White woman fainting

White feminism can’t save us (and neither can removing Trump)

Amy Siskind’s heinous White Feminism was on full display this week when she responded to some very valid criticism about her oblivious White privilege and about her Republican-friendly past by attacking very intelligent and well-respected Black women like Imani Gandy instead of owning up to her mistakes.

Siskind said and did some patently horrible stuff in the past, including supporting Sarah Palin and collaborating with Alex Jones. Seems like she should take responsibility for herself and acknowledge where she was wrong. If she’s changed, she could just say so. If she hasn’t, people should know where she stands.

My friend Max raised another important issue about Siskind’s very problematic All we have to do is get rid of the Orange Menace, and we can go back to having brunch” attitude.

I’ve seen a lot of this from Democrats and “never Trump” Republicans, and it makes me a little queasy when they talk about impeachment. It’s not like Trump is the only problem. He’s just a festering symptom of the greedy, nihilist Republican cancer. Of course Trump is a criminal and deserves to be impeached, but Congress will never do that (not even if corporate Dems make midterm gains) and more importantly, it won’t solve the problem of being ruled by a party that lies and cheats to enrich and empower themselves with no care for democracy or the future.

Less faith, more action

I will say it again: please stop thinking everything will work out in the end. The only way that happens is if massive numbers of Americans rise up and do not allow business as usual to continue. It’s on US. The institutions that got us to this moment are not going to suddenly fix it.

No one is going to save us, not Mueller, not the Democratic Party, and certainly not Congressional Republicans. Nothing will make them voluntarily let go of power.

Don’t count on impeachment

I see a lot of people celebrating already because they think impeachment is imminent. It’s really not.

More importantly, I don’t want people to think impeachment would (will?) save us. It’s a continuation of people who keep thinking this can’t happen here or that somehow the Democrats or courts are going to stop it. They’re not.

Impeachment is not going to undo the damage of the past year of antagonism, the past months of shitting on democracy and the Constitution, nor the past decades of voter miseducation and suppression.

Should Congress impeach Trump? Of course. Just add that to the long list of ethical tasks they have been avoiding for years in service of their own short-term political power, including providing a hearing for Obama’s Supreme Court nominee, safeguarding the public health of our country, protecting the environment, etc.

We need a broad and deep change in our society. We need to work for the rest of our lives to make this racist kleptocracy as impossible as it should have been.