Quiet, Revisited

NPR ran a story last week about the song "Quiet," which women performed at the 2017 Women's March and subsequently went viral.

Two years later and I still tear up whenever I hear the song and get chills thinking about my experience at the Women's March. During that first protest, I felt hopeful for the first time since the 2016 election about our capacity to resist and endure Trump's Republican rule, after weeks of profound sadness, anger, and fear.

During these past two years of actually living through it, I've wavered now and then. We continue to live in a moment of both feminist resurgence and deep backlash, as we've done throughout our nation's history. More than ever, I believe that justice will never be a "one and done" thing, but something each generation will have to continually strive for. And, just as important, every gain must be vigilantly protected and never taken for granted.

I desperately want a progressive woman to win the presidency in the United States. I don't know if it will happen in my lifetime, particularly as so many on the left remain just as resentful of "identity politics" and threatened by women's progress as those on the right. I may not see that anytime soon, even in my lifetime, perhaps.

At the same time, we've seen a record number of women in the House of Representatives, as a result of the 2018 mid-term elections. That is no small thing.

Two years ago, I wrote that I had hoped the moderate-to-left side of the political spectrum could unite in their opposition to Trump. I think that has happened in some ways, but not in others. Perhaps this is too much of a generalization but a significant division seems to rest on whether our strategy should be defeating Trump vs. whether we need to defeat Trump and also usher in the socialist revolution at the same time.

The former assumes that it will be enough of a challenge to defeat Trump. The latter assumes that 2020 will be an easy election, so we may as well make the most of it. I have grave doubts about that logic, given the existential threat Trump poses to our democracy.

Fox News essentially acts as the Trump/Republican state media channel, brainwashing millions of rightwing Americans. They are already now hate-obsessed with Rep. Ocasio-Cortez and have amped up the socialist fear-mongering now that the mainstream media has anointed Bernie Sanders as the leader of the Democratic Party. I also have serious doubts as to whether the 2020 election will be free and fair. And, even if a Democrat were to win, I question whether Trump would ever concede. Remember, in 2016, he had already primed Americans for drawn-out battle, if he lost, to contest what he was calling an election "rigged" for his opponent.

A lot of this danger seemed more obvious in 2017, as Trump opponents united in staunch opposition to him. Despite whatever internal conflicts we may have had with one another, I think many people were alarmed by the norms he had already violated. What changed? Have Americans become inured and numb to his transgressions? Does the US not look like what they think an authoritarian regime stereotypically looks like? Do people think it hasn't been as bad as they thought it would be? Have people given up on a female president out of fear, and are investing hope in a white male savior? Do they truly think the Democrats are worse, or just simply weak?

I don't know. I remain fearful, angry, hopeful, and inspired.


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