America, 2017. Frequently Asked Questions for the Resistance

1. Question: Where was all this energy before?

Answer: It was there.

Millions of people across the country have always had energy to fight. 

They had the energy to leave comfortable jobs to set up tents in Zucotti Park to protest corporate greed and draw attention to the “other 99%.”

They had energy to risk their lives protesting, demonstrating and flooding Ferguson to demand the country wake up and recognize that BlackLivesMatter.

Energy to wake up in the dark to make the hour commute to their teaching job in a public school, paying for school supplies themselves, subjected to outrageous “evaluations” based on test scores of students they don’t even teach on tests made by corporations whose only goal is to make money.

Energy to serve as public defenders while their classmates from law schools make more than four times as much as corporate lawyers with less than half the stress.

Energy to drive to the Central Library in downtown LA town over after work to tutor a seventeen-year old Syrian refugee.

Energy to say “Enough of saying ‘enough,’” and start a group of moms that demand action for sensible gun control, a group that has grown to include chapters in all 50 states and earn the nickname “the NRA’s worst nightmare.”

Energy to teach computer science to inmates at Rikers.

Energy to come over the border from Mexico to deliver 170,000 meals to victims of Hurricane Katrina before packing up and driving back to their homes on the other side of the border.

Energy to provide maternal-fetal medicine to high-risk, disadvantaged population despite dwindling funds and constant attacks on public health by the Republicans in Congress.

Energy to care for a father dying of Parkinson’s.

Energy to be cheerful to every customer, every day, despite knowing you make the same amount in an hour your customers will spend on a single Cappuccino.

Energy to bike to work rather than take the cozy, comfortable, fully-functioning car sitting there in the garage even on raw, windy days in a freezing Minnesota winter.

Energy to volunteer for every event at your child’s school, despite being a single parent, working full time and taking online courses at night.

Energy to traipse across snow-filled streets of Portland, Maine to bring meals to a house-bound neighbor.

Okay sometimes our energy flags (but that's only when were overwhelmed by the crowds and desperately in need of a nap).

Energy for a few Lakota teenagers—devastated by the loss their best friends to suicide—to set up camp to protest the pipeline that threatened their Reservation at Standing Rock and refuse to leave.

Oh, and one more thing:

“Barack Obama built the largest grassroots organization in the history of American politics.”  (The Atlantic, Oct 24, 2012)

There has always been energy.

In the past two months, the stakes became so high, and the enemy so clear, that patriotic outrage coalesced that energy into a single movement.

2. Question: Will you finally admit it should have been Bernie?

Answer: Besides 30 years of the Republican spin hate machine ruthlessly pursuing her with the relentlessness of Javert, it took Fake News, Putin and Comey to bring Hillary down. She lost by fewer than 100,000 votes in key states. She won the popular vote by nearly 3 million. She was among the most brilliant and most qualified candidates ever to run for office. She has devoted her life to public service. She was loved as a senator and Secretary of State. She crushed all three debates. If you don’t think she spoke to the white working class, read her platform. Take a look at her policies. She was fighting for family leave and paid medical leave, increased Social Security benefits, expanded healthcare, raising the minimum wage, massive public works, 6.5 million new jobs, and raising taxes on the rich to pay for it. We don’t know what the opposition research (which was never released) would have done to Bernie. We don’t know what Putin and Comey would have done.

So, in a word, no.  

3. Question: What do you want exactly? You’re all over the place protesting the Bannon appointment, fighting DeVos, complaining about Putin’s role in the election, wearing pink hats, whining we stole your SCOTUS seat, adding more letters to LGBTQ, shielding your eyes from the blinding refection bouncing off the staggering number of white men now running the country, saying corporations aren’t people, which is hurting their feelings big league. Sad! Apologize!

Okay, first and foremost, we want to save democracy and protect the Constitution. It’s under attack from many directions; we are armed on all fronts.

Next, if you need a really succinct, bite-size “screen-grab” format – we’re fighting for equality.

What does that mean?

We want immigrants, Muslims, African Americans, members of the LGBTQ community, Native Americans, people with disabilities, members of the working class, and all women, to be given equal rights and equal protection.

Health care can go under that umbrella. Saving public education (ix-nay on DeVos) can go under that. Not selling off national parks can fall under that. Demanding the resignation of a White Supremacist leader of the National Security Council can fall under that. Common sense gun control. Fighting the pipelines. Supporting National Security efforts (i.e., investigating Russia’s role in the 2016 election) falls under that. Protecting the First Amendment. Fighting Paul Ryan’s wet dream of privatizing Medicare. Fighting Republican attempts to privatize the V.A. and slash benefits for veterans falls under that. Demanding marriage equality falls under it. Demanding justice for African Americans and standing in solidarity with BlackLivesMatter falls under it. Fighting the Republican attempts to privatize and make a profit off (water, education, prisons, parks, bridges…actually just put anything here at all) falls under that. Fighting tax breaks for the top 1% falls under it. Fighting for a real infrastructure program that puts Americans to work and rebuilds our roads and bridges and railroads and airports, rather than putting billions in taxpayer money into private hands, that falls under it too.

Here’s a wrap up in case you skipped the above paragraph: no one wants a handout.

No one wants a free ride.

We know religion bans, border walls, and privatizing water, education, prisons, national parks, the V.A., and healthcare is just about the fastest way to put more money into the top 1% and, make the income gap even bigger, and at the same time, with and through that and because of it, make it not so great a country.

We know that MAGA is really, MINSGAC (Make it Not So Great a Country) but that's hard to pronounce.

We love the country.

We want it to continue to be a great country. 

We don't want it run by Putin's puppet.

That’s why we’re putting up a fight.

 4. Question: Okay, fine, so if we impeach DT as he is so clearly impeachable and it hasn’t even been two weeks and we don’t even need to figure out how to pronounce emolument because we can just use the fact that his Muslim Ban is such a clear and reckless violation of the Constitution, then will you be happy?

Answer: It will be a start.