It’s been another crazy week for our nation, with many pundits weighing in. One voice in particular resonated: “In many American homes, discussion of politics has become verboten…sacrificing the value of discussion to keep the peace…We can no longer afford to permit those around us to bury their heads in the sand and pretend this isn’t happening…This is about country, not politics.”
So said lawyer and law professor Joyce Vance of Civil Discourse on Substack. And if you’re not following her and Marc Elias of Democracy Docket for legal news and analysis, you should be. Because many unfortunately “play” lawyer on social media and in the media, along with too many thinking they play the role of progressive activist or dedicated Democrat. Instead, they are indeed acting as if what’s happening isn’t the current dire reality—or a danger to all of us.
Joyce Vance was specifically addressing the occupant of the White House’s social media missive to execute Democratic members of Congress, also combat veterans, for their video that stated a fact: Military members must refuse illegal orders. Yet her message must extend farther than this latest fascist atrocity that is unfortunately also being downplayed by those who know better. Here’s looking at you, yet again, complicit Republicans in Congress.
Therefore, as we approach Thanksgiving when many Americans will gather with family and friends and purport to be grateful for abundance in their lives, there’s not a better time to ask an increasingly important question once again.
Is keeping the peace and maintaining relationships with those who continue to support this disgrace of a presidential administration—or at least voted for this tyrannical nightmare a second time, perhaps before they were personally adversely affected—is it really worth it? Or is maintaining our democracy and our human decency, both currently under brutal and relentless attack, more urgently pressing in its importance and lasting effects on all of us?
It’s time folks stood up and spoke up, at the Thanksgiving table, and everywhere else in their lives. Politeness is wasted on those who take full advantage of friendship and family because they’ve never been held accountable for their ignorance, indifference, outright bigotry, or selfish stupidity. For the irrevocable and horrific damage they have done to our democracy—and our very lives.
Which brings me to a quote from author end essayist Naomi Shulman, currently circulating on social media for good reason: “Nice people made the best Nazis. My mom grew up next to them. They got along, refused to make waves, looked the other way when things got ugly and focused on happier things than ‘politics.’ They were lovely people who turned their heads as their neighbors were dragged away. You know who weren’t nice people? Resisters.”
As Joyce Vance always ends her Civil Discourse posts, “We’re in this together.” Those who aren’t willing to confront, to push back against friends or family who have contributed to the very things we are battling, those people aren’t resisting. They are instead perpetuating the “polite” problem, and the ongoing disgrace to our nation and its people that is deliberately eroding democratic norms.
Anne Frank wrote, “How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.” It’s time folks stop waiting for their fascist-leaning friends and family members to see the light, or to give a damn about anyone else.
Democracy is not passive, it’s not a spectator sport like football games Americans watch after stuffing themselves with food that some of their friends and family would cruelly deny to those deemed undeserving, including immigrants and the impoverished (while calling themselves devout Christians, no less).
Hence, more people seeking to improve the world, as opposed to maintaining their polite status quo by burying their heads in the sand, would be something to truly be thankful for. Because fascism is not and never will be a mere difference of opinion.
And, as one of my rubber stamps says, “Thanksgiving is, after all, a word of action.”