Plea to US Lefties and Liberals
Direct more energy to local revolutionary potential. Resisting Trump isn’t enough. We have even more important work to do.
It’s hard to think rationally when you’re in a whirlwind. And the US is in a whirlwind created by the convergence of two powerful storms: President Donald Trump’s theatrical mix of upheavals, and liberal panic at the realization that Donald the Disruptor may actually change the way Washington works.
I don’t have a lot to add to the quadrillion words already written about Trump’s actions, including a few by me. Most of what he’s done or wants to do is bad, as I see it. Here and there he has a point that is worth paying attention to — especially given his. A majority of American voters opted for Trump because they wanted change, and they’re evidently glad to be getting it.
NOT About Trump
My point isn’t about what Trump is doing, though. It’s about what the Democratic Party leadership (to the extent there is one), the liberal commentariat, and many liberal organizations and individuals are saying and occasionally doing.
It’s about the potential for a more appropriate and effective response to Trump. And most importantly, it’s about the necessity of starting down a path towards something radically different and much more people- and Earth-friendly than the destructive and inequitable globalization paradigm of the last 50 years.
Using fear as a political tool for holding the Bad Guys at bay, without offering an alternative for broad social and political change, does not work. It did not get Hillary Clinton elected in 2016. It did not get Kamala Harris elected in 2024. It has not gotten down-ballot Democrats elected over the years. It does not win votes. It does not improve lives. It does not save the planet. All such tactics do is scare the people who use them.
The world is scary enough these days. Climate change is bringing chaotic weather that is killing people and destroying homes and whole communities with floods, wind, and wildfires. The oceans are dying, and toxins are building to lethal levels everywhere on land. The only system of global governance most of us have known is falling apart. The economy is in deep trouble on multiple fronts.
Focusing and amplifying fear so narrowly on Trump not only doesn’t work to stop Trump, it’s a dangerous diversion from our real work.
Maybe a Little About Trump…
I am not saying we should do nothing at the national political level but wait around and hope for something better in four years. I accept Bernie Sanders’ point that it’s good to have a “short-term strategy” for mobilizing against the worst of Trump’s abuses.
I don’t reject everything Trump does merely because it’s not the way it’s been done in the past. Lots of the things done in Washington have been bad and/or were done in silly ways. But I can see the danger underlying Trump’s performance art-approach to governance; the heartless haphazardness of the policies he tosses out, whether in seriousness or jest; and his reliance on Elon the Enforcer.
Such danger means that many of the actions grouped under the “resistance” label are probably needed. Legal moves to rein in Trump’s usurping of what is rightly legislative prerogative probably top my list.
It may also be useful to call your congressional representatives and senators if they’re in a position to do something meaningful and might conceivably be persuaded to act one way instead of another. But calling someone who’s vote is already a foregone conclusion — especially if they’re on your side — merely wastes valuable time.
At a time like this, a time of both extreme danger and enormous potential on multiple interlocking fronts, we have more important things to do.
Revolution Starts at Home
Unlike most Democrats, Bernie the independent Democratic Socialist talks about more than Trump. Indeed, he argues for going on “the offense,” too: “If we stand together and oppose right-wing efforts to divide us up by our race, our religion, our sexual orientation or where we were born — if we stand together, there is nothing that we cannot accomplish. Yes. We can provide a decent standard of living for every man, woman and child. Yes. We can lead the world in combatting climate change. Yes. We can end all forms of bigotry. Yes. We can create a government and an economy that works for all, not just the few.”
Rousing words, and I hope he’s right. I think he’s probably right. But perhaps not yet. It may take quite a while to turn around an American ship of state that has been propelled by oil in a destructive direction for such a long time.
What I — and lots of others — see right now in the US is huge potential for action and organizing at the local and, in some places, state level. This turn to the local isn’t just a reaction to the closing of possibilities at the national and international levels. It’s because local action is what this revolutionary moment calls for.
The breakdown we face is comprehensive. It’s rooted in many of our most basic cultural values and beliefs. And nobody is offering a comprehensive alternative rooted in different values that most of us can readily accept. Besides, revolutions imposed from above haven’t turned out all that well for humanity over the last century or two.
It’s time to try developing multiple alternatives from below. And time to realize that while local actions often don’t sound revolutionary, they can be.
Our Town
Take a local climate group, like the one in my liberal, real estate obsessed tourist town. Besides rooftop solar for those who can afford it, we’re seeking a way to build and operate solar at the municipal level that also makes carbon-free electricity accessible to low-income residents.
We’re aiming to better publicize and upgrade emergency response plans for floods and wildfires. We’re encouraging local “food gardens” than can be literal seedbeds for feeding ourselves if the climate and political breakdown suddenly becomes severe. And even if not everything we try works, we’re organizing into a community that works together.
Such town-based communities can work closely with other groups in other nearby towns and rural areas and use information and materials from further afield. There’s revolutionary change embedded in those small, apparently conventional actions.
It’s a parallel track that avoids the failed political track which grabs so much of people’s time and activist energy. Without the national political rhetoric, there’s even hope these efforts can attract followers and leaders from a broader segment of the community than do overtly liberal, anti-populist political movements.
This approach doesn’t topple governments, or not immediately anyhow. But it can reduce carbon and methane emissions a few pounds at a time. It can bring less plastics use. More walking and biking instead of driving. More staying home. Buying less of everything and more of what we do buy as “pre-used.”
Next thing you know, it could be Degrowth within a supportive, cohesive community. Or something similar but not the same that expresses the essence of the people who created it. It doesn’t need to “scale” as a uniform, recognizable something. It needs to scatter like seeds in the wind. Seeds that grow into unique plants that resemble and help each other but are self-sustaining.
Going local is our best, maybe only hope for a future that is simpler, cleaner, healthier, and happier than the world of endless crises and collapses long presided over by both US political parties and their centrist counterparts elsewhere. If you are one of the blessed few whose lives have been clean, healthy, and happy, thank your lucky stars and take a long, thoughtful look at what life is like for the many who aren’t so blessed.
If you are intrigued but not fully convinced, try reading by Murray Bookchin. Or watch a film on transition towns or permaculture cities. Or go out and commune with the Earth and its non-human creatures until you hear what they have to say. It won’t be about Trump, of that you can be sure.
