Stronger together
The most encouraging news story this week comes from Missouri, where Muslims have raised over $70,000 to help repair the Jewish cemetery which was vandalized there. It reminded me of this story from Texas in January, when it was Muslims who were the targets of an attack and then beneficiaries of solidarity, and this similar case in Canada. After an election in which scapegoating was the key strategy of the "winning" campaign (which the majority of Americans voted against, never forget), people are coming together in support of those who are under attack, and refusing to be divided. And, yes, they are doing this against acts of scapegoating by state power as well as by hate groups -- as is shown by the mass protests against the Muslim entry ban, and the beginnings of organized resistance to raids targeting illegal immigrants.
It's a common impulse of enlightened people in the face of bigotry -- recall this story from Egypt six years ago, when that country's Christian minority was suffering a wave of Islamist violence.
The efforts of Trumpism and its "alt-right" neo-Nazi fringe to ostracize and scapegoat specific minorities is, in a certain perverse way, succeeding -- they're unifying our broader society against themselves. It's an extension of the trend seen in recent years, when fundie-inspired laws supporting anti-gay discrimination in several states faced massive blowback from business, popular culture, and the public in general. Anti-gay bigotry, rather than isolating gays as in the past, was isolating the bigots. Now the same is happening with scapegoating of other groups.
The important question is how well the spirit of solidarity can be maintained for four years. After Trump is impeached and Pence takes over, it's likely to be gays and atheists that become the main targets, though Muslims will still be in the crosshairs as well. The majority has shown that it can thwart and reject the Republican Minority-Rule Regime. But we need to keep it up.
[35 days down, 1,426 days to go until the inauguration of a real President!]
It's a common impulse of enlightened people in the face of bigotry -- recall this story from Egypt six years ago, when that country's Christian minority was suffering a wave of Islamist violence.
The efforts of Trumpism and its "alt-right" neo-Nazi fringe to ostracize and scapegoat specific minorities is, in a certain perverse way, succeeding -- they're unifying our broader society against themselves. It's an extension of the trend seen in recent years, when fundie-inspired laws supporting anti-gay discrimination in several states faced massive blowback from business, popular culture, and the public in general. Anti-gay bigotry, rather than isolating gays as in the past, was isolating the bigots. Now the same is happening with scapegoating of other groups.
The important question is how well the spirit of solidarity can be maintained for four years. After Trump is impeached and Pence takes over, it's likely to be gays and atheists that become the main targets, though Muslims will still be in the crosshairs as well. The majority has shown that it can thwart and reject the Republican Minority-Rule Regime. But we need to keep it up.
[35 days down, 1,426 days to go until the inauguration of a real President!]
posted by Infidel753 at 4:18 AM
3 Comments:
I sincerely hope that the energy and commitment we've seen in the first month of "Trump: The Horror Show" can be sustained. I worry sometimes about burnout from having to constantly push back on the hourly, daily outrages. But it has to be done because it's the most important struggle of our lifetime, isn't it after all?
When I feel lacking, I think of the sacrifices and focus of my parents and grandparents and those who went through the Depression and WW II meat grinders. Those were the existential challenges of their time and they survived somehow. Even with the terrible losses the world suffered, the darkness didn't conquer. So, I think of the people who lived through that time and say to myself, this is our time to push back against the darkness, and we must be just as determined to succeed as they were.
Yes. I guess we'll find out whether people of today can keep up the effort the way those of the 1940s did.
The country was united during that era for the most part. Today the internal forces dividing the country are great. And, we have an administration that is the most divisive in modern times.
It's going to be a very tough 4 years.
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