So. Trump talked of deescalation. I kknew better, but I felt a glimmer of hope that maybe he would do something that appeared to be deescalating. While I personally was gleeful about Bovino leaving (because I loathe him so much), I knew it was not going to make that much of a difference.
I was not wrong. Homan came in talking the same shit, though he wrapped it up in slightly less grotesque language (though still awful). And yet, they are pushing hard, still. Not only were Don Lemon and another journalist, Georgia Forte arrested for reporting on a protest of a local church (and two others were arrested as well), but the ICE raids are still going strong.
Today was another general strike day accross the country. Content creators are fundraising for local immigration rapid response teams as well. The exhaustion is bone-deep. There are some white liberals who say that we cannot afford/that it’s a luxury to be exhausted/fearful. They are not wrong, but they are also not right.
We have to do what we can, yes, but for some of us, that takes more effort than others. And some of us are closer to the danger than others.
Here’s the thing. Is this different than anything we’ve seen before? The brazen lawlessness is. But. The acts of violence against US citizens? No, that is not new. It’s just that it’s been easy for most Americans to ignore because 1. the vast majority of the people being acted upon have been black and brown; and 2. they didn’t literally see it with their eyes.
I have written a ton about how the ease with which people can videotape on their phones these days makes it harder to lie about what the feds are doing. Lord knows, they keep trying, but most people are not swayed by their lies.
And yet, for every inch of progress it looks like we’ve made gets immediately drowned out by the hundred other nasty, illegal things this federal administration has done and continues to do. In the video I included below, Ta-Nehisi Coates says (I’m paraphrasing a bit, and I think he was quoting Russ Feingold): Against someone who is just determined to become a tyrant….you can’t really design a system that is foolproof.
It’s something I’ve talked about ad nauseam with friends. Our system is far less than perfect, and we’ve had growing pains in our entire existence. However, at the very least, we could believe that the president wanted what was best for the country. No matter how inept and horrible that vision was; it was sincere.