With the inauguration less than 2 days away, what is the biggest threat facing the United States? Is it really the hyper-conservative agenda HE has promised, or is it the worsening polarization of the nation?
I fully understand the growing opposition towards HIM and HIS upcoming inauguration. I understand the reluctance on the part of many to “Wait and see.” If, however, we ask ourselves what it is we really oppose, I hope I am not alone in believing the central problem is his simple-minded short sighted strategies.
Everything I have been blogging about for the past 5 years is happening. We are in the middle of a self-amplifying epidemic of small-mindedness. “Whose fault is it? Who can we blame? Don’t bother me with facts I don’t like.” HIS election is a 180 degrees step in the wrong direction. Away from true problem solving. Away from high level fact-based analysis. Maybe it wont be so bad. Maybe he will govern in a responsible manner. Only time will tell. There is very little we can do about that, but the one thing we do not want to do is make things worse by adding to the noise.
What is the value to protesting at this stage? What is the value of calling him illegitimate? What is the value of members of congress boycotting the inauguration? Will it encourage him to change his mind? Of course not. Will it encourage his supporters to question their choice? It will not. All these actions will do is amplify the noise and deepen the polarization.
If he does not turn out to be as bad as many fear, the country will only be hurt by the worsening of the national divide. If, on the other hand, he turns out to be a failure either because he is as inept as his public persona makes him appear or because he can not function outside the corporate environment, then what? What are our priorities? What is most important?
In that case, the most important thing will be for those who were fooled by him to get it. More important even than removing him from office will be that the bulk of his supporter have the space to see what was obvious to the rest of us all along. To see that they were taken in by a con-man. Unfortunately, as long as the US-vs-THEM narrative supplants the good of the nation, this will not happen. If there is any way for his failure to be blamed on the left or the media, it will only be a question of time before another small-minded con-man succeeds in fooling enough frustrated people to gain the White House again.
Its not HIM we need to defeat, it is the mindset.
Your reasoning is quite sound, I’d say. Unfortunately, I don’t think that we’re going to be able to ratchet back the polarization by any conventional means. There’s a clear difference of values being reflected up underneath all this societal noise, and our opponents are unlikely to see our powerlessness differently were we to act differently: they’ve been grinding axes for 8 years hoping for this exact moment.
So, I think the boycotts and protest should be attended for at least two reasons: they permit the powerless to act and be heard instead of freezing in place and either becoming or appearing silent, which risks complicity. They also demonstrate very clearly to both the powerful and to those standing on the margins that we are living through a time of extraordinary danger and chaos –which we certainly are.
If there were some clear argument presented by which we might see the step-by-step path to less societal polarization that begins with laying off the boycotts and protests, then I’d certainly be willing to examine it and, if it were sound, engage in it.
Thank you Pat. Your points are well taken. I wish I had something more concrete at this stage. I know the protests and boycotts will happen either way and I know they have their place in mitigating the immediate affects of the election. I suppose what I am really trying to bring about is a tweak, where the enemy is not HIM, but the mindset. The degree to which statements and protests are personalized, that amplifies the noise. I hope the focus can be more on the values and the nature of the strategy (on both sides). Greed has its benefits in the short run, but hurts us all in the long run.