Tag Archives: Martin Luther King

Political Rants

Swear in.

This past Christmas, my sister gave me the box set of John Lewis’s graphic memoir March, about his early days as an organizer, civil rights leader, and founder of SNCC. It’s a great story and pretty timely, as the principles of non-violent activism and resistance are likely to come in handy in the coming years. Of course, as you know, John Lewis has been in the news over the last few days, though not because of his books. He spoke ill of our president-electoral, as Sam Seder so accurately calls him, and that naturally brought a somewhat delayed social media response from Herr Mr. Hair, who drunk tweeted about John Lewis being all “talk, talk, talk,” and never getting anything accomplished.

Dressed for success.Lots of people have taken issue with this reaction, and more than 50 sitting congresspeople elected not to attend Trump’s inauguration as a protest. And this incident is being spun in the media as just another instance of the president-electoral not being able to let any critical comment pass, of being too thin-skinned or too sensitive. I have to say, though, that I think there’s more to this social media rant than just the T-bone’s usual expression of his hyper narcissism. This incident seriously smells of Bannon, which is to say that it’s a strategic tirade, aimed at a very specific audience.

Remember that Trump’s alt-right fans follow him on Twitter. They’re his attack dogs – when he Twitter bombs someone, they pile onto the carcass. Ripping on John Lewis is prime grade red meat for those fuckers, and what better time to pull it off than on Martin Luther King day? I took a look at David Duke’s Twitter feed and saw that he posted a photo of Congressman Lewis with the headline: “Another loud-mouth, do-nothing Democrat. No hero here – just another Racist; zero results for blacks his entire tenure in house!” That’s just a slight variation on Trump’s message, which Duke posted under the hashtag MAGA – “make America great again”.

As the Cheeto-headed freak takes control (the nuclear codes in his pocket), bear in mind that he is not just a thin-skinned loudmouth. He is part of the broader reactionary political machine that encompasses Congressional Republicans, conservative foundations, rogue billionaires, and sheet-wearing (as well as non-sheet wearing) Klansmen. The problem is bigger than just one man.

luv u,

jp

Political Rants

Mighty tree.

Nelson Mandela is dead, as I’m sure you’ve heard. Now we need to save his memory from the fate suffered by the leaders of our own freedom movements. We have to keep the loud and the powerful from turning him into a posthumous Santa Claus, as they have attempted to do, with some success, in the case of Martin King, Rosa Parks, and others. King has been reduced to “I have a dream…”, that terminal ellipsis containing practically all that he was – a brilliantly thoughtful man at the front of a mass movement made up of very brave, very thoughtful people, many of whose names we will never know, who brought America back from its own version of apartheid.

So long, good man.The same process has already begun with Mandela. The movement he led is practically invisible to the American public mind. We have a tendency to focus on individuals, and in so doing, we make even those individuals seem two-dimensional, statue-like in their inscrutable virtue. The long walk to freedom begins to take on the character of a leisurely stroll; it becomes the journey of one man, not an entire nation. It is a far easier story to tell, and so our storytellers find it hard to resist. That simpler story conceals a thousand evils, some of which hit close to home.

Evils like our own CIA’s practice of turning over the names of dissidents to the police state commissars who oppress, jail, torture and kill them. They ratted on Mandela after Sharpeville. They did the same to leftists in Indonesia at the start of the Suharto-led massacre of the 1960s. You will find little in the way of regret if you look at the statements of our leaders throughout that period. So simplifying the story definitely plays an important role in preserving the myth we sell ourselves about our being a force for good in the world. The world knows better, frankly. So should we.

Duncan’s solution. Duncan Hunter, congressman from California (though he sounds like a brand of window treatments), has advocated using “tactical nuclear” weapons on Iran if they resist our will. Hard to comment on how crazy this is, but I’ll just put this out there: Hunter should opt for the Twinkie defense; it worked for Dan White.

Political Rants

Occupatience.

This has been quite a year. Who would have thought it? One that started with massive uprisings in the middle east and is ending with a major economic justice movement in the United States – perhaps even more unlikely than the popular overthrow of Mubarak. Now we’ve seen renewed attempts to evict the protesters from Zucotti Park and other encampments across the country, but as many have said, you cannot kill an idea. The Occupy movement has gotten people accustomed to standing up again. And to paraphrase Dr. King, a man – even if he’s a millionaire – can’t ride on your back when you stand up straight.

And contrary to what is argued by Ayn Rand acolytes like Paul Ryan and (Ayn) Rand Paul, the wealthy truly do ride on the backs of working people. That has always been the case. Rand imagined the world being brought to a standstill by a wealthy, innovative class of overlords who withhold their beneficent participation in Rand’s dystopian top-down economy. The truth is, they are far more reliant on us than we are on them. Sure, the wealthy can choose to invest their capital in ways that create jobs. But where did that capital come from? How does an industrialist, a banker, an entrepreneur, an oil executive gather all that wealth? Mostly through the under-compensated labor of millions of workers.

The supply siders are always touting small businesses as the primary engine of our economy, so let’s use them as an example. Take a small to medium-sized privately held company. The owner hires people to create whatever product or service the firm sells, whether it be mint jelly or Web applications. Increased productivity means fewer workers doing more work, so the incentive is always there for small business owners to lay people off and shift their responsibilities to their fellow workers. This happens all the time, as anyone who’s ever held a job in a small company knows very well. This is the process by which fortunes can be made. If those workers refuse – if all workers withhold their labor, Galt-like, that’s what would bring the whole thing to a halt. We’ve seen owner-less factories work just fine everywhere from Argentina to right here at home. Name one worker-less factory.

The occupy movement shows that we have a long road ahead of us. But thanks to them, we can say – astoundingly – that we’ve actually begun that journey to a better nation.

luv u,

jp