Our America: Odi et Amo
- By Michael Thurston
At first I thought there was something weirdly conflicting, even contradictory, in my two modes of response. On the one hand, I wept with my students and held out to them the value of what we do in the classroom: coming together to read, to think, to talk, to take each other seriously, to get smarter; we enact in miniature the culture we hope for and we repudiate the anti-intellectualism, intolerance, and thuggery currently triumphant in our politics. On the other hand, I am enjoying an incandescent and coruscating rage whose brilliance derives in part from the hot-burning gases of my own hatreds: for Republicans who supported this monster, for Democratic “leaders” whose neoliberal complicity has enabled the inexorable rightward shift of American politics over the last thirty years. . . and more.
I have come to realize that there is no contradiction here. I hate what and whom I hate because they threaten what and whom I love.
When, then, to do with this? Good as the anger feels, I know from experience how ultimately hollow it is. An engine burning fuel and running well, detached from wheels and axles, will just spin uselessly until it overheats. The rage needs a transmission, and it needs to be steered productively. Like many, I have begun (after the consolatory conversations with friends and loved ones) by donating to the organizations that will defend us from the depredations of the brutes who have taken power. Beyond that, so far, I see these steps before me:
1) Refuse to normalize. This is not the typical “every eight years a new direction” narrative; this is the victory of homegrown fascism, the possession by the worst of all three branches of the US federal government. The nation’s top executive office has enshrined attitudes expressed in lynched black mannequins, and with chants of “Lock her up” and “Jew-S-A.” We won’t be able to stop the damage done by executive order, but we can denounce, at every step, the horror show that this inauguration will be, the catastrophe that the administration will produce. And we can make support for the monster cost something. Boycott corporations and businesses that donated to his campaign or came out in support of him. Travel to blue states for vacation and deny red states your tourist dollars (hell, they’re already scarfing up the majority of your tax dollars; why let them double-dip?).
2) Recognize that the right is irredeemable and simply try to stop them. Apply whatever leverage we have as voters and donors to push Congressional and state legislators to gum up the works. The best that can be hoped for in the coming years is gridlock, a rear-guard defense of rights and safety nets that were won by fierce and protracted battles and that many have taken for granted. Compromise? Screw that. We don’t compromise on whose humanity gets fully acknowledged. We don’t compromise with anyone who helped put this monster in the White House. And if legislative sabotage is not enough, then stage mass civil disobedience. Declare your campuses and cities sanctuaries for immigrants and refugees. Surround vulnerable populations with human shields. Adopt the chant that enlivened Black Lives Matter rallies during the last few years: “Shut shit down! Let’s shut shit down!”
3) Recognize that “centrism” is dead, that the neoliberalism of the Democratic Leadership Council is and always was a deal with the devil, and that the party needs either to change fundamentally or get out of the way. This means getting rid of useless Democrats. If it’s possible to reshape the party from within – by grooming strong progressive candidates and supporting their runs, especially in upcoming Senate races and in potentially winnable state races that might shift some statehouses, by primarying centrists, by returning the party to a platform that openly challenges the wealthy donors to whom it currently answers – then do that. If not, then destroy its useless vestiges and fashion a new, activist, progressive, lean and mean party. One that will do what needs to be done.
4) Remember what we’re fighting for. I see it in the electoral map that shows how things would have gone if we had only counted the votes of younger people. I see it in my daughters’ dedication to social justice and equality, in their commitment to effecting positive change. I see it in my students’ bravery and support for each other and in their interest in learning, thinking, growing. I see it in my colleagues’ continual pursuit of truths more clearly perceived, ideas more clearly expressed, beauties more clearly understood. I see it in the small communities we build in our classrooms and our towns, communities in which we acknowledge and celebrate and value the full humanity of every person, regardless of race or sex or immigration status or other facet of identity. We are under attack. We have had war declared upon what we love. I will hate whatever threatens love. And I will act out of that hate.
MICHAEL THURSTON is the William R. Kenan, Jr., Professor of English Language and Literature at Smith College.
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