The "No Kings" protest illustrated something. The rhetoric didn't match what happened. The Republicans preached fire and brimstone, and nothing but peace happened. Some Republican governors activated their National Guard in preparation for violence that never happened.
Mike Johnson, the House Speaker, said, “We call it the ‘hate America’ rally … I bet you’ll see Hamas supporters, antifa types … the terrorist wing of their party.” But what it turned out to be was the voice of the people.
Many of the politicians are using red herrings to point out “violence” by the demonstrators to distract from the fact that yesterday was peaceful. But they were minor and not connected to the rallies. In one city protesters blocked an ICE detention facility but that was at night long after the rally ended.
Back on August 17, 1969, Max Yasgur, a dairy farmer, said at Woodstock:
“I’m a farmer… I don’t know how to speak to 20 people at one time, let alone a crowd like this. But I think you people have proven something to the world… that a half a million young people can get together and have three days of fun and music and have nothing but fun and music, and I — God bless you for it!”
And I think yesterday proved to the people of the United States and the world that we can get together to protest peacefully, to "...peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."
[/Editorial]
First I must say I support any action that helps to stop the fascists, then a take on where I am coming from these days.
ReplyDeleteOne thing that people should remember is that when any country moves through a period such as this there are many fractions. The No Kings rally brought out mostly the white middle class or the bourgeois, and tamed democratic left. I must wonder what comes next. Some left fractions are calling for those 7 million people to join a General Strike along with many who did not go out in the streets on Saturday to join them. Will the No Kings folks prepare for such an action? Other fractions of course have moved way beyond the “everybody get together now” phase and see that the system that we are living under is unjust and that there can be no tweaking or reforming, but it must be toppled. (Remember the split with the GAA and the GLF over similar ways of doing business) Many people in that grouping of course stayed away from Saturday where people in costumes with witty slogans on signs and upside-down American flags, all full of joy dancing and singing filled the day. A joyful revolution. Does a fascist care about “JOY” does a fascist care about a funny costume? I really don’t think so unless of course there is a shred of decency left within them. Has this go around become just a big game with the sides trading sick and slick? Is it just as easy to mace a masked creature or hit it upside the head as it is to do more to a person under the antifa wing? How long do we have before people can move from the so called “joy” of bringing down the fascists to the real deal.
I began marching at 16 years old. This was in 1964. Do I deserve a break today? I know what side of the barricades I stand on and with who I stand with. If I do go out to a march and hobble around dragging a chair, will that tip the scales? Do I really want to “save America” and allow the correcting of mistakes at a snails pace to continue, leaving slime as it goes and then reverse back, back, back then seeing it’s mistake goes forward. Back and forth can certainly make a fellow leave his dinner on the ground. Yes these are the times where some must stop and think, some must move out from the superficial.
May I add to my above comment.
DeleteWe must be very mindful of falling into any traps set by the fascists. The old split and divide the old we are not like them game. Yes to many, it was good that the demonstrations were peaceful with no pro-Hamas, no antifa throwing bottles or bricks, and no signs proclaiming hate for the good old red, white and blue, apple pie or Kate Smith. But we cannot condemn anyone and by doing so make them a target of the right. As queers we certainly know where that can lead a people and a movement when we start falling into the naming and blaming game. Keep your eyes on the prize, hold on, we use to sing.