“Revolutions do not happen only in grand moments in public view but also in small pockets of people coming together to inhabit a new way of being.”
~Valerie Kaur/See No Stranger
Our country was founded by a revolution; a nascent collection of separate colonies collectively deciding to rebel against a tyrannical king. Two hundred and forty-eight years later, our country voted in a king. Revenge, retribution, power and corruption are his guiding principles. The president-elect, a serial liar and convicted felon, has threatened to dismantle the democratic institutions that impeded his anti-democratic impulses of his first term. He has said that he wants to get rid of the Constitution; to abandon the commitment to ensuring “domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity”. The bitter irony is that he will be inaugurated into his reign of revenge and corruption after he takes an oath to protect and preserve the Constitution. Listen for him to make that promise. Authoritarians use a country’s democracy that they want to destroy to ascend into unilateral and unchecked power.
The incoming president is proposing a gaggle of billionaires, sexual predators, suspected Russian agents, and science denying zealots for his cabinet appointments. Our wild-eyed experiment of self-governance is on the brink. Only time will tell if the harm that is yet to be done by this anti-democratic regime will be repairable.
BLOOMINGTON, INDIANA – APRIL 25: Dozens of people are arrested by the Indiana State Police riot squad during a pro-Palestinian protest on campus on April 25, 2024 in Bloomington, Indiana. (Photo by Jeremy Hogan/The Bloomingtonian)
The analysis of who voted and why is still being studied. What we do know is that a campaign based on fear and disinformation increased MAGA’s margins just enough to win a majority of the votes, but less than 50%. We know that about 35% of American voters eligible to vote stayed home. We know that white women did not show up in mass protest to the loss of reproductive freedom. We know that racism and misogyny played a part in the psyche of MAGA voters. We are learning that worldwide; no incumbent leader has been re-elected since the COVID pandemic and that there is a collective backlash to the global economic instability that the pandemic caused. It is apparent that Kamala Harris was seen as an incumbent and not as a change candidate who would distance her policies from those of Biden. We know that despite our economic health being considered the envy of the world, that message either didn’t resonate, did not matter, or was irrelevant to many voters still suffering from the economic harm of these post inflationary times.
We also know there was significant foreign interference in the election process from Russian and Iran. They used fraudulent social media sites to spread disinformation in order to instill fear in voters concerning the election process. Elon Musk was one of the top spreaders of misinformation on his social media platform and spent billions of dollars supporting Donald Trump. Russian propagandists said that the election results would be useful to Russia. It seems as if many American citizens don’t know or don’t care about these facts.
Did you Know:
South Korea’s president, Yoon Suk Yeol, unexpectedly declared martial law on December 3, 2024. He gave a bogus excuse about a supposed threat from North Korea, but the real issue was his own political peril. The South Korean people immediately went to the streets in protest and the opposition lawmakers rushed to parliament to push through an emergency vote to remove the measure. South Korea has only been a democracy since 1987, so the South Korean people understand the evil of authoritarian rule and the promise that a democratic form of governance brings to its people. American voters are much less civically informed. The president-elect is planning on declaring martial law on his first day of office. Be warned.
Why it Matters:
Our country has a lot we can learn from our South Korean sisters and brothers. Two important lessons to take from this grassroots revolution include:
Elected democrats need to act as an ‘opposition’ party and not a minority party. That is not a usual role in our two-party system, but these are not usual times. They must stand up and against the agenda of this MAGA administration. A first step in Indiana would be for the Indiana Senate Democrats to reverse their decision to name Greg Taylor as the minority leader and instead name Senator Andrea Hunley to be minority leader. Greg Taylor has been accused of sexual harassment and comes from a district that has not seen any real competition since at least 2012. The Democratic party needs to send a message that they are not playing ‘business as usual’ and are serious about reimagining and reforming itself.
The citizens of Indiana must also stand in resistance to the extremism of the MAGA agenda, whether that extremism shows up at a state or federal level. In times of turmoil and tyranny, symbolic forms of resistance and protest can be very effective. There will be ample reasons to resist and protest, so we must be strategic in how we do so.
H4D is working on organizing some early forms of protest and resistance. Stay tuned.
People take part in a rally to demand South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol’s removal from power. Photograph: Soo-hyeon Kim/Reuters
What We Can Do:
It’s time for a revolution. In this perilous moment, we must not just rebel against a MAGA cult that has been elected to the White House or the White Christian Nationalists who have been elected to our Statehouse. We must also rebel against the tyrannies that helped get us to this place, to be a witness for what it looks like to ‘inhabit a new way of being’. Some of these tyrannies include:
the tyranny of fear
the tyranny of apathy
the tyranny of distraction
the tyranny of distrust
the tyranny of misogyny
the tyranny of racism
the tyranny of apathy
the tyranny of ignorance and civic illiteracy
the tyranny of propaganda and disinformation
the tyranny of loneliness and isolation
Many of us are fearful, apathetic, angry, filled with grievance and hate, distracted by social media, unaware of current events and world affairs, exhausted from working two jobs and trying to make ends meet. Many of us are heartbroken and despondent at the thought of four more years of chaos, lies and destruction. Far too many Americans are convinced that their vote doesn’t matter, and that the government isn’t delivering for the average person. Instead of falling into despair or apathy, we each must ask ourselves ‘what is our work now’? As proclaimed in the Hopi Prophecy, “we are the ones we have been waiting for”.
There are some of us who must stand for a new way of being. That is our work. We must take a stand for love, for community, for connection, for compassion, and for the common good. Together, we must clearly face the impending crisis this administration will deliver. Despite the imperfections of our democracy, we must resist the call to ‘blow it all up’ and instead work to ‘perfect’ what is imperfect.
Here are a few simple things that we can do now, and we must do them together.
As Senate confirmation hearings are about to occur, we must call our Senators who will be involved in the confirmation hearings and tell them that we need them to stand up for the Constitution, and to put country over party. The current list of possible cabinet nominees are unqualified, unfit and dangerous and must not be confirmed.
If the Senate confirms individuals who are unfit and unqualified to be leaders of governmental departments, we must be information warriors about the consequences of his actions. H4D is standing ready to provide resources and actions to make that happen.
Governor-elect Mike Braun’s and Micah Beckwith’s policy agenda is petty, partisan and extreme, written in veiled language promoting ‘Freedom and Opportunity’. Hoosiers will see further restrictions on reproductive health care, continued undermining of our public schools, and continued attacks on our trans-youth. Jim Banks outlined his priorities for the 119th Congress. He is proudly offering a ‘blueprint’ for Project 2025 and is a MAGA extremist who will bow to anything the incoming President proposes. We will have plenty to stand against over the next four years with an emboldened trifecta super majority MAGA Statehouse and our own homegrown MAGA acolytes in Congress. Stay tuned!
Abstain completely or limit your time on legacy social media platforms. They are mostly black holes of despair, trolls, bots, and darkness. There are amazing alternative platforms emerging in this historic time, Bluesky is rocking the charts! Meidas+ Substack and MeidasTouch News are phenomenal.
Do not allow yourself to react to every parcel of bad news or doomsday predictions. We don’t know what will happen, but there is a strong chance it is going to be difficult. Take it a day at a time, keep breathing and stay connected and informed.
Rejoice in small victories and everyday miracles.
Go see the musical Wicked but first take a few minutes to read the following newsletters from MeidasTouch Network and John Pavlovitz for a deep dive into how ‘art imitates life’. They both give compelling examples of how we can respond to this moment in history, with art as our guide.
Share this newsletter with others and stay engaged and informed. There are promising plans in the works for engaging rural citizens, for resisting MAGA extremism and the regressive policies of White Christian Nationalism, for co-creating a pro-democracy coalition across the state and the nation. It’s up to us—each and every one of us!
Yours in Resistance and Revolution,
The H4D Team
Notes:
There were many pro-Palestinian protests and rallies on college campuses in the Spring of 2024. The students were exercising their constitutional right of free speech to protest the humanitarian crisis of Gaza which included 35,000 civilian deaths, mostly of women and children at the time of their protests. Students and faculty of colleges and universities across the country faced significant backlash from their protests by college administration and GOP elected officials. Indiana’s Attorney General, Todd Rokita responded in solidarity with other MAGA elected officials and sent a letter to Indiana state college officials warning them against ‘antisemitic’ protests. Framing the student protests as antisemitic is a political and partisan tactic. The right to peaceful assembly is guaranteed in the first amendment of the Constitution. Scores of IU students were arrested. A student, a professor and a resident of Blooming were banned from the college campus for a year.