Friends, the question of the hour is how to save America from a full bore effort by Donald Trump—aided and enabled by the Republican Party—to snuff out our democracy and replace it with a kleptocratic fascist dictatorship. The answer to that question is quite clear: We must organize like hell while keeping hope alive.
Trump’s various gambits over the past few weeks; including
his threats to impose ‘law and order’ with the help of his praetorian guard of DHS
and ICE paramilitary; praise for the heavily armed bully-boy militias that
flooded into Portland and Kenosha as “great patriots”, attempted kneecapping of
the U.S. Post Office, and a frenetic and utterly mendacious campaign to convince
Americans that mail-in voting is fraudulent; all have the intent to overpower the opposition
with his ability to employ shock and awe techniques calculated
to confuse and demoralize. Trump aims to make us feel hopeless and helpless in the face of
his unchecked power.
How do we fight back? By joining together in the two
months between now and November 3 in coalitions of like-minded activists, and working
our collective tachatim (Hebrew for butts) off for Joe Biden. That means
writing post cards, phone banking, mass texting, writing articles and op-eds…any
possible way we can make ourselves of use to the sacred cause of defeating Trump
decisively and driving him out of the White House; a symbol of democracy he has
so defiled.
Here is a list of resources complied by our able team at JAMAAT (Jews, Muslims and Allies Acting Together), http://bit.ly/Election-2020-WaysToGetInvolved. I personally plan over the next few weeks to get involved in writing postcards to voters—mainly Black and Hispanic---dropped from the voting rolls for spurious reasons by Republican state officials in states like North Carolina and Florida; urging them to re-register in time for the deadline through an organization called Reclaim Our Vote (https://actionnetwork.org/forms/reclaim-our-vote-signup). I also will plan to make myriad phone calls to undecided or unmotivated voters in swing states.
All of the above is what millions of us must do to win the election. Yet we also need to be aware that Trump is almost certainly ready and willing to employ any technique at his disposal to stay in power illegitimately; including prematurely declaring victory on Election Night and then sabotaging or shutting down the counting of mail-in ballots, the vast majority of which will presumably be for Biden. As David Brooks wrote in the New York Times today, each of us needs to have a plan as to what we will do personally in that eventuality.
I agree with Brooks that in case this nightmare,
but all-too-likely scenario takes effect, simply taking part in a few demonstrations won’t cut it. Each of us will have to resolve to take to the
streets for weeks at a time and essentially shut the country down through civil
disobedience for weeks at a time in the hope that civil authorities—buttressed ,
I hope, by the U.S. military that Trump has recklessly denigrated as “suckers”
and “losers” will step forward and drag him kicking and screaming out of the executive mansion, hopefully to a decidedly
less posh prison cell.
All of the above; including massive political
organizing over the next two months and potential emergency civil obedience
mobilization if Trump tries to steal the election, are difficult and for many, including myself, will involve stretching ourselves personally in ways we have not
done before. It will mean putting many facets of our lives on hold for the time being; including personal, family and career
considerations. Yet we must step up now for
our own sake and those of our children and grandchildren. American democracy
is a deeply flawed inheritance, but it will be infinitely harder to repair if we lose
it altogether.
I used to feel contempt for the “good Germans” who seemingly
submitted so easily to Nazism in 1933, and kept their heads down in the ensuing
years as Hitler committed genocide and plunged the world into war. Little did I imagine that the same fate might envelope American in my
own lifetime. Trump’s ability to survive over the past four years despite
evident criminal wrong-doing; including accepting the help of Russia to get
elected in 2016 and brazenly trying to pressure
Ukraine to play a similar role in 2020, shows how hard it is to drive out a
monster once he has successfully stormed the gates of power.
How much more difficult it must have been for decent Germans
to make a stand against Hitler after April 1933, by which time he had shut down
opposition parties and created a full-throttle police state. To oppose the Nazis
after that was literally to risk imprisonment, torture, and likely decapitation
in Dachau or another concentration camp. Maybe Trump wont need to go that far once if he succeeds in being fraudulently re-elected; perhaps settling for the Putin model of poisoning high level opposition leaders with Novichok in order to remind the rest of the population not to get too far out of line. Whichever model he chooses, Trump has shown that he has the will and the requisite number of willing accomplices to transform the good old USA into a totalitarian state in which he can happily serve as dictator for life.
There will be plenty of time for historians to debate
how we could have come to such a pass in the so-called Citadel of Democracy.
Right now, we have a more immediate task; to organize like crazy and fight
against Trump together; Jews, Muslims, Christians and non-believers; Black,
White, Hispanic, Asian, Gay and straight; all of the wonderful human elements
of America’s glorious mosaic. The struggle won’t be easy and may well be dangerous, but it will be
uplifting for all who engage in it. Let’s get to it!
