During this past week of waiting for them to finish the g-d count of votes, a cynical line from Mark Twain kept running through my head. “If voting made any difference, they wouldn’t let us do it.” Partly I was trying to inoculate myself against the disappointment of a Trump re-election; partly it was to keep in mind that a Biden victory would just change the terrain on which we would have to continue to work for the poor and dispossessed.
In the end, Biden’s victory did prove the cynics wrong. Without apology to my fellow activists, I am happy that his election will bring some relief to the people that Trump and his ilk have been persecuting these past four years. So I do celebrate, even if I don’t think “it’s finally over.”
And I celebrate with all those who are celebrating, without reservation and without holier-than-thou posturing like that I see from some comrades.
time to hold this fucking war criminal Biden “accountable” for the next 4 years
This homie is gonna cage kids, shoot people in the streets, pillage abroad, poison the earth and sky, and serve the rich and mighty powerful by bleeding us
Don’t celebrate shit, get the fuck organized
Some progressives turn into self-righteous Grinches when discussing liberals and the things that make liberals happy. Part of it, I think, is that non-activists tend to lump liberals and progressives together in an unwashed mass called the Left. While I do think that it is important to distinguish our brand from, say, Elizabeth Warren’s, I also think it’s important how we do that. Not anger. Not spite. Not hatred. Over the last four years we’ve seen what those themes produce.
If we truly believe in organizing from the bottom, not in the dead-end of “uniting the left,” then we need to learn from the poor and dispossessed who show more love and kindness to each other and even to their oppressors than bickering ideologues ever do. The proper question to ask at this juncture is:
I also have FB “friends” who are angry and upset about the electoral outcome. One posted last night after Kamala and Joe talked to the nation:
Is Joe Biden going to yell at us for 4 years? He got it wrong for 47 years and, now, gets elected on raising taxes! He’s going to have to be a lot nicer if he wants to win over 70 million people!
WTF? My activist friends are displeased that Joe is preaching superficial unity and healing, and Trumpsters say he’s yelling!?! I won’t let either distract me from the main question: What, to the poor and dispossessed, is democracy? As we say in the Poor People’s Campaign, Forward together. Not one step back.