I STILL Swear This Isn’t Like All The Other “What Is To Be Done” Essays, Part Three

Over and out!

You read the first, you read the second (I hope!) Here’s the last one, it’s short, hope it helps.

Don’t count on them fucking up. I call this the “Ah! Well. Nevertheless” rule, and those of you who are as internet-poisoned as I am will recognize its original application was to claims that Trump was about be taken down for one of his many criminal acts and/or political outrages (“I’d Like to See Ol Donny Trump Wriggle His Way Out of THIS Jam!”) which, as we have seen, always proved mistaken. Now Trump is about to run another administration and, given the insane moves he’s already made, the temptation is great to assume he will belly-flop. (Seriously, Matt Gaetz as Attorney General? It’s like he’s writing my material for me!)

If you are so tempted, I would counsel you to examine your heart and ask: Do I feel this way because the evidence shows that Trump gets punished for, well, anything, or because I am grasping at logical straws in the madhouse that is now America? Pretty sure it’s number two!

That’s precisely why I say don’t count on it. Not because it can’t happen. I said yesterday in Part 2 that a grand fuck-up may ensue, and I stick by that. This administration is even more than the last one a criminal conspiracy and the longer such enterprises wear on the more conflicts arise, mistakes are made, and bags fumbled.

I only caution you on this for the same reason I cautioned you against fantasizing that you are a political consultant tasked with finding the magic words or formula to bring back the Democrats: Because if you start playing those mind games you will drive yourself nuts. Trump is going to get away with some incredible shit. It’s not inevitable but it’s the track record. Don’t let yourself imagine that the appointment of, oh, I don’t know, Special Prosecutor Rudy Giuliani will lead to the catastrophe that collapses or even slightly hobbles this administration. It’ll be funny, sure, but don’t start placing bets with your sanity. Time will tell; wait for it.

Look for people who are not full of shit. (As Mr. Rogers said!) One good thing about this low, mean era is, it’s easier than usual to see who the finks are. I like to think I’m politically astute, sort of, but I was shocked to see Adam Schiff voting the other day for the Stop Terror-Financing and Tax Penalties on American Hostages Act, with its “termination of tax-exempt status of terrorist supporting organizations” clause that would let Tubby and his mob cut the 501(c)(3) of any group they don’t like.

I don’t care that the bill has good parts, and I don’t care whether it was some arcane horse-trading thing, that is a fink move at a time like this, up there with Harris and Biden playing patty-cake with Trump. (Imagine calling a guy a fascist and then pledging to support him for the good of the American People!)  I’m not looking to back any more wheeler-dealers; nothing but straight, uncut antifa for me.

I am deliberately refraining from advising you on what groups to join or donate to, or even to join and donate at all. You know best what you’re down for. But since you probably have a few orgs you trust to hold the line, I do advise you check, as I have, the groups you’ve supported in the past to see if they’ve folded or gone over so you don’t waste time later.

If non-finks currently seem thin on the ground, keep your eyes peeled because some people will come running to the barricades and your bullshit detector (which must be good, else why would you be reading me?) will tell you which ones are fakes or agents provocateurs and which ones are worth moving toward if shit gets real.

Hang onto yourself. I don’t think it will surprise you to learn that this readership trends older than some others, so I feel comfortable assuming nearly all of you remember the Bush years at least and maybe some presidential disasters before that. You remember, too, how you reacted. Did you tend toward quietism? Go back to the land? Did you exchange love’s bright and fragile glow for the glitter and the rouge? Or did you go the other way, or no way at all?

I wouldn’t be surprised if you were reacting that same way now, because those defeats have always seemed catastrophic, at least at first, and we develop coping strategies that we tend to repeat. Maybe some of you are enlightened enough to have learned a new way this time – bless you, you should be sending me advice.

This go-round I’m sure is going to be worse. The guy really is a fascist, plus he’s nuts. He’s going to try some wild shit and he may pull off some things that don’t comport with what you want to think is America, and – I really hate to say it – it may just turn out that from now until the EU Armies of Liberation put us down, that will actually be what America is.

Right now the Prestige Press are doing its usual stupid new-admin coverage, the horseshit after the horserace, so despite occasional stories about how Tubby plans to murdalize democracy poking through, it feels pretty familiar. And your brain and adrenals are probably reading it as familiar. But you may also have, justifiably, a greater sense of dread cooking on the back burners of your amygdala.

Back in late 2020, when some of us noticed Trump and his goons prepping to overturn the election, Elie Mystal said something in response to that moment’s nervous version of What Is To Be Done that I liked: “My dude, I don’t have a plan for ‘nothing matters anymore.’ The end of democratic self-government is not a thing one has a legal plan for… Die. My plan would be to die. I’m not Keanu Reeves.” You will think it’s weird but I found, and still find, that comforting — because I recognize the cold ring of truth in it.

But I also remember how John Garfield played that bit in Body and Soul, turning the threat of it around when he told the goon, “What are you gonna do? Kill me? Everybody dies.” It’s heroic, but it’s also resigned — in the best way, that is. He’s lost the illusion that cowardice makes anything better. It would be great if it doesn’t come to that, but it’s good to know that if it does, it might come as enlightenment.