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Before Donald Trump destroys it, Democrats must "re-envision what democracy needs to be"
Before Donald Trump destroys it, Democrats must "re-envision what democracy needs to be"Authors Alan Jenkins and Gan Golan explain that it is "action that inspires hope"
By Chauncey DeVega
Senior Writer
Published November 25, 2024 5:59AM (EST)
(Salon) Donald Trump is quickly consolidating and expanding his power. Trump has promised to be a dictator on “day one” of his administration. Trump has also demonstrated, repeatedly, that he will rule as an autocrat who will crush all those individuals and groups that he and his MAGA agents and other allies deem to be “the enemy within.” Trump has been remarkably transparent and direct about how his rule will be driven by revenge, retribution and corrupt unlimited power.
....(snip)....
As reported by The New York Times on Thursday, the shock and disappointment are so great that many members of the anti-Trump pro-democracy movement (aka "the Resistance" ) are feeling like giving up:
In the days after Donald J. Trump’s electoral victory, thousands of people revived the grass-roots movement that opposed his first term in office.
Marchers in Manhattan took over streets carrying a block-wide banner that read, “We Won’t Back Down.” Activists in Los Angeles and Chicago decried Mr. Trump’s abortion and immigration policies and vowed to descend on Washington to protest his inauguration in January.
But participants noted that Mr. Trump had not appeared to be swayed by protests, petitions, hashtag campaigns or other tools of mass dissent. Many have been calling for a fresh playbook.
“I thought the first women’s march would be a turning point,” said Laura Bartek, a 45-year-old nurse from Virginia, referring to the protest — with nearly half a million people — that took place after Mr. Trump’s 2017 inauguration.
“To be here eight years later with these signs,” Ms. Bartek said during a recent protest in Washington, “it breaks my heart.”
“I keep getting emails to sign petitions,” said Leslie Mac, a digital strategist and communications expert who works with grass-roots organizations. “These people coming to the White House don’t care about petitions. They don’t care how many people sign them. They don’t care what they say.”
The first Trump presidency spawned the largest protests the country had seen in half a century.
But not everyone wants to participate in another four years of mass movement work. When Women’s March shared information about an upcoming rally on Instagram, one person responded, “No im tired, yall have fun though.” (Women’s March later hid some of the pushback and limited who could respond to a handful of posts.)
....(snip)....
In an attempt to make better sense of Trump’s surreal second election, our collective emotions and where we go from here, I recently spoke with Alan Jenkins and Gan Golan. They are the co-writers of “1/6: The Graphic Novel.” (Issue number 3 is available now.) Jenkins is a Professor of Practice at Harvard Law School where he teaches courses on Race and the Law, Communication, Law, and Social Justice, and Supreme Court Jurisprudence. Before joining the Harvard faculty, he co-founded and led The Opportunity Agenda, a social justice communication lab that harnesses the power of media and popular culture to move hearts, minds and policy. Golan is an artist, bestselling author, grassroots activist, organizer and one of the lead designers of The People’s Climate March, which was one of the largest climate mobilizations in history.
....(snip)....
Trump's return to power has echoes of the end of Reconstruction and the rise of “Redemption” and Jim and Jane Crow. I feel like we are in some twisted simulation and pocket of the multiverse where it is "Idiocracy" and "They Live" mixed with "Robocop", "Brazil", Octavia Butler’s novels and "Groundhog Day."
..... GG: We are definitely in a dystopian fiction mashup. Artists and storytellers are often our early warning system and they’ve been sounding the alarm bells for years. Leaders and activists are also visionaries and storytellers. Their vision for a better society, which we might have taken for granted in our own lives — like, the weekend, or the women’s vote, or interracial marriage — was at one point practically science fiction. It then took organizing to bring those visions into being as part of our daily, lived experience. That is the work we are being called to do: To re-envision what democracy needs to be, then do the hard work to make it a reality. The future is not yet written and we can’t miss the opportunity to define what happens next. ...................(more)
https://www.salon.com/2024/11/25/before-donald-destroys-it-democrats-must-re-envision-what-democracy-needs-to-be/
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