These protests are a classic example of trying to control politics by controlling the national narrative. The protests are backed by the same conservative groups that are working for Trump’s reelection. The Michigan Conservative Council, one of the organizers of the Michigan protest, was founded by a pro-Trump couple active in state Republican politics. Another organizer was the Michigan Freedom Fund, whose leader, Greg McNeilly is a Republican political operative who worked for Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos’s family.Protests in Wisconsin were organized by the Committee to Unleash Prosperity, founded by Republican pro-Trump economists Arthur Laffer and Stephen Moore, and by FreedomWorks, a training group for conservative activists that grew out of a political organization founded by David and Charles Koch. FreedomWorks is most famous for its organization of the Tea Party movement in 2009. Its president, Adam Brandon, told Vox reporter Jane Coaston that “this has the same DNA [as] the Tea Party movement.” It “just so happened a lot of our activists were organizers.” The Fox News Channel personalities cheered on the events, with Jeanine Pirro saying of the Michigan protesters: “God bless them, it’s going to happen all over the country;” Laura Ingraham tweeting a video of it, saying: “Time to get your freedom back;” and Tucker Carlson interviewing a representative of the Michigan Conservative Council on his show before the person did another interview on “Fox & Friends” the next day. On Saturday, FNC ran graphics showing where protests were planned across the country from April 18 to May 2.
These are not spontaneous, grassroots protests. They are political operations designed to divert attention from the Trump administration’s poor response to the pandemic. Even more, though, they are designed to keep the American public divided so that we do not protest the extraordinary economic inequality the pandemic has highlighted.
Like Richardson, I see three forces coming together to distract us from the Trump regime's miserable failure at marshaling resources for wide-spread testing as well as their unwillingness to aggressively manufacture the equipment necessary for hospitals to manage the pandemic safely. One cadre, of course, are the political/financial backers of Trump's regime, The second includes their propaganda apparatus on Fox News. And the third unites mercenaries with a survivalist bent with America's white underclass. Both groups are terrified and angry and hellbent on finding scapegoats other than the President. It is wise to recall that two thirds of Americans reject their vicious ignorance: the civil majority were already practicing social distancing before most governors got into the act - and we'll continue to do so regardless of the threats and hype. Still the "ginning up a media frenzy over alleged partisan divisions is a diversion," writes Richardson that "distracts us from the growing sense that our government of the people, by the people, and for the people has lost its way."
Sunday's NY Times posted an extensive and insightful analysis of what is truly in store for us over the next 24 months. (https://www.nytimes.com/ 2020/ 04/18/health/coronavirus-america-future.html?) "The U.S. is months away from being able to return to normalcy," they write and summarize the article's key points like this:
■ There is enormous uncertainty. In the best case, scientists would develop a vaccine or — more likely — treatments for the coronavirus’s effects. It’s also possible that the virus will mutate to become less severe. These outcomes are possible but are not the most likely ones.
■ Social distancing is still vital. About 300 million people in America have probably not been exposed to the virus, and epidemiologists say that until a vaccine or other protective measures emerge, it’s not safe for that many people to suddenly come out of confinement.
■ It’s unclear how well the U.S. will cope with the next phase. As more people with immunity get back to work, more of the economy will recover. But if too many people became infected at once, new lockdowns would be needed. To avoid that, widespread testing will be imperative.
For many of us, this may be the first time in our lives that we have felt so little control over our own destiny and the destiny of those we love. This lack of control initially feels like a loss, a humiliation, a stepping backward, an undesired vulnerability. However, recognizing our lack of control is a universal starting point for a serious spiritual walk towards wisdom and truth.
To be in control of one’s destiny, job, or finances is nearly an unquestionable moral value in Western society. The popular phrase “take control of your life” even sounds mature and spiritual. It is the fundamental message of nearly every self-help book. On a practical level, it is true, but not on the big level. Our bodies, our souls, and especially our failures teach us this as we get older. We are clearly not in control, as this pandemic is now teaching the whole planet.
Learning that we are not in control situates us correctly in the universe. If we are to feel at home in this world, we have to come to know that we are not steering this ship. That teaching is found in the mystical writings of all religions. Mystics know they are being guided, and their reliance upon that guidance is precisely what allows their journey to happen. We cannot understand that joy and release unless we’ve have been there and experienced the freedom for ourselves.
To be in control of one’s destiny, job, or finances is nearly an unquestionable moral value in Western society. The popular phrase “take control of your life” even sounds mature and spiritual. It is the fundamental message of nearly every self-help book. On a practical level, it is true, but not on the big level. Our bodies, our souls, and especially our failures teach us this as we get older. We are clearly not in control, as this pandemic is now teaching the whole planet.
Learning that we are not in control situates us correctly in the universe. If we are to feel at home in this world, we have to come to know that we are not steering this ship. That teaching is found in the mystical writings of all religions. Mystics know they are being guided, and their reliance upon that guidance is precisely what allows their journey to happen. We cannot understand that joy and release unless we’ve have been there and experienced the freedom for ourselves.
All at the same time there is peril and promise, hope and despair, new life and enormous death, well-funded fascist initiatives alongside prefigurative work for a more equitable and just social order. There is anger and serenity, too along with a truckload of grief. Like St. Lou Reed used to say: "You need a busload of faith to get by!" Hold on it is about to get really crazy.
