[ Democracy defenders need to unify, strategize, and pull from
deep wells of conviction to turn back the MAGA tide.]
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DEFEATING THE RIGHT: ‘THE BLOOD-DIMMED TIDE IS LOOSED’  
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Max Elbaum
January 21, 2022
Organizing Upgrade
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_ Democracy defenders need to unify, strategize, and pull from deep
wells of conviction to turn back the MAGA tide. _

Then-President Donald Trump waves after speaking at a campaign rally
at the Waukesha County Airport on Oct. 24, 2020, in Waukesha,
Wisconsin., Voice of America

 

Last week Donald Trump told Pennsylvania Republican officials
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he is placing such emphasis this year on local races for election
supervisors across the country in 2022:

_“We have to be a lot sharper the next time when it comes to
counting the vote… Sometimes the vote counter is more important than
the candidate. They have to get a lot tougher and smarter.”_

Then in a weekend Arizona rally he was blunt about what needed to
change in terms of race relations
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this country:

_“The left is now rationing life-saving therapeutics based on race,
discriminating against and denigrating, just denigrating white people
to determine who lives and who dies… in New York state, if you’re
white, you have to go to the back of the line to get medical help. If
you’re white, you go right to the back of the line.” _

Meanwhile Trump favorite Kelli Ward, chair of the Arizona GOP, calls
for the arrest of election officials
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labels the Biden administration an “illegitimate regime” and says:

_“I want to see arrests. I want to see perp walks. I want to see
people in jail for stealing this election.”_

Opponents of Trump and Trumpism have warned for months that January 6
was just a rehearsal for better planned election heists in 2022 and
2024. And if successful, the result would be a racist authoritarian
regime imposing a Jim Crow 2.0 system and repressing all opposition.

Now we have the MAGA leadership itself not just admitting that
scenario, but proudly boasting about it.

A TOXIC BREW HAS BOILED OVER

Numerous tightly argued articles have appeared in the last few months
dissecting the outlook and plans of the Trumpist camp and their deep
roots in U.S. history. Pieces such as “Trump’s Next Coup Has
Already Begun
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by Barton Gellman, “American Fascism: It Has Happened Here
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by Sarah Churchwell, “From ‘Ku Kluxism’ to Trumpism
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by Charles M. Blow, and numerous others have provided vital analysis
and insight into what makes Trumpism tick.

But to capture the full intensity of this moment, to squarely face the
depths of irrationality and hatred displayed at Trump rallies and
pulsing throughout the MAGA bloc, it may be necessary to turn to
poetry. Writing at a challenging moment a century ago—in the midst
of the influenza pandemic and the aftermath of World War I—W.B.
Yeats penned these often-quoted words in his poem “The Second
Coming”:

_“__The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere/The ceremony of
innocence is drowned.”_

There are reasons we face today’s dire political threat; they lie in
the underlying structures of U.S. society as it has evolved since
1619. But the result is that a sizable portion of the population is,
at least temporarily, beyond reason. A brew of white racial anxiety,
Evangelical Christian nationalism, and toxic masculinity—stirred by
right-wing billionaires, GOP political strategists, assorted
demagogues, and money-hustling grifters —has boiled over.

BATTLES NOT FOUGHT ARE NEVER WON

That tide will not recede until it is beaten back. That means we’re
in a big fight. And we don’t get to choose the battlefield.
Trumpism’s plan to take power includes capturing public opinion
(“winning the narrative”), dominating both the vote and the vote
counting, and utilizing non-electoral action à la January 6 as
needed. Our resistance must be across-the-board as well.

There are strategies on offer which can lead to victory. The “Block
and Build” perspective (explained by Tarso Ramos here
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Rand Wilson here
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argues that defeating Trumpism and increasing progressive clout are
intertwined tasks that can and must be taken up simultaneously. We
need to develop such strategies thoughtfully, build on the
coordination and unity that we saw in 2020, and fight from the ground
up. If we succeed, the result can be not just a victory over the MAGA
bloc, but the beginning of a new political cycle that leads toward a
genuine multi-racial democracy, a sustainable planet, and an economy
that works for all.

Especially when facing a “blood-dimmed tide,” no strategy can
succeed if it is not anchored by people who are committed to give the
fight everything they’ve got. And beyond that, to do what it takes
to raise the spirits and stiffen the spines of all those who are
daunted by the enemy’s ruthlessness and seeming strength. Yeats did
not see enough of such people when he added these lines to his poem:

_“The best lack all conviction, while the worst/Are full of
passionate intensity.”_

Today the core of the MAGA bloc is certainly ginned up. But it is our
responsibility to see that “the better angels” of our
country—those who stand for democracy, justice, and peace—match
and outdo them in conviction.

All tendencies to underestimate the danger at hand—whether out of
denial, accepting the mythology of ‘it can’t happen here” or
belief that Trumpist reaction will not be any worse than what we live
with now—must be dispensed with. So too must those tendencies’
mirror images —belief that the deck is too stacked against us, or
that cooperation (especially electoral cooperation) with
anti-Trumpists who do not share our left politics is unacceptable,
impossible, or worthless.

Politics holds no guarantees. But battles not fought are never won.
The first step toward defeating the MAGA bloc in 2022 and 2024 is
setting our sights on it. And then keeping our eyes on the prize until
it is done.

_[MAX ELBAUM has been active in peace, anti-racist and radical
movements since the 1960s. He is an editor of Organizing Upgrade and
the author of Revolution in the Air: Sixties Radicals Turn to Lenin,
Mao and Che
[[link removed]] (Verso
Books, Third Edition, 2018).]_

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