Commentary: Where is a Thomas Paine who can galvanize the common people, as Paine himself roused nervous colonists in 1776 to wage a revolution against a king and empire? In plain language, unburdened by flourish or jargon, Paine's pamphlets told a compelling story and inspired ordinary people busy with other things to fight and sacrifice for the project of a United States, as a parent who says, "If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace."
Paine argued for democratic politics as a liberating force and explicitly linked economic justice to freedom. Paine did not merely beat a drum for revolution, he also beckoned people to engage in politics as a matter of life and death - which it is.
Prior to Donald J. Trump's election as the 45th President of the United States, I took part in many elections and saw varying degrees of exultation and grief at the outcome. This is the first year I have encountered bald fear about a newly elected president. Yes, I remember hearing Barack Obama was a covert muslim communist born in Kenya who would take away our guns and destroy the country, but none of those things were true; yet the fears about Donald Trump stand on factual ground. This man ran on promises to do harm to various peoples of this republic. People belonging to groups expressly targeted by the President-Elect have reason to feel fear. In human solidarity and democratic spirit, the injury to their peace is an injury to mine. Paine's words reverberate: if there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that all our children may have a shot at peace.
This is not an attack by a foreign entity (rumors about Russia notwithstanding). The attack is on ourselves. Yet it staggers common sense to assume sixty million voters (including 35% of the Latino vote and 46% of women voters) are uniformly stupid, racist, and sexist. It is true that Trump was the candidate of the KKK and boasted about sexually assaulting women, but other things were going on as well. In a Reuters/Ipsos poll on Election Day, 75 percent of respondents said America needs "a strong leader to take the country back from the rich and powerful," while 68 percent agreed that "traditional parties and politicians don't care about people like me." Forced to choose between a well-connected centrist politician endorsed by Washington elites, or an outrageous loudmouth promising to blow it all up, 60 million people betrayed by their republic decided to give the maverick a try. Denied loyal representation, voters tarred and feathered the presidency.
The new American Crisis is not a revolutionary war but a civil rift. We must address white supremacy and male supremacy as foundations of our society but we must also listen to the sources of populist anger, take lessons from it, and engage in better politics - or this will be an early chapter of a grimly familiar horror story.
Those struggling with how to respond might consider making politics a bigger part of their lives, and engaging in person (rather than fighting on social media) to build networks of mutual aid and enrichment. You will meet good friends in campaigns and social movements, in organizing workplaces and community service. As Paine said, it is the business of little minds to shrink, but that of firm hearts and conscience to pursue principle. If these times try our souls, let us not be "sunshine patriots" and shrink from human solidarity in hard times.
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Algernon D'Ammassa writes the Desert Sage column for the Deming Headlight and Sun News papers. Write to him at DesertSageMail@gmail.com.