OPINION: The real problem with anger in U.S. politics? There’s not enough
Over the weekend, as I brooded some more, this flew over the transom.
Ah, yes -- I remember it well. The 2010 Jon Stewart (and
The Rally To Restore Sanity was a well attended, and my by vantage, a well organized event, that drew thousands of very friendly, somewhat liberal, but not at limited to young, people to
Who could be against that, right? The reason why that 2010 rally sign that was tweeted out Saturday night hasn't aged well is not that everyone who opposes you is "a Nazi" -- that wasn't true then or now -- but that it numbed us to the idea that a politician with support from actual neo- or quasi-Nazis like
But the biggest problem I had with the 2010 Jon Stewart rally was that while young and progressive-minded folks were laughing ironically in DC, thousands of Tea Partiers -- on the same political team as hundreds of millions of dollars in billionaire and corporate campaign cash -- were working their proverbial butts off that same weekend to elect a slate of politicians who regularly steamroll civility to impose a dark vision on America. I'll bet that 90 percent of the ironic Stewart ralliers believed that "reasonableness" means listening to scientists and taking care of sick people. But while they "endorsed conversation," voters in states like Pennsylvania weren't talking but working to just barely elect first-timers like Sen.
The truth is that a lot of the people pleading for a return to civility in American politics are actually hoping for something different: Passivity, or inaction. It's not something completely new -- using protests and occasional lapses into violence as an excuse to crack down on dissent and take away the civil liberties that are supposed to be guaranteed to us in the Bill of Rights is an old trick. But in 2017, more protesters are facing arrest, and longer prison terms, and a slew of states have passed or are debating laws that would criminalize demonstrations -- as the same time that journalists are facing a rise in harassment or even arrests. It is the classic cycle of abuse, but in this case the abuser is the government. So when abuse occurs -- whether it's an oil pipeline jammed down a community's throat or news that you could lose your medical coverage -- the victim responds with justified anger, which is then cited to justify even greater abuse.
I've mentioned this once or twice before, but in high school I had a great football coach named
It's hard to say which is more outrageous tonight. Is it the fact that congressional
You want irony? When a foreign enemy -- like
And don't be surprised to watch so-called political leaders use "civility" as a crutch to maintain the status quo in a nation that is currently unfair and unequal. Last week, I saw
The people are going to have to do what the politicians won't do. Fight -- with reckless abandon but under control. Violence never solves anything, but meaningful social changes has never come without large-scale resistance and with righteous anger, from Selma to Stonewall and beyond. Reasonableness has its place, but it's important to understand that there's a class of folks out there who talk about "civility" when what they really mean is don't call your senator, don't circle the
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