don’t need to agree with them, but you need to start by listening openly and honestly and with a good dose of personal humility. Trump’s authoritarianism is fueled by hatred and fear of the other.7 It will only be countered by the unrelenting efforts of human connection.
Over the past year or so, I’ve found much solace and encouragement in Patti Smith’s Substack. Several times a week she puts up a short video, usually between ten and twenty minutes, and talks to her subscribers. She rarely has a plan. Almost never talks politics. She sits in front of her computer, her rumpled bed behind her. She reminds me, as she muses about books and memories of Robert, or Sam or her beloved Fred Sonic Smith8, of your slightly dotty but beloved aunt that you’re just catching up with on FaceTime. Her smile carries the joy of innocence. She shares her delight in her books or her little keepsakes, and it reminds me to treasure my own memories of the best of my times. It’s easy to forget that she’s been one of the most influential artists – poet, ground-breaking musician9, award winning writer – of the last half century. Then she’ll mention, in an offhand way, as if describing the afternoon’s errands, that she’s got a job to do in Paris later in the week, or some work to do in Sao Paulo. She won’t say more about it, but a little online searching reveals it’s a sold out concert with her band, or some award she’s getting. You turn to YouTube and find her on stage at one of her “jobs”. She’s singing powerfully, beautifully, in some grand theater, lifting a crowd of thousands, filling them with hope.
She mentioned, in one of her videos a little while ago, in her usual understated way, that she was going to an event at Carnegie Hall that evening so she needed to sign off and wash her hair. Turns out the event was “People Have the Power: A Celebration of Patti Smith”. There are a bunch of videos up on YouTube – Springsteen played, Flea handled bass for the house band, Michael Stipe performed, Ben Harper, Karen O, Angel Olsen, many others. A balm in these trying times.
To see a brilliant 78 year old with a very well toned muscle of hope, watch this one. Watch it all the way to the end. Then flex your own muscles.10
Alexis de Tocqueville. Democracy in America. LOA edition.
There is very little independent local journalism left and the conglomerates that control local media all have a decidedly conservative bent.
McConnell’s proud legacy.
Starting with his ignoring the TikTok law and ordering a pause on its enforcement, the day before he was even sworn in. That there was no outcry from Congress over that was a clear indicator of what we were in for.
Which we won’t know for sure until the Supremes rule on the major cases.
He’s so damn good at it!
Robert Maplethorpe, Sam Shepard. Guitarist Fred Smith (MC5) was her husband from 1980 until his untimely death in 1994 at the age of 46.
Her debut album Horses which influenced so many, turns 50 this year. There will be many celebrations and commemorations.
This one is also great – sound quality is not so good, but it’s fun to watch from the balcony perspective as the stage fills up. Watch particularly the faces on the young girls when Patti motions them toward center stage and takes their hands. And hear her roar at the end, “Use your fucking voice!”