I think that people should be allowed to do anything they want. We haven’t tried that one for a while. Who knows, maybe it’ll work this time George Carlin
When people ask me if I’m an optimist or a pessimist, I tell them I’m a cheerful pessimist. The words I live by are An optimist sees the glass as half full. A pessimist sees the glass as half empty. I look at the glass and say “Ewww! Somebody’s been drinking outta that thing!
It was only a few days ago that I sat down at this keyboard, and wrote about what it was that I thought separated the police sanctioned execution of George Floyd from all of the other black life tragedies we seem to see every time we turn on our goddamn televisions. I wrote of a few reasons why I thought that a confluence of conditions sadly made George Floyd the perfect man at the perfect moment.
And as I sit here again tonight, typing away, I continue to be in awe. In awe of the passion and resilience of the protests, now entering their third week, sure, but equally in awe of the speed with which real, effective change is already being undertaken at the local and state level. George Floyd will not go down in history as a martyr to a cause, rather he will go down in history as an engine of social justice change, along the lines of Martin Luther King and Mahatma Ghandi.
But as I continue to watch the coverage of the protests, and see more and more interviews with the protesters, I realized something that not only stunned me senseless, but it also brought a feeling of confidence that the heart of this cheerful pessimist never thought I would feel. I realized that we’ve seen this before, and not all that long ago. The systemic reason for the outrage was different, but the outcome was strikingly similar.
Cast your mind back to the spring leading up to the 2018 midterm elections. Other than the almost daily outrages of His Dickishness, what was the overriding social issue going into that election. I’ll tell you what it was. It was 15 minutes of terror that changed forever the lives of the entire student population of Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida. It wasn’t the first mass shooting at a school, and sadly not the last. But the students of MSD decided that while they may have had to suffer through the nightmare, no other high school student or parent ever should.
Instead they used their innate social media skills, they activated, the organized, and they became a force to be reckoned with. Being young, innocent, and tragic, they were tailor made for the cameras. They coordinated national school walk outs to protest lax gun laws and the over sized influence of the NRA in Washington and state capitols. They reminded all and sundry that they were just about ready to vote for the first time, and they threatened dire consequences to those who fucked with them. And by the day after election day of 2018, Florida had passed gun legislation, other states were following suit, and dozens of NRA rated GOP House incumbents were filling out and updating their resumes.
Do yourself a favor. Over the next day or two, if you get a chance, watch some coverage of the protests still going on daily. Yes, the crowd is incredibly diverse. They are black and white, brown and Asian, rich, poor, male and female, gay and straight, the full spectrum of the American experience. But they’re also young, sweet Jesus are they young. Many of them are not black, and have never been poor or discriminated against, but that doesn’t matter. They see a grave injustice being committed, and goddammit, they want to inherit a better world than this one, so they are going to be the change that they seek in the world.
For the second time in two consecutive elections, I honestly believe that these young voters are going to have a major impact on the electoral results, and nobody is talking about them. These kids are motivated, they’re energized, and they’re paying attention to who is talking on their behalf. Hell, the first battle isn’t even over with, there has been no national gun control measures taken, and too many A rated NRA assholes yet to put out to pasture. And now they’ll carry the banner of racial equality and police reform in the other hand. And that’s just fine by me.
In fact, it warms the cockles of my heart, I have always believed that democracy dies when it is in an atmosphere of indifference. When people tune out of politics simply because they think that what happens in Washington no longer matters to them, or that they are powerless to stop things that they don’t like because they have only one vote, then widespread cynicism and indifference spreads. And when it does, it makes it easier for cynical politicians who have no business serving us to do what they want. But this new generation aren’t falling for that shit, they’re taking names, and then thy’re kicking ass. As the old song says, The kids are alright!
To know the future, look to the past.before the insanity of the 2020 election, relive the insanity of the 2016 GOP primary campaign, and the general election, to see how we got to where we are. Copies of President Evil, and the sequel, President Evil II, A Clodwork Orange are available as e-books on Amazon, at the links above. Catch up before the upcoming release of the third book in the trilogy, President Evil III: All The Presidents Fen
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Yes, I felt that then as now. It is different.
People’s views of BLM have changed a *lot* in the last few weeks. It’s now getting a lot more support.
The support was always tacitly there, I think. It just took the lid being ripped off the garbage can to get them to move.
It also helps when people understand they are not supporting a movement or an organization, but a noncontroversial position.
Dare one say an ideal, Dana?
That, too.
Something is going on that hasn’t before. The fact they are protesting from Starkville, MS to Seattle, WA after 2 weeks is wonderful.
It occurred to me, last night that we will need to be in this for the long haul. People like Texas’s own, Greg Abbott, was saying that he will hold discussion groups on what to do going forward, but he will not commit to any police reforms. I was watching him, to see if he will actually DO anything and it seems he just wants to talk about it, until the attention fades. I am encouraged that these young people are being persistent.
Well, of course, Cherl. Same story here in TN from local to state. But that attitude makes them holdouts rather than trailblazers.
Sounds like Abbott’s just pulling the usual response to mass shootings and applying it here. After EVERY mass shooting, the standard response from GOP politicians is “It’s too soon for us to take any action as we can’t have a calm, rational discussion while emotions are still so raw” but, after that time so that “emotions” have had a chance to “cool down,” nothing gets done because the politicians have done what they intended to do: Push the issue aside just long enough so any urgency on the issue slips from the public’s mind.
Get the impression NOBODY’S in any mood for that this time, Joseph?
In many ways, Murf, it feels like the flip of what had been brewing under the surface of the 1970s. As you’ll recall, and Harlan Ellison recounted, everyone got tired and then complacent after the end of Nixon and Vietnam. But it wasn’t just, as Harlan put it, that our side had slept one too many years. It was the counter-revolution that the GOP organized by way of the Southern Strategy and throwing in with the old segregationists and rising evangelical political block. And THAT happened in response to their complacency getting the better of them.
That it has taken four decades, two generations and a set of escalating tragedies to get here is heartbreaking to consider. But get here, we most certainly have. And those kids will take it further than we could have hoped, I think.
You wrote, “For the second time in two consecutive elections, I honestly believe that these young voters are going to have a major impact on the electoral results, and nobody is talking about them.” Actually when people talk about the these young voters, it is usually to point out that they did not turn out for Bernie. Thus many speculate they won’t turn out for Biden either.
Bernie had niche appeal at best. Any heavy turnout will be less for Biden and more against Trump.