From summer 2011 until late May 2012 the
Democratic National Committee was able to keep its base agitated with what I
later came to think of as the Lunatic of the Month Club. Remember? As the corporate news media declared one Republican
presidential candidate after another to have “momentum”, Democratic voters were
agitated with the possibility of Rick Perry, Herman Cain, Michelle Bachman, Ron
Paul, Rick Santorum, or Newt Gingrich becoming President. (The last three actually won some
primaries.) We were prodded with
the latest outrageous quotes from one after the other. It is – after all – a pretty effective
tactic for keeping us thinking that a Republican victory would be a calamity
for the Republic.
I promised myself that I wouldn’t fall for
this a second time. To my
surprise, though, the very first Lunatic of the Month, from June 2015, has
retained that proud position for the last twelve months. He is now the presumptive candidate of
the Republican Party and has earned the support of most GOP leaders. And I have not come close to ignoring
his scandalous statements. I pay
close attention, and I publicize them to my limited ability so that my Facebook
friends will not forget just how scary the prospect of a Trump Presidency
is.
What happened to my pledge not to be
distracted by shiny, frightening things?
There is a recurrent meme in the popular
culture about distraction. (And by
“meme” I mean an idea that keeps circulating and renewing itself, not a photo
with a quote.) The essence of this
meme is that “they” (politicians, corporate media, Illuminati, whoever) want
you to pay attention to “this” (Beyonce, the Kardashians, Cecil the Lion,
Harambee the Gorilla) so that you won’t notice “that” (whatever the writer
thinks is important.) The subtext
of this meme is that none of us are capable of thinking about more than one
thing at a time, ie, I can’t mourn Muhammad Ali, remember D-Day, castigate
Congress for failing to fund Zika preparation and care about Puerto Rico’s
impending bankruptcy on the same day.
This “can’t-walk-and-chew-gum” notion has
been a popular idea in this year’s Democratic primary campaign. For many months, supporters of Hillary
Clinton have been demanding that Bernie Sanders walk away from his campaign on
the grounds that we must defeat Donald Trump. And I have seen people on the Sanders side walk away from
their criticisms of Senator Sanders’s one-note economism, which avoids
potentially divisive discussions by pretending that race is not an issue in
today’s America. Apparently they
want to keep their friends and supporters excited about Bernie and criticism
won’t do that.
I voted for Senator Sanders in the NY
primary. I was disappointed with
his poor showing. I have written
about that elsewhere. But what
interests me is how people on the Left relate to Presidential contests. Do we announce a boycott of bourgeois
elections? Do we run our own
candidates, knowing that in the current climate they won’t even get enough
votes to affect the outcome one way or another? Do we declare that “this” year is singularly important and
that therefore “we” have to support one monopoly-capitalist candidate over
another in order to prevent fascism?
I will leave aside for a moment the question
of whether Donald Trump and his violent, racist, misogynist, xenophobic
supporters represent a fascist moment.
The question that interests me right now is: Can we hold two ideas at
one time? Or, put another way, can
we vote for a candidate (and even suggest that vote to our friends) without
arguing that he or she is the People’s Red Hero?
I am continually appalled by Hillary
Clinton. It is hard for me to
fathom what she gains by publicly praising a mass murderer and war criminal of
forty years ago, Henry Kissinger.
She has advocated some spectacularly bone-headed military interventions
in Libya and Syria and seems not to be familiar with the phrase “unintended
consequence.” She supported the
mass-incarceration and neoliberal policies of her husband in the nineties and I
have heard no indication that she disagrees with them now. Would I campaign for her? Please! But I am really going to have to consider voting for her in
November. That potential Trump
Presidency does scare me. Nothing will stop me from criticizing
and opposing her and her policies.
But I am old enough to remember people who thought Richard Nixon was an
antiwar candidate in 1968. Anybody
who thinks Donald Trump is an anti-establishment candidate because the
Republican establishment doesn’t like him is equally deluded.
As I said above, I voted for Bernie. I don’t like him and I don’t think he
represents good ideas. But I was
also not going to sit home on primary day. I was also happy to see how many of my friends, especially those who don’t often pay attention to politics, were excited about his candidacy. There is plenty of time on other days for me to advocate for
the things I believe.
I don’t think voting for one candidate (or
against another!) on Election Day represents an abandonment of principle. Donald Trump has given form to an ugly
current in American life. People
who think they know him because they watched “The Apprentice,” people who think
he’s a “tough guy” because he blusters “You’re fired!” people who think he’s a
billionaire because he says so and puts his name on other people’s exclusive
golf clubs… these people have been given license to publicly parade their
bigotry and their petty fears and their hatred of women. They have been given license to sucker
punch strangers. I am not the
first to suggest that it is like an internet comments section come to life,
keyboard warriors freed to embrace one another, howling at their phantoms,
while Orange Hitler free associates about his personal brilliance and denounces
his critics with the worst word he can summon: “Loser.”
I will be happy to usher him off the stage
with that epithet trailing him. That
is the choice we will have in November. I will continue to call attention to his egregious ideas and behavior.
In the days before and after the election, we can also fight the neoliberalism, mass
incarceration, institutional racism and imperialist terror of the current administration. We can even watch puppy videos. Because we are capable of thinking
about more than one thing.
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