a new march on washington

Short version:

I imagine a massive crowd gathers on inauguration day, no violence, no noise, maybe a few anti-Trump, anti-hate signs. They stand silently, their numbers the important part, and they turn their back on the proceedings.

Americans would hardly go for that, of course. We like to make noise, like to disrupt actively rather than (deliberately) passively. It is the American way. If the current method isn't working, you're just not putting enough effort into it.

Long version:

I was talking to my ex the other day about the protests this week, how it feels like they cannot possibly accomplish anything but to maybe satisfy something a little therapeutic in those participating, and to piss off those who are not. Not that there isn't a place for (deliberately) pissing people off. But, it feels to me--and for the record I am a white male so maybe I've just got the privilege of holding off until the protest is more convenient--like something more deliberate, more thought out, more... Really, I think it's numbers that that will matter. I mean, Trump's supporters don't care about women or those with darker skin--and yes, I generalize, but so the fuck what? They just de facto supported misogyny and bigotry, turning a blind eye to it if not outright promoting it. That there are women among them, that there are people of color among them--that is not as important as the institutionalization and normalization of offensive behavior that comes from all of those votes for Donald Trump.

It seems that what matters, in the face of an executive office and both branches of the legislative (and potentially the judicial) turning to the Right, is the numbers to really make a fucking point. That is, having enough of a mass movement that they have no choice but to listen. A protest in one city might help alleviate the bad feelings of some of those involved, but what does it really accomplish? Especially right now. The election is done, but Trump is not even president yet. These protests will not stop the process. Faithless electors are unlikely. The process will continue. January 20, 2017, Donald Trump will be sworn in as President of these United States. The only choice his opponents have is to make sure that they... we are heard.

Anyway, I was telling my ex that what we should do is all show up in DC on inauguration day, make it massive, make it impossible to ignore. That very same day, the Million Woman March event on Facebook was going around. But that's just part of what we need. We need not just one million but many millions of women. And, we need men. And we need people of color. (Ignore the intersectional bit of these arbitrary divisions for the moment.) We need natives. We need foreigners. We need gay people. We need straight people. We need everyone.

I brought up SNCC while talking to my ex about all this. The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. We need something like that, to bring together the women's groups, the Black Lives Matter groups, the LGBTQ groups, and to get all the straight white men who should be offended by the mistreatment of these and so many other marginalized groups. We do not need--though it may feel great in the short term--scattered protests in a handful of cities. We need a singular, coordinated, focused effort to gather together and be heard.

We cannot stop Trump from becoming president, but maybe.... No, no maybes. We WILL make him listen to us. There will be no banning of Muslims, no more disproportionate shootings of black men by the cops, no more conversion therapy or talk of marriage just being between one man and one woman, no more grabbing women by, well, any body part they do not want to be grabbed by.

Donald Trump may be president, and he may have both houses of congress on his side, but this is still a government of the people, by the people for the people.

That doesn't just mean the winners. That doesn't just mean white Christian males. It means everyone.

The winners want unity? They must be forced to include us. We must stand up and demand as much.