Long Is the Struggle, Hard the Fight*

I left this afternoon’s protest of Trump’s speech somewhat discouraged.  There were about a thousand protestors, all highly energized, but no one really had to confront them.  They were largely confined to a fenced area away from the parking and the (really long) line for entry to the speech.  (Trump, of course, was brought in another way.)  

     One woman had the gumption to protest outside the approved area; when the police told her to move, she responded that she was on public property and would protest there if she saw fit to do so.  To their credit, the police let her be.  But, mostly, the protest was confined and easily ignored.

     This is how it is going to be for awhile, I expect.  Speech will be free, but only under conditions that ensure no one, and particularly our leaders, will have to listen.  It puts me in mind of Potemkin villages; the great leader and his supporters create a facade of adulation and success behind which any dissent and suffering can be hidden away.

     Under these conditions, it is going to take a lot of time and energy to get enough people to listen to do any good.  Some of us remember how long it took to remove Nixon from office, and precisely because no one would listen.  Protests like the one today can help to create and sustain this energy, but they can also drain it away, particularly if it doesn’t seem to be accomplishing much.  And especially if it seems, as it did today, that the other side has vastly greater numbers.

     On the other hand….  Indivisible KY seems to be doing a very good job of coordinating the efforts of the various groups who have a stake in this.  We confronted this problem during the Vietnam War protests; we did okay, but perhaps Indivisible is doing better.  Speakers at today’s protest represented a wide array of groups who have reason to resist Trump and the GOP.  And they all stressed unity.

     And another thing—Trump seems to have inspired a degree of loathing that surpasses even what many of my generation thought about Nixon.  Social media has much to do with this.  His whining and childish tantrums and porcine wallowing in the excesses of wealth are on view all the time, and in nauseating detail.  I guess you can tell, I find him pretty loathsome too.

     In any case, it was a beautiful day for a protest.  

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*Thanks to Lyle Lovett