And I mean “Oh, to be on the streets of Chicago, protesting.” I do not mean “Oh, to be at the convention cheering and clapping and wearing one of those hats. (Although I’ve always been partial to a boater hat. Love me a boater hat.)
Or! I could wear a boater hat whilst joining the amazingly diverse coalition of anti-war protesters in Chicago right now. Including so many young people, BIPOC folks, and Indigenous people from all over; the Land-Back movement, labor unions, climate justice actionists — all the folks in Chicago showing up to say that the DNC is not representing its people, is not speaking for us, needs to LISTEN and change.
Marching, chanting, shouting, disrupting.
Protesting the ongoing genocide in Gaza, protesting Kamala’s support of that very same genocide, doing our best to make the Dems listen, to actually listen to progressives instead of chiding us for being too “extreme” or “radical” or “far left” when we have always showed up for them.
Or chiding us for — heaven forfend! — interrupting a certain candidate’s stump speech.
Oop. Vibe check. Are you surprised I’m not interested in wholesale throwing my support behind Kamala? Are you irritated? Tired of you dear friend Captain Bringdown bringing you down? That’s okay. Feelings are welcome here. Take a breath. I’m about to say some things that, when I’ve recently said them out loud to friends (friends who asked my opinion, to be clear) — well. Those friends looked at me with a mix of shock and disappointment and outrage, as if they had just caught me in the act of strangling an entire kiddie pool full of kittens and puppies.
Those moments have been weird and hard. (And again, these are conversations when friends have asked me to share my opinion.) I try to be somewhat gentle (although honest) genuinely try to open up the conversation to talk about what’s important to us and where we overlap and where we diverge and all that. But I guess it hasn’t been the right time for that. Yet. (Possibly ever?)
It’s deeply disheartening, because if we can’t or won’t listen to each other, even among us folks “on the same side,” folks who ostensibly share the values of community and love and liberation and reproductive justice and peace and LGBTQI+ inclusion and a more inclusive, just, and sustainable planet, then … I don’t know, man. What chance do we have of building robust relationships and sustainable community together if we can’t talk about it?
Harken back with me to 1968.
Harken back to the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago.
Or go here for additional contemporaneous coverage.
Listen to how the protests were characterized at the time.
Reflect on how you think about those protests now.
Do you consider the protesters righteous in their cause, genuine in their beliefs?
Are you horrified by the newsreel footage of the cops beating the snot out of those kids?
The 1968 DNC in Chicago felt like an important inflection point in the nation’s history, no?
Do you remember that those young people were called every slur by “mainstream” media at the time? They were called communists, hippies, anti-American, unpatriotic, anarchists, antisemitic, rioters, violent instigators, thugs. They were arrested and beaten up — and they persisted. Because they wanted the nominal Democratic presidential candidate to HEAR THEM and REPRESENT THEM and DO THE MORAL THING by taking an anti-War position.
I assume that’s how we are all looking at the protests in Chicago today, yes?
I’m assuming we recognize much of the mainstream media’s — and the President and Vice-President’s — smearing of pro-Palestinian protesters with aspersions like antifa, antisemitic, anti-American, unpatriotic, socialists, anarchists, rioters, violent, instigators, thugs ... that these are just updated versions of what we heard in 1968?
I’m thinking we are recognizing that anti-genocide protestors are morally correct, and that protesting is the right thing to be doing — that the genocide in Gaza and the violence and apartheid in the West Bank could stop right this minute if the U.S. stopped arming, aiding, and abetting the Israeli government and military?
(We, the U.S., just provided $3.5 billion more in military aid to Israel. “Part of the military aid package will go to an Israeli army unit accused of serious rights abuses of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.” This is our government; this aid is continuing right now. These are our tax dollars paying for bombs and weapons.)
If you’re not seeing the parallels between anti-War protests in 1968 and right now; if you’re not publicly, openly supporting the protestors, what has changed?
(Hint: it’s not the nature of the protests. And it’s not that war has become less deadly.)
Look, I get it:
I get people’s attachment to Kamala’s candidacy.
On a certain level, I’m as relieved as the next white, middle-aged, menopausal, middle class, bisexual, registered-Democrat, mom of a young adult that Biden finally got yeeted from the election ticket.
But then I stop and think. I go, “Whoa.”
How much has actually changed?
Not much.
Same policies, same administration on the ticket.
Different human with better vibes.
And another big difference:
Kamala can beat Trump.
Yep, she can beat him.
But for me, that’s not enough to feel good about her.
Homegirl is still a key part of the same administration that has been funding a genocide. A genocide. It kind of doesn’t get worse than genocide. Does it?
(Friends will say, “No! Remember when she said, ‘We should have a cease fire in Gaza!’” I will answer that with the fact that the rest of Kamala’s statement was - “a cease fire … for two weeks.” The administration’s — the BIDEN/HARRIS administration’s — response has NOT been to end the violence. The response has been to shift the definition of “cease fire” such that it has become functionally meaningless. That’s why protestors have become more specific: an arms embargo. Disclosure. Divestment.)
To keep our eyes on the prize, here are three pretty important questions to keep in mind, helpfully framed by Adam Johnson for The Real News Network:
1) Are kids still being bombed?
2) Are US bombs still being shipped?
3) Is the person in question refusing to commit to stopping the shipment of said bombs?
If yes, keep protesting. Keep the pressure on. Keep interrupting her speeches.
And don’t you dare — DON’T YOU DARE — say to people whose families are being slaughtered, people who dearly want to end mass murder, that we need to shut up or else somehow that means we want Trump to win.
We must shut up? About children being murdered? That’s our only option? Because … THIS is how we … “save democracy”?
Oy vey.
While I’m here talking about Kamala:
I’m glad Kamala’s coining the term “Trump Abortion Bans” and speaking out about abortion.
But I’d sure be gladder if I could ignore the fact that the Biden-Harris administration has not tangibly done a g-ddamn thing to enshrine reproductive justice / abortion rights while they have been in power.
(I’d also like to mention they haven’t done a damn thing to reform the wildly out-of-control Supreme Court. )
Sure, Harris seems canny and smart. Reproductive justice is important, abortion rights are important, and it’s a winner in electoral politics. But … where is the action? They have had YEARS to do … ANYTHING. It’s almost like the Dems want us to forget that they’ve been in power for the last four years. Instead we should just NOT want Trump to get elected (and I don’t! I don’t want Trump to be president! But my point is — that’s not enough) and idk… vibe out to all the **waves hands around** renewed enthusiasm or whatever.
And yessiree dawg, Harris’ tone is a welcome change from doddering, crabby, tired Biden. She says some good things. I can’t really name them right now because she has never had to explicitly state her platform because she didn’t have to run in any primaries.
But I am so, so tired of voting for the lesser of two evils.
Because no, I sure don’t feel great about what Harris is saying about immigration — that she’s “as tough as Trump about the border,” whatever that means.
Does it mean she wants to shut down the border? Cage even more people? Continue building the wall that Trump Biden has been building? Refuse asylum claims? Where will it stop? Will she be real nice and NOT go through with Trump’s (fascist) promises of “mass deportation”? Is that where we’re setting the bar now?
Ummm yeah I’m also sure not a fan a lot (most? all?) of Harris’s record as a prosecutor.
I’m not a fan of caging humans in general, as you well know. I guess I’m just weird that way. But her record as a prosecuter is pretty long and dang problematic.
Look. I know nobody is perfect.
Do I know that nobody’s perfect?
You bet I do.
But there are imperfections … and then there are … being a leader of an administration funding and providing most of the weapons for a genocide.
There are human foibles … and then there are … ignoring or chastising a huge part of your base with abuser logic. (“Don’t complain unless you want things to get even worse” is lifted directly from the abuser playbook.)
There are fun quirks … and then there are … records of criminally prosecuting parents for children’s school absences, or complicity in keeping people incarcerated in inhumane conditions in order to benefit from their forced, unpaid labor.
I’m not telling you who to vote for. (Don’t vote for Trump.)
I’m asking you to resist the urge to think that voting for Kamala is enough to “save democracy.” (It isn’t.)
I’m asking you to consider your posture towards protestors.
I’m asking you to remember that we have the most leverage to push a candidate toward moral positions when they need our vote.
What do I mean by moral positions? I mean peace. I mean defunding and divesting from genocide. I mean supporting unions and workers’ rights, including a minimum living wage — $25 plus free healthcare would be a start. I mean endowing Land Back movements. Robustly funding public schools and good child care. Throwing money at social programs, elder care, housing the homeless, and universal health care. Where does all this money come from? Two places. (1) The military. Put folks in the military to work building houses and alternative energy plants. (2) Fucking tax the fucking rich.
What I’m asking, is for us to be serious people when we think about what kind of world we want.
Ultimately, I’m asking you to be curious. Keep wondering, dreaming, loving.
Thanks for dreaming with me.
XOXO
I’m hoping Kamala is just sitting back a bit until after the election. Yes, much is needed to go forward but I can’t stomach going backward one tiny step. The tRump 2024 flags are all over my county. There is a big billboard with lights on Interstate-88 in Oneonta! She is far from perfect but he has to be stopped.
I hope Kamala will stop Netanyahu after she is President. If she and Biden did that now, Trump would win. Don't let the Perfect be the enemy of the Good.