Bronze canaries in the coal mine
Attacks on minorities and women signal authoritarianism
It is no fun being the target of authoritarians, even if you are used to it as minorities and women are by now.
The looming prospect of Roe v. Wade being overturned by a conservative-skewed Supreme Court, the further rollback of the Voting Rights Act, and continued attacks on LGBT rights all point toward the same thing as Amazon’s sale of hoodies emblazoned with “Donald Trump 2024 Take America Back”:
Some people think America rightfully belongs exclusively to them, and are prepared to force the point at our expense.
When right-wing media attacked gymnast Simone Biles for taking care of herself, and when Trump falsely said “The woman with the purple hair played terribly” despite soccer star Megan Rapinoe (whom he pointedly refused to name) having scored two goals in America’s bronze medal victory over Australia, we saw the Olympics being used to drive a political wedge.
Trump asserted, “If our soccer team, headed by a radical group of Leftist Maniacs, wasn’t woke, they would have won the Gold Medal instead of the Bronze.” Sure, and if he hadn’t been a rotten president, he wouldn’t have had to incite a mob to storm the Capitol in a bid to overturn the election. I am not a particular fan of the term “woke,” because I have never been fashionable except by accident; but its use as a pejorative, like mockery of “political correctness,” is invariably designed to demonize simple virtues like respect.
John Haltiwanger of Business Insider reported on Fox News’ Tucker Carlson broadcasting from Budapest: “Many American conservatives admire Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, a xenophobic, anti-LGBTQ authoritarian who’s been in power for 11 years…. They see Orbán as a more effective version of Trump — and a model for the future of right-wing politics in the US.”
Despite the media’s tendency toward moral equivalence in its portrayal of Democrats and Republicans, most of us can recognize the contrast between President Biden’s annoying habit of saying “No, I really mean it” (when no one doubted his sincerity) and his predecessor strutting about like Mussolini, calling journalists “fake news” for reporting rather than flattering, and expecting the world to turn on his every whim.
The trouble is that a sizable minority of Americans finds Trump’s displays of bad character appealing, which reflects poorly on their own. This is worse than a lapse in judgment or a misunderstanding. When a leader elicits applause for false and malicious statements, we see the willful trading in antisocial behavior, the transformation of neighbors who can respectfully disagree into “us” and “them,” with “them” portrayed as a threat. We see the beginnings of a mob, of chaos being sown by an opportunist. We see losers trying to change the rules.
We the citizens are the guardians of social and political norms. If we set them aside, there are not enough police and prosecutors to restore them. If one political party uses false charges of election fraud to justify sweeping changes that facilitate the stealing of elections, it is laying siege to the shared respect for the rules without which our nation disintegrates. This is our modern equivalent of the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter that set off the Civil War.
In war, truth is the first casualty. When Florida Governor Ron DeSantis sells merchandise mocking Dr. Anthony Fauci and doubles down on his politicized response to the COVID-19 pandemic, he is betting that the advantage he gains by stoking distrust and discord will outweigh the loss of supporters to a deadly disease.
This is a pivotal season in which we will see if enough anti-vaxxers have a change of heart to turn the tide, or if conspiracy theories will win the day. Some have realized their mistake too late, but their demise can inspire others to abandon their rejection of science, stop pretending that public health measures are a purely private matter, get the vaccine and follow mask guidelines.
Are we a society or not? Can we disagree without being ridiculous and destructive? Our political system depends on compromise, not all-or-nothing demands by which we take imperfect allies hostage rather than bothering to engage our opponents.
Personally, I think the woman with the purple hair is fabulous, and I am grateful that Simone Biles listened to her own body and finished the Olympics with a bronze medal instead of a debilitating injury. If 45 could learn from them, he might not be such a loser.
Richard J. Rosendall is a writer and activist at rrosendall@me.com.
Copyright © 2021 by Richard J. Rosendall. All rights reserved.
