After the MAGA insanity is over, we will need to rebuild this nation by restoring the pillars of democracy such as due process and separations of powers, but we must not try to get back to business as usual.
We need to rebuild our entire political process in a way that includes those who have been traditionally left out of the equation by Republicans AND Democrats alike. Liberals and conservatives both need to stop pretending that fascism in American began with Donald Trump. Rather, fascism for women and People of Color in America arrived on the Mayflower.
And we need to be perfectly clear about this, “speaking the truth to power” is a liberal mirage. The powerful already know the truth about our world, they just don’t want to share it.
As hard as it is to say it, our democracy will have to be TAKEN from the monied interests who have no intention of ever letting Americans vote on anything that really matters. Activists need to learn the difference between protest and resistance. Protest is expressing our objection to unfair hierarchies of power, resistance is building alternative systems of power now.
We should and must love hoarders and oligarchs as individual human beings, but we must take power from them for the same reason we take the keys from a drunken friend at a party.
The answers to America’s problems are not to be found in capitalism nor in the dualistic system of American politics. Politicians and capitalists may take credit for human rights, but almost every stride in human rights was actually taken from the powerful by ordinary people in factories or on the streets
“Democracy” is just a thin veneer pasted on tyranny if poor people cannot vote on what rich people do to them. The two party system can never lead us to the nuanced responses we need. So, if you want, vote as a Democrat or Republican for whoever you think will help establish a fairer nation, but then call your favorite grassroots organization and promise to do your duty as an activist the other 364 days a year.
Such activism does not promise us victory in our own time, but it does assure us of a life well worth living.