In the 2016 presidential election, Michelle Obama made the mantra, “When they go low, we go high.” The meaning was, we mustn’t stoop to the other side’s use of slander, insult, and lies; all we have to do is put ot our ideas.
It’s the old liberal belief: try to find some common ground with your opponent, and work with them, for the welfare of the country. But Alas! The Republicans, except for an honorable few (let’s be fair here), have resorted to hints of racism, distortion of the other side’s ideas and statements, exagerated fears of COMMUNISM (when the topic was something as innocuous as Medicare), fears of white people losing their rights by Black people exercising their rights, a lower status for the once-dominant group, homophobia (“Gay teachers are going after your kids!”)-I just scratched the surface.
The old liberal belief assumes our opponents share SOME of our values, and also care about the people’s well-being; but, from the Goldwater campaign on 1964, through Nixon’s “Southern Strategy,” through Reagan’s “Welfare Queen,” through George HW Bush’s ads about Willie Horton, through the terrorizing of people counting the ballots in the 1980 Presidential election, culminating in Donald trump and his murderous mob stampeding the Capitol on January 6, 2021-fear, racism, and bullying have been in their arsenal. And, in an attempt to maintain peace and order, “for the good of the country,” liberals are expected to give in.
I’ve been terrorized by bullies as a kid, and the “teachers” kept telling me to ignore it, or treated ME like I was the couse of the abuse I endured; the common theme is “don’t cause any trouble, but upset anything or anyone, so as to maintain order.” The rightist bullies, from the editorial board of the National Review to backwoods trump-worshipers, would take this as a sign of weakness and keep stomping on us.
No more of that! When you’re being bullied, you stand up to them. Our new approach to the trump terror is to call them out on their racism, misogyny, homophobia, and anti-Semitism. Let people know about the kind of people who would use these appeals to hate and fear, that they would destroy any and every advancement and improvement of our democratic system.
Don’t get me wrong, please: I’m NOT advocating the some bullying they give us, but to let them know we can’t and won’t push us around.
Nuff said.
My Novel, “Soldier Of The Cross.”
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