The Courts & Politicians Have Failed Us

If there’s one thing we should have learned from recent history, it’s this:  The courts and the politicians of both parties have failed us.

They spent the last four years attempting to get at least a little bit of punishment for the serial lawbreaker, rapist and cheat who now sits in the White House, and they have nothing to show for it.

They spent the last 15 months breaking their own laws, breaking international treaties to support genocide against the Palestinian people. And while we’ve got perhaps a glimmer of peace in Gaza, we are now witnessing escalating ethnic cleansing in the West Bank.

The courts and the politicians of both parties have failed us.

On the campaign trail, the new president promised to leave abortion to the states. But as we’ve witnessed in the last few days, he lied. He’s announced a bunch of anti-abortion executive orders, and pardoned those who’ve attacked abortion clinics, their clients and their workers.

During the one debate between Harris and Trump, Trump repeatedly slandered immigrants. Did Harris call him out on any of those lies?  Did she point out that people like me, who were born in this country, commit far more crimes on average than people who arrive from abroad?

Did she point out that many who brave numerous dangers to migrate here are forced to do so as a direct result of US foreign policy? Foreign policy that includes US-sponsored coups, dictators and invasions? Foreign policy under both parties that includes sanctions and unequal trade deals that devastate economies of the global South? And while we’re at it, global climate change forcing millions of peasants off the land as crops fail due to extreme weather? Did she point out any of that?

Did Harris once defend the dignity of immigrants in that debate? No, she enabled him, as did all of the other leading Democrats when, just a few months earlier, they promoted the most reactionary anti-immigrant bill this country has seen in decades. They enabled and legitimized Trump’s attacks on immigrants and refugees.

A big part of how Trump swung every swing state was by carpet bombing those states with ads against Trans people. On the campaign trail, did Harris even once make a statement defending Trans people? Did she bother having a Trans, or for that matter, a Palestinian speaker at their convention? As even the Democratic Party-aligned Atlantic magazine put it, these were “the positions they refuse to defend.”

They refused to defend us. They made a political calculation that we were not “worth” spending political capital on, and every post-election analysis by Democratic leaders about why they lost shows that they will continue throwing us under the bus.

So at every stage we see that the Democrats enable the Republicans, and they will continue doing so. But that’s not the end of the story. WE have to stop enabling the enablers. We have to stop giving a pass to Democratic Party politicians, local and national.

We have to stop giving a pass to politicians who allow neo-fascist Oath Keepers on the Chicago Police force. We have to stop giving a pass to politicians who propose public funding for a Bears stadium when people are sleeping homeless in our parks. We have to stop giving a pass to politicians who came from a movement background, but denied permits for every single group who wanted to march on their damned convention.

We need to stop enabling the enablers. We need to chart a new course.

If the politicians don’t feel bound by their laws and constitutional principles, why should we?  If the courts, bribed by multi-millionaire donors, make up stupid rationalizations to justify taking away people’s rights, such as the right to bodily autonomy, why should we respect their courts? They don’t respect us.

If it takes a sympathy strike to win, and break their damn laws to do so, shouldn’t we do that?  If union leaders and NGO bureaucrats bow down to the corrupt anti-worker laws because they’re too tied to maintaining their offices and six- & seven-figure salaries, shouldn’t we organize independently of them? If ICE invades our neighborhoods seeking to pluck away our neighbors, shouldn’t we form neighborhood committees to surround them and defend them in the hundreds or thousands as we’re doing right here today?

Legal rallies and marches like here today have their place. They allow us to communicate and solidarize with each other. They allow new people to join our movement and meet each other, so that they can do further, more valuable work in the future. And that’s why government bureaucrats, wealthy businesses and fascists don’t want to allow us to assemble and march. It’s why the 1st Amendment right to assemble and protest has always been one of our most tenuous constitutional rights. Fortunately we still have the power to assemble here today. To those who say the fascists control this nation right now, I say look at all of us here today. Because we wouldn’t be able to get away with this if they truly controlled us. But we are out here today. So legal marches and rallies do have their place. Don’t let anyone tell you that they do not.

But we need more.

I’m going to end on this note. Look at what South Koreans recently did vs. what didn’t happen in this country on January 6, 2020. When South Korea’s sitting president tried to do a coup, what did they do? They surrounded their parliament building by the thousands. They didn’t leave it up to the courts, they didn’t leave it up to the politicians to defend their democracy. THEY protected their democracy THEMSELVES.

If, when those damned January 6th fascists were gathering to attack the capital, if they had been confronted by thousands on our side, rather than leaving defense of democracy to the cops, courts and politicians, how different would the last four years in this country have been! Rather than neo-fascists walking with a spring in their steps after getting their Donald Trump get out of jail free card, how different would have been the levels of confidence on the Left as well as the Right today. How better situated our movements would have been. Instead of desperately trying to hang on to our current rights, we would be on the offensive, fighting for the rights and decent working class incomes and services we all deserve.

We can only get on that much rosier trajectory if we stop depending on and enabling the Democratic politicians who throw us under the bus the moment they feel heat from the right.

Featured Image Credit: Image by takomabibelot; modified by Tempest.

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