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Loving America and Resisting Trump: The New Patriotism

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#1

Loving America and Resisting Trump: The New Patriotism

Frida Berrigan

So reality has inexorably, inescapably penetrated my life. It didn’t take long. Yes, Donald Trump is actually the president of the United States. In that guise, in just his first weeks in office, he’s already declared war on language, on loving, on people who are different from him -- on the kind of world, in short, that I want to live in. He’s promised to erect high walls, keep some people in and others out and lock up those he despises, while threatening to torture and abuse with impunity.

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#2

Thank you for this vision Frida, millions loved and respected your father for his tireless, courageous work for justice!

Over the last 8 years people were mesmerized by the Obama “progressive” charade and wasted 8 years - many were effectively silenced by believing the “change we could believe-in” BS mantra, a political deceit that never materialized - it was never meant to, it was a lie and deception from the beginning even given R’Con obstruction. The last 8 years of collusion and capitulation set the stage for the present - all those that “carried-on” and slept without demanding true progressive leadership from Obama, radical DP reforms, and courageous leadership were in large part responsible - and betrayed!

The R & D Tweedle-Dee & Tweedle-Dumb dog & pony show serving the ruling class, war-machine, banker/wall street greed, and corporate profits uber-alles, continued to dismantle our democratic free republic and now we can see clearly where that path leads!

The millions now in the streets give me some hope and show what must be done - unity of purpose - unity on common issues, and unity demanding a true progressive people’s opposition party dedicated to the Common Good, peace, a sustainable future for all, and justice, not another “pretty-face” side of the same coin of usury and domination by big-money!

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#3

Obama: the dem president who wanted to cut social security.

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#4

Thank you to your parents for standing up and having the courage to be the side of real democracy and peace, and thank you to you for standing by those beliefs that are being swept away by the political and business classes .

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#5

‘All we are saying, is give peace a chance.’ ~John Lennon

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#6

Will we? Will they? Isn’t that the question old radicals are asking about the young? Will they?

We did back in the sixties but what happened later? If we are honest about it…WE didn’t do all that much when it came down to the shove needing a push after the sixties. Nor have we since.

The honest truth is that when it came down to a pro people activist - our Bernie - or a billionaire proto fascist - guess what we did?

The fact isn’t so much that ’ Hillary the next to be anointed one’ was so incredibly disliked that a billionaire con man seemed more legit but that WE weren’t what we used to be. We let them rob us of the people’s candidate. We let them tell us that a man who marched in civil rights marches was not popular among blacks. Who said so anyway? The white mainstream media said so that’s who.

Then they told us to vote for Hillary despite her Wall St .speeches and so forth. She was one of us they said because she wasn’t one of ‘them’! Except that she always was one of them wasn’t she!

What happened to the people’s candidate - Bernie is what should have happened to us! We had truly lost sight of the prize. We lost a sense of ourselves as Americans … but Trump has reminded us big time. He is not one of us and because he wants what he wants, we all got conned… and it hurts to see it.

Except that now we are scared aren’t we? Actually scared. The corporate coup proceeds for real like we never imagined. We sense that he is robbing us of representational government. He wants to be autocratic like a king and he really means it. The billionaires of government settle in. Who ever would have expected that?

Is it just me or does everybody get the sense that a government run by these billionaires will not be a representative form of governement?

We could have had Bernie and imagine the difference between his kind of administration and that which we are getting from Trump’s.

But we didn’t come together and support the people’s candidate and now we are seeing just how much that we needed to.

So the question becomes… Will we?

We failed the young because we got old and comfy. Let’s hope the young find Billionaire rule uncomfortable. It is very encouraging that it wasn’t progressive pundits and writers and NPR and whomever who organized the response to Trump. The same people who couldn’t band together to elect the people’s candidate Bernie are now telling us what we need to do to resist Trump. Who are they kidding? Many write for a pay check I think. The professional progressive and all that.

Meanwhile they helped give us Trump. Lest we forget. Lest they forget. They dropped the ball. Hail the next generation of activists… we need them! Look at all those pink hats marching. The world started marching.

There lies our hope. We have seen… again.

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#7

It isn’t all of us oldsters , but unfortunately too many got old and comfy after the sixties. I have been an activist especially for animals and the environment for decades ( including after the sixties) but we can always do more. After the draft ended , it seemed that some matters got calmer, but there were still plenty of us who protested wars after that, as well as social injustice. What we need are all generations to work together not just one. And we need a common cause - it’s called climate change and corruption.

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#8

Remember also- that these times now are truly insane; however we should have recognized the neoliberal dems for what they are versus the true progressives. We should have not been so complacent with outsourcing and deunionizing, and bought the coolaid about globalization.

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#9

Thank you, Frida. This article is beautifully written, and very moving. I wish that every American could, and would, read it, with mind and heart open!

#10

In all sincerity,I have never stopped missing, and grieving for, John Lennon. What a waste! We sure could use him now.

Thank you for helping to keep his words of wisdom alive!

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#11

Indeed! Last summer should have seen us all in the streets!

#12

Sometimes, the course NOT taken reveals true motives.

In Frida’s inspirational testimony, she recalls the Marginalized Voices that, after 9/11. called for an “…International Police Response…” to those events, instead of the “…unilateral Militarized approach, adopted by the Bush Administration.”

As with the Non-Investigation following 11/22/63, a genuine International Police Investigation into 9/11 would have turned up, as culpable, the very actors charged with conducting it, and immediately de-Legitimized the Pretense our Government is using to Wreak Havoc on the Middle East, and our Constitution.

That said, it was sure good to see evidence of the torch of Advocacy for Peace being passed on, Generationally.

I have always taken pride in my own family’s background, very similar to Frida’s, and look to the day when War Resisters are Universally given the respect THEY deserve.

I’ll know that that has happened, when one of US gets honored before the Super Bowl, instead of a War Participant.

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#13

“New patriotism.” An empty name for an empty era. We’re stuck with reality. Years of work went into successfully splitting us apart, pitting us against each other by class, race, and ideology.
America is its people, and the people have been divided and conquered. Many understood that the years of the Obama administration were our last chance to bring the “masses” together, to push back for the common good. We’re more deeply split apart by c;ass and race than we were eight years ago.

#14

Interesting issue. There’s nothing new about progressive politics in the US. My own great-grandparents were solid progressives early in the 20th century. It’s about building a just society from the bottom up, centered on the concept of “the common good.” This ranges from legitimate poverty relief to sensible taxation of corporations/the rich. In a progressive system, tax revenues are put into those things needed for the common good/growth and strength of the overall economy, rather than into maintaining wars and the biggest prison system in the modern world.

Clearly, there is little public interest in a progressive agenda. The focus remains on protecting the advantages of the working/middle class. Since Reagan, the work has gone into the upward redistribution of America’s collective wealth, while gradually transitioning the US itself into just another third world labor state.

#15

People have grown expert at making excuses after the fact. My point wasn’t about the many people who remained active and helped organize local social justice issues in their communities.

My point is the many who once marched in the sixties and then when they were the older generation and saw the need to support the people’s candidate once again but chose the delusional comfy and complacent or partisan in some manner or other. We let them keep the people’s candidate from office and instead place an autocratic ultra conservative billionaire on a throne.

Look back at how they banded together and pulled the rug out from under Bernie! Even supposedly liberal media institutions restricted giving him coverage and instead overtly supported ‘her’ whether she was right or wrong. The media saw Bernie drawing huge crowds and then they well paid balked at the idea of a real people’s candidate possibly winning in a landslide. So they played footsie with Trump and treated Hillary as if she were actually popular.

But they (including a large number of progressive pundits who became fixated at their own image seen in print and getting responses.) dropped the hammer on Bernie. Suddenly the liberal left wanted to show how ‘not necessarily liberal’ they could be.

Did they remember who they were in the sixties? Many did not. Too many did not. We dropped the ball and when given the one chance to elect a true people’s candidate… we couldn’t be who we once were (even when we still continued to talk that Revolution Rag stuff to our kids). We weren’t able to come together for the sake of our own interests and that of our kids. We failed them and ourselves.

What is worse is that the ultra conservative, Denialist, racist, corporatist anti-democracy forces heard the wake up call and ended up taking over in an electoral college coup.

Where were we?

#16

Absolutely spot on, Coyote. You zeroed in on the most important thing Frida said. Your post brought tears to my eyes.

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#17

The Obama administration’s purpose was to keep us divided, and it succeeded spectacularly. Note its pathological concentration on wedge issues. Just the flip side of the Repug strategy. Meanwhile the wars go on, income inequality increases, police violence increases, Black Americans’ suffering increases, and so on. So, yes, we’re more deeply divided than eight years ago, but it’s no accident. Which is not to say that it’s the primary goal. Just call it useful “collateral damage” in the push for “full spectrum dominance”.

#18

Wow, Frida, you are all over the place with this article. Did you love the Obama for the drones he used, or for the whistleblowers he prosecuted, or for his comments about Snowden and Assange. I know he was under pressure from the warmongers. Do you really believe Hillary would be a better option ? She is a proven hawk to say nothing of the lies, ( e mails), the corrupt Clinton foundation, the trail of bodies in the Clintons rise to the White House, her hidden speeches to the banksters. Please enough with the maudlin sentiments of 911. Why not a curiosity as to whom were the real perpetrators of the explosions which collapsed the towers. We admire your passion but aim it at the proper targets.

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