The arc of the universe bends towards justice but some people want to bend it back

That was MLK’s insight many years ago, that we move towards a juster world, but slowly.

Sometimes it feels too slowly, especially when the vicious minority of Americans who form the base of the Republican Party are determined to push back against equality for anyone who isn’t them. And because of the convoluted structure of the federal government — Wyoming with 700,000 people gets as many senators as the millions who live in New York — they have political weight all out of proportion to their size.

Backlash isn’t new. When Martin Luther King was alive, Christianity Today despised him. The Backlash against women’s equality has been happening since the 1980s. The Republican Party has known for years that it’s supporters are a dwindling minority and it would do better by moderating — and instead they’ve opted to end democracy (see: J6 coup).

Much of backlash is bullshit. When Derek Chauvin murdered George Floyd, public opinion didn’t dispute that … but now right-wingers are insisting Chauvin was framed. As Slacktivist says, this isn’t a matter of logic, it’s a matter of people wanting to believe lies, as in the myth that Procter and Gamble has admitted serving Satan: efforts to disprove the story failed because “the people they were attempting to convince were beyond the reach of mere fact or reason.” As is true of most Satanic panics.

People also want to dismiss charges against their friends/heroes/allies. As Jessica Fields once put it, few rapists and monsters are lurking in bushes to attack: they’re the seemingly nice guy at work, the professor you admire, your brother, your high-school buddy, your college roommate. The logic, the evidence don’t matter. We don’t want to believe they did it or we settle for a reason it wasn’t their fault. Like if a guy cheats, his spouse is at fault (I’ve heard variations of that a lot over the decades).

And with the Internet, crackpots who’d once have been handing out mimeographed fliers on street corners have a much wider reach.

As I’ve mentioned before, it’s no longer as acceptable to openly racist as it used to be, which leads to a lot of “I’m not racist, I’m against forced diversity.” (Spoiler: they’re racist). As Vox says, this is fused with a sense of injustice, not about the victims of injustice but those who perpetrate it, a sense that “I have been wronged somehow by the liberals or whoever, and Trump is going to help me get even with these people that I don’t like.’”

Part of it is that we’re a hierarchical society and people hate losing their position in the hierarchy. They resent The Other being at the same position, even if it doesn’t threaten them. As the late Lance Manion put it, some people can have their slice of the pie, a great big slice, and they’ll still be resentful at seeing someone else have a slice anywhere near as good.

As Fred Clark puts it “most resentment doesn’t punch up. Most resentment punches down. The rich resent the poor. The hegemonic majority resents the disenfranchised minority. The enslaved resents the enslaved. The abuser resents the abused. The usurer resents the debtor. The powerful resent the powerless.” Or, as Tolstoy puts it ““I sit on a man’s back choking him and making him carry me, and yet assure myself and others that I am sorry for him and wish to lighten his load by all means possible … except by getting off his back.”

A lot of this would exist without Trump but he has made it much more acceptable to be outraged against the oppressed, to punch down at them and feel righteous while you do it.

I don’t have any deep thoughts other than (as usual) to vote against Trumpism at every opportunity. If you have the time and the opportunity, do other stuff: GOTV efforts, donations to organizations on the right side, whatever else comes up. Never, ever obey in advance. Democratic politicians and liberal activist groups are already gaming out how to keep going if Trump wins.

As Daniel Berrigan, a radical priest of the 1960s put it “One is not commanded to be on the winning side, but to be in the right place when the Lord returns.” Even if I wasn’t a Christian, I think the same principle would apply.

I’ll leave you with a thought from a reporter looking at the backlash since Floyd’s death: “Pessimism is the ultimate American privilege. It is the feeling held most easily by those whose lives would still be functional, and maybe even satisfactory, if nothing changed.”

Let’s not give up.