Does it seem like a movement is coalescing to you?
Here’s video out of Tennessee from last week —
On the day of the votes to potentially expel Tennessee state legislators recently, there was talk of a new civil rights era; of a new civil rights movement.
That kind of talk intensified as the votes-to-expel unfolded and two men of color legislators were expelled while a white woman legislator was not. When asked why, she pointed to that whiteness as the blatantly obvious reason. It was important and helpful that she said it out loud.
Many of us watched the brazen, audaciousness as the votes-to-expel unfolded and the difference in treatment as to color became apparent. The stories of disrespect to the two men who were expelled followed. Some of the people in the Tennessee state legislature are absolutely impudent. There are racists who have hidden away in hidey-holes for years; only finding their way out in the bright sun since Trump and similar enablers burst onto the scene. But there are racists who never went into a single hidey-hole ever. They’re in a place where they never needed to. It looks like a few of the key Tennessee legislators (if not more) are the kind that have never tried to hide.
Their behavior is unbelievable… and yet like so much in the US here it is — it’s been happening right in front of us.
Of course, the racism is only one (ONE!) of a huge array of alarming things happening up in this country. I’m not going to list them. That just gets absurd. There are way too many things to protest about.
And in a change since the summer of 2020, we’re starting to see a few protests happening now more regularly. Here’s some of the activity this past weekend at a march/rally in California where Vice President Harris spoke:
It looks like there were many protests or marches around the country this weekend in reaction to abortion and women’s health; sparked most often by the currently threatened “abortion pill” but also in reaction to like Florida’s brand-new extreme abortion law.
Seeds for a movement? Momentum toward some kind of critical mass?
I don’t know. I hope so, but I’m not sure the traditional stuff is going to get us there. People have been soooooooo overwhelmed and disengaged the past few years, and not feeling like some of the traditional stuff is having the impact they’d like. It’s a challenge in a country with institutionalized minoritarian power that’s empowered by a growing domestic authoritarian movement backed by big media, big money, and big demagogues.
But we can collectively grow a movement.
Challenges of Protests & Strikes
I suspect we don’t have the collective capacity for a sustained mass turnout at protests or like for a general strike because people in this country are so overwhelmed and overburdened… but also because money is tight, the wage gap is enormous, real wages have stagnated, we’ve had inflation, and our leave policies up in this country can be very limiting where they even exist. The capacity to protest can sometimes be a privilege for a ton of reasons.
I also note that protests in big or even medium-sized cities don’t often pierce the collective consciousness of tons of Americans because they’re usually happening off somewhere else — not here.
We don’t hear about protests happening in Walden, Colorado, for example. Not that people would protest there in the middle of a giant mountain basin, but that’s the point. How do people in Walden know that most Americans think racism is uncool, or that most Americans think we don’t all need AR-15s?
Who’s Driving The Rural Narrative?
How do you reach people out in the middle of nowhere? Who’s driving the narrative in rural America? Who’s holding the moral compass? Is it just FOX News and far-right talk radio and podcasts?
Who’s countering all that?
How do we reach people in the rural US and make any kind of a shift happen?
How do we shift the Overton window back to the center and maybe back more to the left? How do we make racism uncool again? And all the other bigotry?
How do we champion public education and science and actual history books and all the books and libraries and diversity and gender fluidity and whatever all the things are that we all need to champion if we’re not even reaching a whole swath of Americans who are not paying attention to the national narrative? And by that I include disengaged, cynical non-voters!
Do they not get the stakes? Could they, though?
We Can Reach & Energize Americans in Innovative Ways
I think we have to fight the fights differently.
I’d also argue that fighting the fights differently can help us build more momentum toward some kind of critical mass. Toward big shifts. Hopefully in 2024 toward really, really big voter turnouts.
It’s got to happen in the places where we live — in the towns and cities and neighborhoods and apartment buildings and ranches and farm country.
Shift the Country has put together a bunch of stuff to help with all this. We’ve got Zoom call events set up through May (so far) to help foment, catalyze, and grow some of this shift. To plant seeds and make connections and to help get a few things going.
Zoom call events are in a few different tracks. Jump in in any session, as each builds on the work done in the prior one. We’ll build out the details to scale up as we go and as we get funded (this is a key feature of the shift-building).
Bring your brain and bring your people and check this shift out:
It’s Time To Raise A Ruckus — Let’s Go: These are the main Zoom workshop calls to get going on all this.
We Can Partner With or Pressure Businesses At Scale: These are Zoom calls for an informal working group to get going on how we can seriously ramp up business pressure (or partnerships) in the US in a more coordinated way. Jump in anytime.
We Can Do Way More With Coalition-Building: Well-coordinated coalitions are a key to pushing back on an authoritarian movement. We can do a ton more in this zone up in this country — locally and nationally. Jump in anytime.
There are other types of calls, too, for socializing, for support, and other stuff —
We intend to get this shift going.
It’s been a little difficult to get engagement. If you could help by engaging somehow that would be helpful! Event sign-ups are a key! We want to meet you! Post “likes” and shares and comments too! Subscribes! Donations!
Here’s the thing. We’re in a unique moment in human history.
All the stuff we’ve done to get to here is good and we’ve needed it.
But now is the time to dig deeper into that annoyingly deep well of human resilience and get a second wind. Or a 342nd wind. Or whatever. Support and connection can help us go deeper and that’s the point of a bunch of these Zoom calls… so we’re not trying to fight alone. Connection and community are going to be critical as things intensify.
And things will intensify.
You can things will continue to intensify because that’s what keeps happening. There’s no sign of de-escalation — yet. I suspect we’re a ways off from de-escalating.
Thus the whole big plan here. We can chart a whole new path for this country of equity and brilliance and flourishing and sustainability and taking care of humans and thriving and whatnot. It starts by deciding to go after it.
So. You in?