Signs and Signals

Liars and Morons and Misfits, oh my!

I’ve just returned from some recreational travel, well-fed, rested and full of new purpose. Of course, being back in country forces me to face the problem I’d just as soon forget, to wit: What can we do, individually or collectively, to stop the destruction of democracy and prevent the stain that is our current government from spreading throughout and beyond the borders of these United States?

Thoughts and prayers are rarely the answer, and certainly not now. Still, the solution may be simply to bide our time, to bring the moment to its crisis, to suck it up. Muhammed Ali called it “rope a dope.”

No, I’m not kidding. No, this isn’t some kind of reverse psychology. Yes, sure, we’ve all read that poem where the guy didn’t speak up when they came for trade unionists, and intellectuals, and minorities etc. Well, so what? We have plenty of people speaking up. I read several of them daily: Heather Cox Richardson, Joyce Vance, Jay Kuo, Thom Hartmann, Rick Wilson, Adam Parkhomeko, Liz Donnelly and Ann Telnaes (cartoonists), Jeff Tedrich (verbal graphic artist), not to mention CrowdBlue News, and locally, WUNC News, The Assembly, Axios Raleigh and even, reluctantly, The N&O. Every single fucking day. (I also go to meetings and contribute to candidates and do pro bono stuff and march in rallies, and that’s a big deal for me because I pretty much don’t like being around people, even more so now that the morons and lunatics are in charge.) I’ll keep on doing that stuff and you should too, for the sake of mental health and sense of resolve.

Nevertheless, realistically, nothing has slowed the juggernaut of Dictatorship 2025. The best we can hope for right now is that they over-reach. A bridge too far.

So, I could go on writing these screeds and repeating the latest tidbits of outrage and horror that most of you already know, and maybe I will. Or maybe I’ll see if I can put together enough poetry to fill a slim volume and vanity publish. Who can say? The truth is that the time is simply not ripe for the kind of “good trouble” for which I itch.

Thom Hartmann (HERE) convincingly expects a Reichstag Fire (MAGA-style) to prop up Trump’s declining popularity and give his anti-everybody campaign a boost, similar to the effect of the Oklahoma City bombing for Bill Clinton and the 911 attacks for George Bush. I’ve considered such a possibility in the past, and my belief that such an act is likely is only constrained by the fact that this administration can’t walk and chew gum, much less stage a faux terrorist attack. I’m waiting for my Signal text from liddle Marco Rubio.

That’s pretty much what it will be – a Signal. The so-called “invasion/terrorist attack/bombing/sinking/assassination” will produce a coordinated response of mass arrests, martial law, and a suspension of what few civil liberties remain. And silence. All those people up there, in paragraph two? They will become silent or be silenced. Criticism of the any sort will get you arrested faster than using the wrong bathroom.

THEN the time will be ripe. It is Freedom Fighter 101: Oppression presents opportunity.

Don’t get me wrong. I don’t style myself as a “freedom fighter.” I’m old, with a bum heart, a bad knee, and lousy reflexes. Combat is not my style. Nevertheless, I’m sure there’s a niche I can fill in the Resistance. Company clerk, perhaps. Pamphleteer. Poet du Corps. It will be my pleasure to serve. I know this: I’m no martyr and if I took a bullet for democracy only about five people would care (others would applaud). Still, I’d prefer that to wasting my time ranting impotently against the evil assholes who currently occupy the seats of U.S. power..

Make no mistake, this is not some kind of Andor fanboy cosplay. A rebellion from the left is increasingly likely, just not yet. Don’t make me say “I told you so.” I’ve said that too many times already. And I know, I know – the only people who ever seriously dreamed of armed resistance against the government were those looney fat militia guys, marching around the mountains in camo and Kevlar, waving AR-15s.

Yet here we are, waiting to join up. Hardly where I expected to be, at this time in my life.