Some of us didn’t march – we have only so much family time on weekends – but we did listen to The Ticket on Monday. On The Hardline, one of the bros, adopting a rather easy view (one, coincidentally, espoused by Trump’s loudest, Fox News-blondest mouthpiece), said that while he admired the Women’s March on Saturday, he felt the insta-movement lacked a unified message. Nothing as concrete as, say, “No more nukes!” to connect the millions – millions – of marchers. All across the globe. From Fort Worth to El Paso, Nova Scotia to Moscow. But we think the jock was just being literal. And that he might not own a cellphone. In a world where most news (most information) is consumed via social media, the message of the march seemed pretty strong to us.
Even photos of people milling around with their heads buried in their phones had a power and gravitas about them. The unwashed had become mobilized. Millions of pissed off progressives had turned out to display in the brutal, unforgiving language of physicality their inalienable right to fair representation in the halls of power, to scream and chant that while their candidate may have lost the electoral vote, she still won the popular tally – by about 3 million ballots. That’s a massive segment of the population to piss off with ideology-based policy (un-elaborated upon in 140 characters or fewer). The midterm elections are only two years away. Women’s Marchers want to push progressive policy back into the White House after only four years the way the Tea Party slipped through the back door (while the marchers were sleeping, apparently) after eight.
In stories about the march, we read almost as many reasons for marching as there were marchers: anti-discrimination, reproductive rights, climate change, the closure of Gitmo, strong public education. Basically, anything Democratic and/or Green. So the Women’s March was a big selfie op? Not really a big deal, especially considering that one of the march’s driving mechanisms was its sly, piercing wit, its parody of a man who is a living punchline: “Girls Just Wanna Have FUN-damental Rights,” “Keep Your Tiny Hands Off Our First Amendment,” and “Sex Offenders Cannot Live in Government Housing” were just a few of the signs thrust into the air on Saturday. #witty
The “message” was the masses. Think about it: waking up, perhaps bundling up, getting in the car or piling into the subway, riding, driving, parking, maybe more like trying desperately to find parking, and then walking around for hours. All to be photographed. That had to be the point.
Another one of the Hardline guys lamented the lack of fire-and-brimstone speakers to rally the troops and help focus the message, as literarily ambiguous as it was. But with all due respect to Mike Rhyner, he’s of a certain age. Nukes are the least of our complaints now. Words can’t compare with the image.
Even that guy who tweets foreign policy understands that we are flooded with dozens of bits of information every time we unlock our phones or lock on to our computers, proving that the image has become nearly all-encompassing. And the image is one thing that serial liar can’t lie about.
“Peaceful protests are a hallmark of our democracy,” said our Tweeter in Chief, sounding almost rational, dare we say “presidential.” “Even if I don’t always agree, I recognize the rights of people to express their views.”
Protests on Inauguration Day weren’t so peaceful, which is to be expected. Young thugs are always going to take advantage of opportunities to create havoc or just wreck or steal shit. And cops don’t have to be poked too hard to offer some pushback (or taze-back or whack-back). Apparently, we aren’t letting the violence and vandalism on Friday affect our belief that the Women’s March on Saturday was a success the way Trump supporters casually brush aside his KKK endorsement, his history of racial discrimination, and his sexually predatory nature. And his lies.
“But this is 2017,” wrote conservative New York Times columnist David Brooks the other day. “Ethnic populism is rising around the world. The crucial problems today concern the way technology and globalization are decimating jobs and tearing the social fabric; the way migration is redefining nation-states; the way the post-World War II order is increasingly being rejected as a means to keep the peace.”
All true, no doubt – Brooks is as wonky as they come – but seeing (and seeing again and again) millions of people all over the globe join as one is an auspicious start. #momentumswing
Hmm. I can remember a time when this publication would have had first hand reporting of such a FW March and its own POV, without resorting to mansplaining from the TICKET. As entertaining as that might be, it doesn’t give a better insight than the words of the participants themselves.
Why don’t you get a news-paper and show us how it’s done Jimmy? I’ve got a bird-dog that smarter than you. What do you know about insights?
You know what would be a great change of pace? The Fort Worth Weekly holding liberals and dems feet to the fire. Instead we have bias reporting from cherry picked issues. The name of the paper should be changed to The Liberals of Fort Worth Weekly.