Instability Unfolding
We're Iterating Upward On The Chaos — We Need New Ways To Handle These Wildly Changing Times & They Do Exist
I said a few weeks ago that I’d be writing here more, and sharing more about what’s happening behind the scenes at Shift the Country. That hasn’t exactly happened yet, but it’s definitely coming. The main reason is that I’ve been rewriting our website (very close to done!) to adjust for this new world we’re in post-election, and for yet another ramp-up in political violence. Triage and priorities are going to be important as we navigate the increasingly intense society we’re living in.
Another reason I haven’t written more is because… where do you start?
I’ve wanted to write about 50 posts here this week. I’ve held back; mostly because our nascent nonprofit needs to prioritize having a tight, finished website for what we do next. But I’ve also held back because it’s just soooooooo damn much.
There’s a painting at the top of this post… of a tornado tearing up a house and, you know, maybe coming for us next.
We the tornado witnesses don’t know — because it’s the type of tornado that has a long funnel and could zip around in any direction in an instant. It seems to fit the moment we’re in.
I’m a big fan of metaphor, but even an impending tornado disaster reference doesn’t do justice to the society-wide cluster**ck that’s unfolding in the US.
It’s shock after shock after shock after shock. Right here; in the world’s most powerful country.
The Incivility
Yesterday, long-time leader and sometimes Speaker of the US House Nancy Pelosi gave an era-changing stepping-down speech. One Republican House member was in the chamber being semi-respectful; he was still late. Master Hypocrite US Senate Minority Leader McConnell put out a respectful statement; but he’s also done more to damage the US Congress up to now than anyone else in decades. His decent-sounding sentiments ring hollow.
Did we expect the Republican House member temper tantrum crowd to turn up and be respectful? After Speaker Pelosi’s husband was attacked just before the election with a hammer… and so many mocked him. Elected Republicans largely condoned the mocking with their silence. Why show up for her big changing-of-the-guard moment when you’ve already gone way past decorum?
I say all of this because the degradation in decorum and norms combined with the rudeness… it’s all a huge piece of what’s gone funky up in our society. A friend of mine went on a new-place-to-live scouting trip in New England this fall and gave it up due to all the “F*CK BIDEN” signs in communities where they were considering moving to.
Really? This is the country we want?
I don’t think so. I don’t, anyway. You?
Now starting in January, we will have the US House being run by a cabal of individuals who have — and I’m judging — sold their souls for power, attention, and money. They want to hold on to the status quo where the pale, moneyed, mostly-male crowd have the power and the jobs and the status; and the rest of us are meant to defer and kowtow to them.
A bunch of them are straight-up racists; openly threatening, intimidating, and demeaning toward their own House colleagues. Several clearly had a role in the insurrection and coup attempt on January 6, 2021… but since we’ve seen exactly zero public law enforcement action as a result: those US House members were totally allowed to run for public office again. Even though inciting a coup and insurrection is sedition, and should be treated as such. Nope. We’re not dealing with that federally. A few states have; but they’re exceptions.
We’ve let these seditionists get re-elected — and now they’ll hold the reins of way more power than anyone seems to want to admit to. They’ll hold the positions in power to get incredible attention, and to drive the narrative. The whole crowd together is as carnivalesque as Trump. The demagogues have their wings.
To no ones’ surprise, after a lot of big talk about helping with inflation and crime and the southern border etc. etc. etc… yesterday, soon-to-be-in-the-majority House Republicans came out the gate essentially ready to target the Biden family for various things that don’t even relate to government.
So far, that kind of absurdity has been an effective diversion for them.
They back a former US president who has conducted the largest intelligence heist in US history which we still know very little about… but if they yell louder, maybe the rest of us won’t notice THE SPECTACULAR NATIONAL SECURITY DANGERS THAT TRUMP POSES. And honestly — we don’t, much.
Our media and national conversation/narrative don’t even seem to be able to get their heads around how damaging Trump’s intelligence heist is; but it’s extra challenging because we don’t know what Trump took and what he’s done with it.
The Quiet National Security Blowout
To listen to the media or really to anyone — you’d think the primary intelligence pilfering danger was all about stolen papers. Yet Trump and his closest posse members saw into the deepest, darkest secrets of the US government. Heaven knows what all they’ve long since redistributed or sold off.
We don’t even know if our own government has any real idea how bad this is… or if they’re seriously 22 months behind the power curve. They could well be; especially if they weren’t running surveillance on Trump or on Mar-A-Lago since he left office — which would be illegal without a (likely classified) FISA warrant. If the government has been surveilling Trump; it’s unlikely that we’d know it until charges are filed… or maybe never.
As weird as the government’s response is to this spectacular, unprecedented intelligence heist… the government is also likely over-the-top serious about protecting what they can at this point. As such, they’re not going to give the public the point-by-point about how bad this intel heist really is. That’s not how the national security machine works.
A Weakened National Security Machine
Of course, national security isn’t what it was; back in The Before-Times.
Before Trump. Before the Obama Administration and several briefed-in people in Congress wouldn’t even warn us before the 2016 election that Trump and his folks were colluding with Russia. Even though the national media totally blew off a few key leaked yet clear associations in the fall of ‘16. The national media since has had a hard time coming to terms with the long-term coordination between Trump and many other now-in-office Republicans and Russia. One might think it would be obvious; given the new 2023 US House Majority’s sudden, clear priority to defund US’ support of Ukraine’s defense against the Russian war-of-choice. But denial is more powerful than we’d all like to admit.
Of course, unsupporting Ukraine is something Putin would love. Love love love. Is our media brave enough to make that clear? Not so far. We have 1.5 months before these House Republicans come into power and start acting on this kind of thing. Are we going to be ready to push back collectively — on the Republicans, but also on the media’s reporting of their goals? We could.
Weakened Homeland Security
Our homeland security is a mess, too. We’ve seen recent (unsurprising) reporting that law enforcement generally and especially those in organizations like the US Secret Service (in DHS) and the FBI (in DOJ) were and remain sympathetic to Trump… and therefore weren’t ready for or actively obstructed proper responses to the publicly obvious threats prior to January 6. And maybe haven’t been super helpful to deal with this threat since… or to give us any honest accounting of what happened before, during, and after.
It’s weird partly because Trump actively endangered US Secret Service (USSS) officers through his dangerous tenure as we lived through COVID-19. Trump held many, many, many COVID-19 superspreader events; and had restrictions on the people around him (i.e., USSS personnel) properly following disease-mitigation protocols. Did USSS officers die or get disabled because of Trump’s selfish recklessness in the many things he had officers do while he was recklessly gallivanting around during the worst parts of the pandemic? We’ll probably never know. Yet however much of that did happen — it didn’t seem to tamp down the pro-Trump sentiments that remain obvious to the general public even now within the Service (USSS).
That’s not totally surprising; as the man’s a sadist. Some of his most hard-core supporters have been willing to die for his anti-vax hypocrisy to remain in his MAGA crowd. I know of several local Republicans who no longer exist on this planet because they bought into Trump’s anti-vax culture war BS. This reporting indicates that that fact influenced the 2022 elections; although there’ not been much mainstream reporting on the subject. #Awkward. Few want to talk about how many Americans died of COVID-19 because of Trump’s anti-public-health advocacy.
That’s some serious cognitive dissonance. People are more fired-up about his larger messages of empowered bigotry than mundane details like staying alive. It’s no wonder that law enforcement agencies have also become corrupted.
As such, it’s not a huge big giant surprise that the US Senate has found that our domestic homeland security agencies are basically blowing it when it comes to domestic homeland security threats.
It’s hard to be introspective in government on a normal day; it’s tougher when the domestic violent extremism (DVE) threat is not unaffiliated with at least some domestic military, homeland security, and law enforcement personnel. And when we’re still not even paying close attention domestically.
So we’re still basically blowing it when it comes to domestic terrorism threats:
^^ That’s a lot of unsettling information. Doesn’t make it less true. (And who knows how long those tweets will still exist; apologies if the links are now dead… but if so see the next section on Twitter melting down).
After 9/11, we (the US) built this whole giant machine to be better prepared for terrorist threats. In the 22 months since the insurrection and coup attempt, we’ve still not changed our enormous government systems built to handle international terrorism to be better ready to handle domestic violent extremism (which our intel communities identify as a key major threat) instead of international terrorism.
Why?
Part of it is leadership — or lack thereof. In Congress, in the White House, and in the Cabinet.
Part of it is due to the erosion and infiltration of governmental homeland security institutions by pro-Trump and pro-insurrection forces. When an authoritarian threat is taking root in a country, one of the most effective things that can help it along is the erosion of institutions.
Institutional erosion breaks down the law and order a society is used to; adds to the population shock and overwhelm; and gives the authoritarian movement supposed “evidence” to show that chaos is unfolding and therefore we should hand over control to the authoritarian types who can theoretically save us all.
Only that’s not what would happen. Because authoritarians want to seize power; and only offer anger and abyss as a future. They have no vision and agenda meant to actually serve the public. They’re just good at using the public for their bigotry and anger.
The Spectacular Institutional Erosion of Twitter
Whatever the US House does to create spectacle and drive the national narrative for the next two years, the Twitter blow-out is equally problematic… or even worse.
If I was a scholar, I might insert here a treatise on all the things the Twitter meltdown does to help an authoritarian movement. Here are a few highlights:
Removes an enormous vehicle for connection and community; leaving the more population shocked and disconnected.
Damages business communities in target countries (including the US) and worldwide. Sets up a system where “loyal” businesses may be rewarded; others lose platforms, advertising, reach, followers, records, and so on.
Economic damage from the business loss causes more shock in target countries.
Shocks hit target countries, further impact target countries, and further disempower and disconnect humans. Authoritarian movements thrive when the populace is shocked, overwhelmed, and too disempowered and disconnected to unify themselves to push back on the authoritarian threat.
There’s way more, but overall the Twitter meltdown/collapse/blow-out will have absolutely spectacular cascading effects in our very intertwined social and economic systems — and that’s just in the US.
Elon Musk’s casual (or not) disregard for these very intricate, interwoven human systems shows either his ignorance of them, his total disregard for them, or his willingness to undermine and destroy them; especially toward authoritarian ends.
We may never know which things are the truth, but we do know that Musk leans authoritarian and pro-Republican.
We also know that the damage one man has wrought on our social systems and social fabric and businesses and economy — just in the US! — in only a few weeks is spectacular, tragic, and breathtaking. It doesn’t look good.
A person with a care about building, about futures, about communities, about connection, and about respecting years — YEARS!!! — of investment by individuals, businesses, influencers, and others on Twitter would have gone about the last few weeks very differently. Or stopped!
Musk and his unfettered ego plow on. Society be damned!!
Pivot Points
Part of me would like to write a huge expository essay on the very, very, very wide damage path the destruction of Twitter will create and already has been creating.
Part of me would like to write a huge reflective essay on how some Americans’ dismissal of the value and dependence Twitter has our society is problematic. Yo: it’s bad. Just because you don’t get, use, or understand a thing doesn’t mean others haven’t invested years of time and money and themselves in building and growing their presence, connections, and communities there. Empathy matters.
Instead I’ve written a huge, long expository essay here on… what? On at least a few of the things. Because the bigger picture issue we’re facing in the US is that things are going to keep getting more intense. The national media and the Democratic Party have spent much of the time since the election with a bunch of glad-handing and self-praise. Don’t get me wrong — some of that is well-deserved. Holding on to key races for Governor and Secretary of State in several key swing states is HUGE, and much needed. It takes down the pressure on upholding democracy in 2024 ever-so-slightly. We need that.
But all the glowy, shiny, happy, radiant post-election exuberance misses a hell of lot; and it’s significant.
It misses every damn one of us who is not a pale, white, straight dude and who may be actively losing rights; or facing active or even hyperactive persecution.
It misses the election losses. And they are huge.
It misses the near-misses. The voter numbers are huge.
The glad-handing, sunshiney reaction by so very many to the 2022 election results misses those of us who live in places where our own damn neighbors voted for more of the institution-eroding, national-security-degrading, racist, intolerant, bigoted, anti-science, anti-public-health, anti-history, anti-woman, anti-LGBTQ+, anti-human, pro-white-Christian stance that Republicans continue to champion.
It make us feel overlooked, undervalued, unseen, and invisible. Unimportant. Unprioritized.
Those of us living in places where Republicans won still have to keep living in those places. And don’t even come up on here and suggest that we all move. Nope. That’s not the answer to the deeper problems. That’s not a fix. That’s enabling.
So what are we supposed to do? When the entire Democratic Party’s establishment has spent the last week-and-a-half congratulating itself on such a huge “win?”
Time For A Different Fight
I’ll tell you what we can do. We can fight differently.
WE DAMN WELL CAN.
We can be as mad as we want at the establishment… but we can also go about changing its direction. We can become a bunch of damn cheerleaders, too. Life coaches for democracy. Whatever it takes.
Here’s this new nonprofit’s 5-part plan for doing exactly that…
Thing 2: Do More With Community & Coalitions (this page is under construction!).
Thing 3: Involve Businesses Through Partnerships & Pressure.
Thing 5: Drive the Narrative, Create a Buzz, & Spread It Everywhere.
^^ All of that’s going to be even more relevant now that the Republican US House will be all over driving the national narrative.
We’re going to need to help Democrats get in that game — everywhere. Big time. You can see why the cheerleading and coaching bits are important.
We’re going to need to fight courageously for these big things, too. One of them was mentioned in the very beginning of this piece — decorum. Civility. Being nice to other humans. Being respectful. We can all learn to get better at championing our values; and at showing moral courage (Thing #4). We can all get better at doing it. At leading. At speaking out. At using powerful language; and at speaking to emotions.
It’s okay to say that stuff is not okay, and that it’s not what we want for this country. For our future. For our kids. For everyone we know.
We’re going to have to get a whole hell of a lot better at all that. And we can.
We totally can. At all the things.
So this is my plea to you to know that we can. To tell people you know that there’s a framework for navigating this moment. That we have options to fight — differently, and at scale.
We. Can. Bring. It.
Next
Next we’re updating our post-election plan, and planning online events to get this shift going. For real this time… after many, many iterations.
Get in touch with us about this. You can sign up to volunteer, you can comment on this post (click on the header if you’re reading this in email), or you can email-respond us to say that you want in on the early formative bits including scheduling. We’ll be setting up online workshops and teambuilding and connection sessions this November and December to start making plans (to be announced on this Substack). We can also highlight examples of shift that’s already underway and what’s working in these workshops.
We’re going to do this together. It’s only going to work if we do it together. This is going to be one massive brainstorming and action effort between now and the 2024 election. Because it’s time to fight differently; and it’s time to fight for those places where the insufferable, intolerant demagogues won again… whether it’s Ted Cruz, or Ron DeSantis, or Chuck Grassley, or Ron Johnson, or Marjorie Taylor Green, or our local school board that’s now prohibiting teachers from talking about slavery — or whether it’s just that we have to live in the same communities with people who think all of that is okay.
It’s not okay. We need to say that. Loudly. Now. A whole lot more than what we’ve been doing. And we can.
Keep the faith. Join us, and volunteer. Forward this. Subscribe. Donate. Tell people you know.
Because we have options, and we have ways forward. They’re not going to be easy — but the alternative to fighting will be much, much worse.
So let’s fight. Options are here.
As my old fire chief boss would say, “Let’s went.”