The Need for Protest

I am hearing and reading a lot of comments criticizing the anti-Trump rallies. Some common arguments have been that they are “pointless” and “stop traffic”. But it is important to remember that – unless you are a rich heterosexual white male – your rights and protections are a product of protest. Black people rallied and stopped traffic throughout the 60’s and eventually gained protections with civil rights. The Women’s Movement marched in the early 1900’s and eventually gained the right to vote; the Feminist Movement rallied in the 60’s and 70’s and gained some protections in the workplace and fought for gender equality. Laborers only have some worker protections like an 8-hour work day and a minimum wage because of those who unionized and fought back.

If everyone simply believed that rallying was “pointless” and “stopped traffic”, women and minorities would have no rights at all! We are the heirs of all the work of our ancestors; and now we owe it to our children and grandchildren to make sure that they can grow up in a better world. Shaming protesters for trying to protect themselves and their families is both idiotic and ungrateful.

The Weakness of the Democratic Party

Once again, the Democratic Party has demonstrated its inability to fight for the masses. Before the election, everyone was talking about how much of a “threat” Trump was and how he was a “danger to the republic”. But ever since Election Day, simply because a bunch of people filled his name in at the ballot box, everyone has a sudden case of convenient amnesia. Spineless liberals like Obama, Clinton, and Warren now expect us to forget that Trump is a racist, sexist, and Islamophobe – who has promised to actualize his ideas at the level of policy. Everyone is now foaming at the mouth with garbage about the need for a “smooth transition in power” – as if the internal legal mechanisms of government are more sacred than the lives directly impacted by it. Remember: for the past six years, the Republicans in Congress have gone out of their way to obstruct every piece of meaningful legislation brought forth. Democrats, though, were shamelessly fast in dropping to their knees as they declared they “look forward to working with President-elect Trump”.

This type of political U-Turn only proves that the Democratic Party is completely facile and will never be able to remedy the problems that confront us today. We cannot continue to pledge allegiance to a party that has proven, time after time, that it is unwilling to defend its constituents. We do not need a “smooth transition in power” and we do not need to “give Trump a chance” – we need militant organization and agitation outside of governmental politics in such a way that it makes it impossible for Trump to govern as he desires.

The former mayor of NYC who helped implement stop and frisk – Rudolph Guiliani – will probably be in the cabinet, alongside white nationalist Steve Bannon. But we should “give Trump a chance”, right?!

Oppression should never be “smooth” or “given a chance” – it should be subverted and disrupted at every turn.

Downplaying the Threat of a Trump Presidency

Liberals – stop downplaying the threat of a Trump presidency. People keep saying “it’s not that bad” because America has a process based on “checks and balances”. This is true in theory, but not always in practice. Prime example: in 1942, President Roosevelt threw 120,000 Japanese Americans into internment camps. He did not have, or need, the approval of Congress. He did not have to consult the Court. He gave an “Executive Order” – meaning he signed a napkin and that was it. If that was what FDR could do, imagine what Trump’s crazy ass could do.

Another example: last year President Obama hit Syria with 1,800 air strikes. Did he have the approval of Congress, you ask? Absolutely not. All he had was an Executive Order.

Ask the Japanese Americans and the tens of thousands of dead Syrians about those “checks and balances” before scoffing at those who are protesting across the country.