Let's be honest. Things are rough. Trump is growing more desperate by the day and the fascist actions in Portland are beyond alarming.

I want to talk about hope.

About how we're taught we're powerless but how we, the people, are incredibly powerful.

1/ https://www.themuckrake.com/main/solidarity 

Like a lot of people, I was really inspired by the mothers in Portland showing up to support protesters.

They were gassed and brutalized. And they just kept marching. Because they had to fight back and join with their sons, daughters, and neighbors.

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In the face of blatant oppression and gleeful brutality, we have to be there for each other. We can't turn away and pretend it isn't happening and just feel relieved it isn't happening in our town.

Because it's coming. It'll come for us all. They've already said as much.

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Trump has already made it clear what he's doing. Anyone who opposes him is a "terrorist."

I posted about this recently, the semantic games, the legal definitions. In America now, anyone who opposes him is a terrorist and subject to unbelievable oppression.

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The Trump Administration has made it abundantly clear that they're at war with the American people.

They talk of "prevailing," "dominating the battlefield." All the military rhetoric turned on the people of the United States of America.

That means you.

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People need to understand American politics has been teaching us for generations now that we are powerless, that it's a spectacle to watch and comment on, that it's beyond our control.

It's this symbolism that leads to Trump and this oppressive situation.

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This emphasis on spectacle has turned politicians into avatars who will "fight" for us, who will take the war to our "enemies."

It is an elaborate, expensive television show that we're supposed to watch and cheer and lament.

We're supposed to be passive.

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There's a reason politicians have come to seem like caricatures, like poorly-drawn characters on a TV show.

They are.

They're selling a narrative where America is in danger and they're the heroes who will defend us, as long as we cede authority and power.

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The American Right, in particular, has sold this paranoid fever dream, telling their supporters there's a war against them, a war fought by traitors and people of color, and that they need to elect warriors to defend them.

The symbolism of these gun ads isn't coincidence.

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It's only gotten worse over the years. The guns have gotten bigger, the threat more overblown, the paranoia just wafting off the ads.

They're telling voters that these "warriors" will be on the frontline, so you can stay at home, safe and defended.

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Of course, Trump is the natural evolution of this madness. A TV character come to life and put in the White House.

A "warrior" who wins and wins and wins simply by offending and doling out cruelty against his enemies.

He is the personification of the moment.

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It has been building for decades, however, as politics has been turned into a spectacle for profit.

The Blue/Red war that's been raging for decades is something to watch, to tune into, to share and like, to cheer and boo.

It's something to stay at home and observe.

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I want to be clear. This isn't only on the Right.

The Left searches for heroes, saviors who can win the battle like superheroes, who will nail Trump and his cronies in a moment like a scene out of A Few Good Men, a made-for-TV showdown we can watch and celebrate.

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This spectacle, this idea of politics as being beyond our reach and control, means the political space is set aside for the rich and the powerful.

It gives them leverage, gives them cover, it ensures that monopolies of power will form.

We've seen this all happen before.

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But power in America is a pendulum. It can swing. When Americans remember that sovereignty derives from their will, when they realize solidarity is real and powerful, you can see major things happen in this country.

When we shake off the spell of spectacle...we win.

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The story of this country that many have no idea about is that all of our gains have come from moments of solidarity and grassroots organization.

America improves when the people take it upon themselves and reject politics as spectacle.

Everytime. We win.

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Left to their devices, the wealthy and powerful take so much control that it becomes a detriment. They work children. They disenfranchise. They slaughter the people in the streets and destroy civil liberties.

It's grassroots action and solidarity that turns the tide.

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The violence we're seeing, this blatant oppression, is nothing new. When people fight for their rights, the state reacts with violence.

Particularly when the state has nothing to offer the people. When the state is failing, its last resort is violence and blatant oppression

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But the people united can do amazing things. By continuing despite that oppression, despite that cruelty, they change the narrative. They change the political landscape.

By rejecting passive politics, you can change the world.

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We're in a pivotal moment.

America has been taken over by spectacle and the idea of passivity as activism.

But the protests have broken that spell, it's already led to major change and a sea-change in public opinion.

This is a historic moment where anything can happen.

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If you doubt solidarity and mass action's ability to change things, I want you to look at artificial movements like the Tea Party that were engineered by billionaires and the powerful.

They knew the appeal of these events, and so they created their own fake versions.

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Billionaires like the Koch Brothers have manifested their political opinions in the country by funding and focusing fake movements like the Tea Party and were able to effectively take over the American Right.

Mass action gets results, and they knew that.

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The fake Tea Party even hijacked Right Wing media, changing the narrative and the arc of the political conversation.

It forwarded dangerous libertarian ideals, anti-government paranoia, and moved the Right further and further on the scale.

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Eventually, the GOP had to either adopt the Tea Party wholeheartedly or risk losing the party altogether.

The madness we're witnessing is because of fabricated mass action. People being prompted to reject passive politics by wealthy and powerful people.

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This idea of fabricated movements was so effective that it's been tried again recently with the "Reopen" protests, which were completely made-up and invented by the wealthy and powerful to activate the Right to get in the streets and change the conversation.

It worked.

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Billionaires like Betsy DeVos and her family and associated wealthy individuals funded protests that got Right Wing Americans to believe they had power and take to the streets.

It changed the narrative and turned the American political temperature way up.

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We do not have to accept any of this. History shows us, as well as the manufactured movements on the Right, that grassroots solidarity is the most powerful weapon in this country.

We cannot accept this, because there's no turning back if we just let it happen.

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We are not powerless.

Politics is not a spectacle, a thing to watch on TV.

We have to advocate for ourselves because no one else will, and by taking action and taking a stand, we will win.

There is hope. But there's so much work to do. Reject passivity.

Organize.

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