Yet our only alternative to Trump, Joe Biden, has assured his wealthy donors that "nothing would fundamentally change" under his administration. In other words, Biden is committed to the same intolerable, ever-worsening "normal" that gave us Donald Trump. And whatever his recent obligatory lip service to progressive goals, decades-long experience with Biden's Democratic Party--whose leaders insist on an enemy of change like Biden as their candidate--should warn us a disgusting, ever-more-dangerous "normal" is all we're likely to get--
--UNLESS we revolt in a radical way unprecedented on these shores. That way--rooted in telling the ugly, brutal truth about "normal"--is the way of satyagraha. Under satyagraha, Biden would never pass for "centrist" or "moderate," as corporate media propaganda numbs us to sleep by describing him. For in our "interesting times," moderation and centrism mean commitment to a catastrophic "normal that always gets worse." Bad enough, via unaddressed climate emergency, to destroy human civilization itself. Trump himself should be an ear-shattering alarm bell awakening us to just where "normal" leads.
In the final analysis, what a majority of people are willing to accept as "normal"--even if "acceptance" amounts to stomaching the disgusting as unchangeable--defines the nature of that society. For convenience, we can call the majority of people (whatever crap they may be stomaching as "normal") the political mainstream. In a society where what's "normal" does happen to be mostly crap, the real, ultimate task of political movements is to get to root of things, exposing "normal" crap in majority eyes for what it is. Or, in a highly useful phrase, to "radicalize the mainstream."
I've used that phrase, "radicalize the mainstream," in numerous articles over the course of my own political evolution, but the piece just cited, defending Bernie or Bust, is probably most relevant here. It's easy to look down on Bernie or Bust (especially if exposed to Democrat propaganda); once helping elect Trump became the "bust" option, even I as its co-founder found its chief weapon of leverage against Democrats too dangerous. But as regards political truth-telling, its strategy was always flawlessly logical: take the fairly mainstream Democrats Sanders had awakened (or drawn to such a lackluster party) and radicalize them some more.
So, in moving from Bernie or Bust to satyagraha strategizing, my aim has remained consistent: to radicalize mainstream voters complacently accepting a "normal" loaded with ever-more-dangerous crap. By running in the mainstream Democratic Party, Bernie awakened mainstream voters to leftist policy options they'd never thought possible before, thereby "radicalizing the mainstream." But given Bernie's delicate, precarious standing among Democrats, we knew he'd never be able to go far enough, organizing Bernie of Bust to radicalize the mainstream even further.
But, beyond radicalizing the mainstream by its message, Bernie or Bust had the additional mission of exerting leverage on Democrats by threatening to seduce Bernie's voters away from the party. Since this tool of leverage is far too dangerous under Trump, the messaging itself must become the means of leverage. But to carry this heavy burden, the needed messaging must become correspondingly more radical--as in satyagraha. The leverage threat satyagraha poses to Democrat politicians is a growing mainstream so radicalized, so immune to Democrat propaganda, that it makes their days in office a living hell.
Present-Day Satyagraha: One Important Example
Satyagraha, as Gandhi coined the term, is rooted in two Sanskrit words, one meaning "truth," and the other variously translated as "insistence," "persistence," "obstinacy," or "force." While all the varied translations are relevant, my updated usage will focus on two: "truth obstinacy" and "truth force." In a U.S. political landscape relentlessly defined by propaganda, obstinate insistence on a few well-chosen, unwelcome truths is the only thing likely to give a movement political force.
To keep this article at readable length, I'll cite only one satyagraha example--but it's an important one. Present-day satyagraha should focus on crucial truths hiding in plain sight, buried either by corporate media propaganda--or, what's the same thing--its simple unwillingness to connect the obvious dots. One such crucial truth, hidden in plain sight, is that Democrats are gaining progressives' votes for Biden by extortion, offering nothing we value highly except what everyone must value highly: not being Trump. In other words--in a slogan our satyagraha movement should make viral--"they held a TRUMP to our heads." Satyagraha progressives who vote for Biden should loudly, publicly proclaim that we are "Biden hostage voters."
Such open, deeply unwelcome truth-telling--deeply unwelcome, that is, to the Dem establishment--will prove extremely useful in making Biden's election an occasion to recruit for mass protest at his inauguration. And after that inauguration, it will prove an ideal rhetoric tool to lobby for national ranked-choice voting, as our means to destroy Republican craziness as Democrats' weapon of electoral extortion.
In my next piece, "The Staff of Satyagraha: A Movement of Movements," I'll discuss the potential movement personnel for satyagraha messaging and peaceful direct action, as well as delving deeper into their demands and rhetoric.
(Article changed on August 21, 2020 at 12:10)
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