Author Archives: G.S. Griffin

How to Write and Publish a Book (Odds Included)

Posted on by under History

My experience with writing books and finding publishers is extremely limited, but a few early insights might make it easier for others interested in doing the same. The following, it should be noted, relates to nonfiction works — the only world I know — but most of it could probably be applied to novels.

First, write your book. Take as much or as little time as needed. I cranked out the first draft of Racism in Kansas City in four months and promptly began sending it out to publishers (April 2014). Why America Needs Socialism I wrote off and on for six years, at the end throwing everything out (300 pages) and starting over (though making much use of old material), finishing a new version in five months. Just make your work the absolute best it can be, in terms of content and proper grammar. But you can reach out to certain publishers before your manuscript is wholly finished. Pay attention to the submission guidelines, but for most publishers it’s not a big deal (many ask you to explain how much of the work is complete and how long it will take you to finish). I feel safest having the manuscript done, and it would likely be risky to reach out if you didn’t have over half the piece written — your proposal to publishers will include sample chapters, and if they like those they will ask for more: the whole manuscript thus far.

You’ll scour the internet for publishers who print books like yours and who accept unsolicited materials, meaning you can contact them instead of a literary agent. If you want the big houses like Simon & Schuster, Penguin Random House, or HarperCollins, you’ll need an agent, and I have no experience with that and thus have no advice. But a million small- and medium-sized publishers exist that will accept unsolicited queries from you, including significant places like Harvard University Press or Oxford University Press.

Following the firm’s guidelines on its website, you’ll generally email a book proposal, which offers an overview, target audience, table of contents, analysis of competing titles, author information, timeline, and sample chapter. If there’s no interest you won’t usually get a reply, but if there is you’ll be asked for the manuscript. It’s an easy process, there’s simply much competition and varying editor interests and needs, so you have to do it in volume. Keep finding houses and sending emails until you’re successful. From March to May 2018, I sent a proposal for Why America Needs Socialism to 91 publishers. Eight (about 9%) requested the full manuscript, and two (about 2%) wanted to publish it. The terms of the first offer were unfavorable (walk away if you have to), but by September, after seven months of searching, a home for the book was secured, Ig Publishing in New York City.

The same technique and persistence is required when seeking blurbs of praise for the back cover and promotional materials. You simply find ways to call or email a dozen or so other authors and prominent people, explain your book and publisher, and then four of them accept your manuscript and agree to write a sentence of praise if they like it (or write a foreword, or peer review it, or whatever you seek). It is very convenient for nonfiction authors that so many of the folks you’d want to review your book are university professors. You simply find Cornel West’s email address on Harvard’s faculty page. Similarly, you shotgun emails to publications when the book comes out and ask them to review it. I sent a query to 58 magazines, papers, journals, and websites I thought would be interested in reviewing Why America Needs Socialism, offering to send a copy. Seven (12%) asked for the book to do a review; two others invited me to write a piece on the work myself for their publications.

I didn’t keep such careful records of my Racism in Kansas City journey, but after I began submitting proposals it took three months to find a publisher who agreed to publish the work — temporarily. I made the mistake of working for 10 months with a publisher without a contract. At times, publishers will ask you to made revisions before signing a contract, a big gamble (that I wasn’t even really aware of at the time). This publisher backed out due to the national conversation on race sparked by Mike Brown’s death and subsequent events through late 2014 and early 2015, which was seemingly counter-intuitive for a publisher, but they were more used to tame local histories than what I had produced, a history of extreme violence and subjugation. So the search continued.

Writing a local story, at least a nonfiction work, certainly limits your house options. There are some, like the above, that are out-of-state that will take interest, but generally your best bet lies with the local presses. And unfortunately, there aren’t many of them where I reside. The University of Missouri Press was shutting down, the University Press of Kansas (KU) wanted me to make revisions before they would decide — and I wasn’t looking to repeat a mistake. I didn’t approach every Kansas City-area publisher, but rather, feeling the pressure of much wasted time, decided to stop looking for a house and instead to self-publish (with Mission Point Press, run by the former head of Kansas City Star Books).

A traditional publisher pays all the costs associated with the book and you get an advance and a small royalty from each copy sold. (With Ig Publishing, I gave up an advance for a larger royalty — a worthwhile option if the book sells well.) With self-publishing, everything is in reverse: you pay a “nontraditional publisher” to birth the book — editing, cover design, maybe marketing and distribution — and you keep most of the profit from each copy sold (not all, as someone is printing it). There’s also the option of skipping a nontraditional publisher altogether and doing everything yourself, working only with a printer. A traditional house is the big prize for a writer, because it offers that coveted validation — a firm accepted your piece instead of rejecting it, like it rejected all those other authors. It’s about prestige and pride, and not having to say “Well…” after someone calls you a published author. But self-publishing can give you more control over the final product, in some circumstances more money over time, and it works well for a local book (it’s Kansas City readers and bookstores that want a book on Kansas City, so I don’t have to worry about marketing and distribution in other cities).

The whole process is an incredible adventure: the intense learning process of researching and writing, the obsession, the hunt for and exhilaration over a publisher, the dance and give-and-take with editors who see needed changes (“murder your darlings”), the thousands of footnotes you format (kidding, it’s hell), finding key individuals to write a foreword or advanced praise, getting that first proof in the mail, releasing and marketing your work, winning coverage and reviews in the press, giving book talks and interviews, hearing a reader say how much what you created meant to him, learning your book is a classroom text, being cited by other authors or asked to give advanced praise yourself, being recognized by strangers, seeing your work in libraries and bookstores across the city, and the country, and even the world.

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Christianity and Socialism Both Inspired Murderous Governments and Tyrants. Should We Abandon Both?

Posted on by under Socialism

It is often argued that because the ideas of Marx and socialistic thinkers were the ideologies of ruthless people like Stalin and states like the Soviet Union, such ideas are dangerous and must be abandoned. What’s interesting to consider is that the same could be said of Christianity and other belief systems held dear by many who make such arguments.

After all, Europe (and later the New World) was dominated by Christian states from the time of the late Roman Empire under Constantine and some 1,500 years thereafter, only weakening before secularism beginning in the 18th and 19th centuries. These states were ruled by Christian monarchs, often dictators with absolute power, many quite murderous indeed. Even when kings and queens were reined in by constitutions and power sharing with parliaments, the terrors continued. Nonbelievers, people of other faiths, and Christians that questioned or defied official doctrine, including many scientists, were exiled, imprisoned, tortured, maimed, or executed. It was a nasty business, from being sawed in half, groin to skull, to being burned alive. Wars against nations of other religions or other denominations of Christianity killed millions. This history was explored in When Christianity Was as Violent as Islam, so the reader is referred there for study. As hard as it may be for Christians to hear, these were governments and rulers that used indoctrination, fear, force, and murder against their own citizens to maintain and protect Christianity and its hold over nation-states. Kings and queens and officials at all levels of government believed fervently in Christianity and, as with religious leaders, weren’t afraid to mercilessly crush threats to it, no matter how small. If that sounds similar to what occurred in the Soviet Union and elsewhere with socialist ideology, it probably should.

One can imagine the protestations from the faithful. Something about how socialism led to more deaths, in a shorter timeframe, and in the modern age rather than more backward times. “So you see, socialism was way worse!” Perhaps the radical would then point out that, at least as of this moment, Christianity had a far longer reign of terror, about 1,500 years — while the first country calling itself “socialist” was only birthed a century ago. It might also be argued that there have been more oppressive states that called themselves Christian than called themselves socialist — recall that Christianity dominated Europe, the Americas, and other places (and with such a great length of time comes many new states). A full tally, actual careful study, would be necessary. Same for questions about “Well, the percentage of socialist nations that went bad is way higher than the percentage of Christian countries that went bad, therefore –” And on and on. The argument over what state ideology was worse seems somewhat pointless, however. Suppose it was conceded that socialism was indeed worse. That doesn’t erase the fact that these belief systems, with their tentacles around rulers and regimes, both inspired terrible crimes. That leaves the central question to consider: If we look at history and see that a belief system has caused great horrors, should we abandon that belief system and encourage others to do the same?

Here the Christian and the socialist may find some common ground, both supposing no. But the answer is more likely to be no for my belief system, yes for yours. Things then devolve into arguments over differences, real or perceived, between the ideologies. The Christian may focus on what we could call the beginning and the end of ideologies, a view that 1) the origins of a belief system and 2) the modern relationship to state power are what matter most to this question of whether a belief system that has caused much horror should be forgotten.

The discussion might go something like:

“Christianity’s founding texts call for love and peace, whereas Marx saw necessary a violent revolution against monarchs and capitalists!”

“Well, that didn’t seem to stop Christian governments and rulers from engaging in their own violence and oppression, did it?”

“It’s one thing to take something originally pure and twist it, do evil with it. But socialism started with a document approving of violence.”

“You know socialism existed before Marx’s writings, right? Before he left boyhood? He later refined and popularized it, but didn’t invent it (and many who advocated for it before him were Christians). And recall that the New Testament isn’t too kind to women, gays, and slaves, justifying much oppression and many atrocities throughout history. Also, wasn’t the U.S. birthed in violent revolution against the powerful? Marx’s writings and 1770s American writings like the Declaration and Paine’s works sound pretty similar, if you bother to read them. Calls for revolution are sometimes justified, even to you.”

And:

“Many Christians don’t want an officially Christian country anymore. Church and state can be separate; we just want religious freedom. But socialists want an officially socialist country. You can’t separate socialism from government. Not in the way we’ve separated Christianity from government.”

“True, that is a difference. Government structure, law, and services are integral to socialism.”

While the first point doesn’t have much significance, the second point is a good one, an interesting one. It highlights the fundamental difference between the ideologies. You can separate Christianity from government, or Islam from government, but you can’t do so with socialism (however defined), any more than you could separate monarchism or representative democracy from government. A reasonable person could perhaps argue that a belief system with past horrors should be put to rest if it cannot be separated from power. But surely it’s not a line as clear as that; it only widens the discussion. The reader may fully support representative democracy, but it has caused many terrors as well, from the election of the Nazis to the 3 million civilians the U.S. killed in Vietnam. Should belief in representative democracy be abandoned on those grounds? The reader may likewise support the military and patriotism, both difficult to separate from government, both with very dark histories in our own country and others. And so on. (Conversely, philosophies that can be separated from state power are still capable of great evil, such as free market capitalism, or Islamic and Christian terror sects.)

Perhaps the real question, then, is can ideologies, whether or not they can meaningfully exist outside the political system, successfully cleanse themselves of their sins, or, rather, separate the wheat from the chaff? Can we reject the more virulent strains of belief systems and the people who follow them, leaving only (or mostly) the better angels of their natures?

Christians rightly understand that Christianity can be divorced from violence and oppression, even if it wasn’t in certain times, places, and people — and isn’t in a few places and people today. They understand that the problems Christianity attempts to solve, the missions of the faith, could be addressed in many ways, some more ethical than others. If one’s concern is that souls in other lands are lost and must be saved, Christians could engage in bloody conquest and forced conversion, as of course happened in history, or instead peaceful missionary work. Different people have different ethics (especially in different times, societies, and institutions) and will go about addressing problems and goals differently. It’s that simple. Importantly, Christians also understand that one method doesn’t necessarily lead to the other. The slippery slope fallacy isn’t one you usually hear in this context: no Christian thinks peaceful missionary work automatically leads to violent, repressive methods of bringing people into the faith. They know that the things they care about — belief in Christ’s divinity and resurrection, a relationship with the deity, a right way of living based on scriptures — can be imparted to others without it leading to tyranny and mass murder. Despite an ugly history, we all know this to be so.

Socialism, with terrible things done in its name as well, is a similar story. The ideology had its proponents willing to use terror, but it had even more peaceful advocates, from those famous on the Left like Eugene Debs, Dorothy Day, and Bertrand Russell to those famous to all, documented in Why America Needs Socialism: The Argument from Martin Luther King, Helen Keller, Albert Einstein, and Other Great Thinkers. (And don’t forget the peaceful Christian Socialists!) The things socialists care about — workers owning and running their workplaces, universal government programs to meet human needs, prosperity for all, people’s control over government — can be fought for and implemented without violence and subjugation. (This of course leaves out the debate concerning what socialism is and how it differs from communism and other ideologies, but that has been handled elsewhere and it seems reasonable to put that aside, as we’re also excluding the discussion of what “true Christianity” is, whether true Christianity involves top-down oppression and terror or bottom-up peace and love, whether it’s Catholicism or a sect of Protestantism, etc.) The societal changes socialists push for have already been achieved, in ways large and small, without horrors all over the world, from worker cooperatives to systems of direct democracy to universal healthcare and education, public work programs guaranteeing jobs, and Universal Basic Income (see Why America Needs Socialism). These incredible reforms have occurred in democratic, free societies, with no signs of Stalinism on the horizon. The slippery slope fallacy is constantly applied to socialism and basically any progressive policy (remember, racial integration is communism), but it doesn’t have any more merit than when it is applied to Christianity. Those who insist that leaders and governments set out to implement these types of positive socialistic reforms but then everything slid into dictatorship and awfulness as a result basically have no understanding of history, they’re just completely divorced from historical knowledge. Generally, when you actually study how nations turned communist, you see that a Marxist group, party, or person already deeply authoritarian achieved power and then ruled, expectedly, in an authoritarian manner, implementing policies that sometimes resemble what modern socialists call for but often do not (for example, worker ownership of the workplace is incompatible with government ownership of the workplace; direct democratic decision-making is incompatible with authoritarian control; and so forth). It’s authoritarians who are most likely to use violence in the first place; anti-authoritarians generally try to find peaceful means of creating change, if possible. (Which can take much longer, requiring the built consensus of much of the citizenry. This is one reason authoritarian socialist countries exist but no true democratic socialist society. It’s quicker to just use force. The latter needs more time. See Why Have There Been Authoritarian Socialist Countries But Not a Democratic Socialist One?) So not only do we see how the reforms socialists desire are being won around the world today without death and destruction, a serious study of history shows that those reforms don’t lead to such things, but rather it’s a matter of groups and persons with violent or oppressive tendencies gaining power and acting predictably, just like when a Christian or Christian group with violent and oppressive tendencies gains power, past or present. The missions of socialism, as with Christianity, can be achieved in ethical ways.

Knowing Christianity and socialism, despite brutal pasts, can operate in today’s world in positive, peaceful ways, knowing that ideologies, people, and societies can change over time for the better, one sees little reason to abandon either based solely on their histories. A Christian may reject socialism on its own merits, opposing, for example, worker ownership of workplaces (or, if thinking more of communism, government ownership of workplaces); likewise, a socialist may reject Christianity on its own merits, disliking, say, beliefs unsupported by quality evidence. But to reject an ideology because of its history of violence surely necessitates rejecting your own; and to give your own a pass because it can exist benignly surely necessitates extending the same generosity to others. Remember, dear reader, the words of Kwame Ture (Stokely Carmichael):

You don’t judge Christianity by Christians. You don’t judge socialism by socialists. You judge Christianity by its principles irrespective of Christians. You judge socialism by its principles irrespective of those who call themselves socialists. Where’s the confusion?

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Saving Dr. King and Others From the Capitalist “Memory Hole”

Posted on by under Socialism

The socialist press around the world will mark January 18, 2021, with celebrations of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s fervent rejection of capitalism and resounding advocacy for socialism, in an attempt to rescue his political and economic philosophy from George Orwell’s “memory hole.” This was the chute in 1984 where embarrassing truths were sent to their destruction. Mainstream media outlets will remember Dr. King’s “I have a dream” speech, but forget that he also said, “We must see now that the evils of racism, economic exploitation, and militarism are all tied together.”

But Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is also a fine opportunity for the left press to note that King belongs to a pantheon of famous historical who were, to the surprise of many admirers, committed socialists. King questioned the “captains of industry” and their ownership over the workplace, the means of production (“Who owns the oil?… Who owns the iron ore?”), and believed “something is wrong with capitalism. There must be a better distribution of wealth, and maybe America must move toward a democratic socialism.” Other celebrated heroes believed the same and were likewise very public about their views – and, like King, their words and work in support of socialism, as they each understood it, have been erased from historical memory.

Orwell was sucked down a memory hole, too. Remembered today primarily for his critiques of the communist Soviet Union in 1984 and Animal Farm, he was a self-described democratic socialist who spent time in Spanish radical communities, saw capitalist society as “the robbers and the robbed,” and wrote that

Socialism is such elementary common sense that I am sometimes amazed that it has not established itself already. The world is a raft sailing through space with, potentially, plenty of provisions for everybody; the idea that we must all cooperate and see to it that everyone does his fair share of the work and gets his fair share of the provisions seems so blatantly obvious that one would say that no one could possibly fail to accept it unless he had some corrupt motive for clinging to the present system.

Helen Keller’s story ends in the popular imagination when she is a young girl, first learning to communicate through sign language and later speech and writing. But as an adult, Keller was a fiery radical, pushing for peace, disability rights, and socialism. She wrote, “It is the labor of the poor and ignorant that makes others refined and comfortable.” While capitalism is the few growing rich off the labor of the many, “socialism is the ideal cause.” Keller went on to write: “How did I become a socialist? By reading… If I ever contribute to the Socialist movement the book that I sometimes dream of, I know what I shall name it: Industrial Blindness and Social Deafness.”

The socialism of a certain famous physicist is often lost under the weight of gravity, space, and time. Albert Einstein insisted on “the establishment of a socialist economy,” criticizing how institutions function under capitalism, how “private capitalists inevitably control, directly or indirectly, the main sources of information (press, radio, education).” He continued: 

[The] crippling of individuals I consider the worst evil of capitalism. Our whole educational system suffers from this evil. An exaggerated competitive attitude is inculcated into the student, who is trained to worship acquisitive success as a preparation for his future career… The education of the individual [under socialism], in addition to promoting his own innate abilities, would attempt to develop in him a sense of responsibility for his fellow men in place of the glorification of power and success in our present society.

Mohandas Gandhi, with his commitment to nonviolent resistance and civil disobedience in British-occupied India, was an inspiration for King. But the two also shared a commitment to socialism. Gandhi connected these ideas, insisting that socialism must be built up from nonviolent noncooperation against the capitalists. “There would be no exploitation if people refuse to obey the exploiter. But self comes in and we hug the chains that bind us. This must cease.” He envisioned a unique socialism for India and a nonviolent pathway to bringing it about, writing, “This socialism is as pure as crystal. It, therefore, requires crystal-like means to achieve it.”

The list of famous historical figures goes on and on: Langston Hughes, Ella Baker, H.G. Wells, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Angela Davis, Pablo Picasso, Nelson Mandela. They ranged from democratic socialists to communists, but all believed we could do better than capitalism, that we could in fact build a better world. They agreed with King’s other dream.

“These are revolutionary times,” King declared. “All over the globe, men are revolting against old systems of exploitation and oppression, and out of the wombs of a frail world new systems of justice and equality are being born.”

Let socialists spend the 2021 Martin Luther King, Jr. Day excavating not only King’s radicalism, but the radicalism of so many like him.

This article first appeared in The Democratic Left: https://www.dsausa.org/democratic-left/saving-martin-luther-king-jr-and-others-from-the-capitalist-memory-hole/

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We Just Witnessed How Democracy Ends

Posted on by under Politics

In early December, a month after the election was called, after all “disputed” states had certified Biden’s victory (Georgia, Arizona, Nevada, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania), with some certifying a second time after recounts, after 40-odd lawsuits from Trump, Republican officials, and conservative voters had failed miserably in the American courts, the insanity only continued. About 20 Republican states (with 106 Republican members of the House) sued to stop electors from casting their votes for Biden. Only 27 of 249 Republican congresspersons would acknowledge Biden’s victory. Rightwing media played along, even while knowing stolen election claims were lies. A GOP state legislator and plenty of ordinary citizens pushed for Trump to simply use the military and martial law to stay in power. The Trump administration contemplated using the National Guard to seize voting machines.

At this time, with his legal front collapsing, the president turned to Congress, the state legislatures, and the Electoral College. Trump actually pushed for the Georgia legislature to replace the state’s 16 electors (members of the 2020 Electoral College, who were set to be Biden supporters after Georgia certified Biden’s win weeks prior) with Trump supporters! Without any ruling from a court or state in support, absurd imaginings and lies about mass voter fraud were to be used to justify simply handing the state to Trump — a truly frightening attack on the democratic process. Trump knew he lost but did not care. Officials in other battleground states got phone calls about what their legislatures could do to subvert election results as well (state secretaries later being asked to “recalculate” and told things like “I just want to find 11,780 votes”). And it was theoretically possible for this to work, if the right circumstance presented itself. ProPublica wrote that

the Trump side’s legislature theory has some basis in fact. Article II of the U.S. Constitution holds that “each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors” to vote for president as a member of the Electoral College. In the early days of the republic, some legislatures chose electors directly or vested that power in other state officials. Today, every state allocates presidential electors by popular vote…

As far as the Constitution is concerned, there’s nothing to stop a state legislature from reclaiming that power for itself, at least prospectively. Separately, a federal law, the Electoral Count Act of 1887, provides that whenever a state “has failed to make a choice” in a presidential election, electors can be chosen “in such a manner as the legislature of such State may direct.”

Putting aside how a battle between certified election results and misguided screams of election fraud might be construed as a “failure to make a choice” by a Trumpian judge somewhere, the door is open for state legislatures to return to the days of divorcing electors from the popular vote. The challenge, as this report went on to say, is that in these battleground states, the popular vote-elector connection “is enshrined in the state constitution, the state’s election code or both,” which means that change was only impossible in the moment because a party would need dominant political power in these states to change the constitutions and election codes — needing a GOP governor, control of or supermajorities in both houses of the legislature, even the passing of a citizens’ vote on the matter, depending on the state. Republican officials, if willing to pursue this (and true, not all would be), couldn’t act at that particular moment in history because success was a political impossibility. Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania, for instance, had Democratic governors and enough legislators to prevent a supermajority veto override. But it isn’t difficult to envision a parallel universe or future election within our own reality where a couple states are red enough to reclaim the power to appoint electors and do so, returning someone like Trump to office and making voting in their states completely meaningless.

In the exact same vein, House Republicans laid plans to challenge and throw out electors in January. This was theoretically possible, too. Per the procedures, if a House rep and senator together challenge a state’s slate of electors, the Congress as a whole must vote on whether to confirm or dismiss the electors. The latter would reduce the electoral votes of one candidate. Like the state legislature intervention, this was sure to fail only due to fortunate political circumstances. The Independent wrote, “There’s no way that a majority of Congress would vote to throw out Biden’s electors. Democrats control the House, so that’s an impossibility. In the Senate, there are enough Republicans who have already acknowledged Biden’s win (Romney, Murkowski, Collins and Toomey, to name just a few) to vote with Democrats.” Would things have gone differently had the GOP controlled both houses?

Desperate, Republicans even sued Mike Pence in a bizarre attempt to make the courts grant him the sole right to decide which electoral votes counted! Rasmussen, the right-leaning polling institution, liked this idea, favorably lifting up a (false) quote by Stalin saying something evil in support of Pence throwing out votes. The vice president has the ceremonial duty of certifying the electoral votes after they are counted in Congress — Trump and others pushed Pence hard to simply reject votes for Biden. There is no law giving the vice president this authority. Pence refused to do this, understanding the illegality, but if he had played along the courts would have had to confirm that the Electoral Count Act of 1887 granted the vice president ceremonial, not decision-making, power if democracy was to survive.

Indeed, all that would be needed for success after such acts are judges to go along with them. Given that such changes are not unconstitutional, final success is imaginable, whether in the lower courts or in the Supreme Court, where such things would surely end up. It’s encouraging to see, both recently and during Trump’s term, that the judicial system has remained strong, continuing to function within normal parameters while the rest of the nation went mad. In late 2020, Trump and rightwing efforts to have citizen votes disqualified and other disgusting moves based on fraud claims were tossed out of the courtrooms due to things like lack of something called “evidence.” Even the rightwing Supreme Court, with three Trump appointees, refused to get involved in and shot down Trump’s nonsense (much like Trump’s own Justice Department and Department of Homeland Security). Yet we waited with bated breath to see if this would be so. It could have gone the other way — votes thrown out despite the lack of evidence, such decisions upheld by higher courts, results overturned. That’s all it would have taken this time — forget changing how electors are chosen or Congress (or Pence) rejecting them! If QAnon types can make it into Congress, if people like Trump can receive such loyalty from the congresspersons who approve Supreme Court justices and other judges, if someone like Trump can win the White House and be in a position to nominate justices, the idea of the absurdity seeping into the judicial system doesn’t seem so far-fetched. Like other presidents, Trump appointed hundreds of federal judges. And if that seems possible — the courts tolerating bad cases brought before them — then the courts ruling that states can return to anti-democratic systems of old eras or tolerating a purge of rightful electors seems possible, too. Any course makes citizen voting a sham.

The only bulwark to the overturning of a fair election and the end of American democracy was basically luck, comprising, before January 6 at any rate: 1) a small group of Republican officials being unable to act, and/or 2) a small group of judges being unwilling to act. It isn’t that hard to imagine a different circumstance that would have allowed state legislators or Congress or the vice president to terminate democracy and/or seen the Trumpian insanity infecting judges like it has voters and elected officials. In this sense, we simply got extremely lucky. And it’s worth reiterating that Number 1 needn’t even be in the picture — all you need is enough judges (and jurists) to go along with the foolishness Trump and the GOP brought into the courtroom and real democracy is finished.

(If interested to know exactly how many people would be required to unjustly hand a battleground state to the loser, the answer is 20. This includes a U.S. district judge and jury, a majority of an appellate court, and a majority of the Supreme Court. This number drops to just eight if the district court somehow sees a bench trial, without a jury. But at most, the sanity of just 20 people stands between democracy and chaos in each state. In this election, one state, any of the battleground states, would not have been enough to seize the Electoral College, you would have needed three of them. Meaning at most five Supreme Court justices and 45 judges and jurors. In this sense, this election was far more secure than some future election that hinges on one state.)

Then on January 6, we noticed that our luck was comprised of something else. It also included 3) a military that, like our justice system, hadn’t lost its mind yet. More on that momentarily.

When January 6 arrived, and it was time for Congress to count and confirm the Electoral College votes, GOP House reps and senators indeed came together to object to electors, forcing votes from both houses of Congress on elector acceptance. Then a Trumpian mob, sizably armed, overwhelmed the police and broke into the Capitol building to “Stop the Steal,” leaving people dead and IEDs needing disarming — another little hint at what a coup, of a very different sort, might look and feel like. Though a few Republicans changed their minds, and plans to contest other states were scrapped, 147 Republican congresspersons still voted to sustain objections to the electors of Arizona and Pennsylvania! They sought to not confirm the electoral votes of disputed states until an “election audit” was conducted. Long after the courts (59 cases lost by then), the states (some Republican), and Trump’s own government departments had said the election was free and fair, and after they saw how Trump’s lies could lead directly to deadly violence, Republicans continued playing along, encouraging the continued belief in falsities and risking further chaos. They comprised 65% of GOP House members and 15% of GOP senators. (Some did the right thing: 10 Republicans in the House would vote to impeach Trump, seven in the Senate to convict.) This time, fortunately, there wasn’t enough congressional support to reject electoral votes. Perhaps next time there will be — and a judicial system willing to tolerate such a travesty.

Recent times have been a true education in how a democracy can implode. It can do so without democratic processes, requiring a dear leader spewing lies, enough of the populace to believe those lies, enough of the most devout to take violent action, and military involvement or inaction. If armed supporters storm and seize the Capitol and other places of power then it doesn’t really matter what the courts say, but this only ultimately works if the military does it or acquiesces to it. While the January 6 mob included active soldiers and veterans, this had no support from the branches, instead condemnation and protective response. This was ideal, but next time we may not be so fortunate. But the end of the great experiment can also happen through democratic processes. Democratic systems can eliminate democracy. Other free nations have seen democracy legislated away just as they have seen military coups. You need a dear leader spewing lies to justify acts that would keep him in charge, enough of the populace to believe those lies, enough of the dear leader’s party to go along with those lies and acts for power reasons (holding on to branches of government), and enough judges to tolerate such lies and approve, legitimize, such acts. We can count our lucky stars we did not see the last one this time, but it was frightening to witness the first three.

Trump’s conspiracy theories about voter fraud began long before the election (laying the groundwork to question the election’s integrity, only if he lost) and continued long after. Polls suggested eight or nine of every ten Trump voters believed Biden’s victory wasn’t legitimate; about half of Republicans agreed. So many Republican politicians stayed silent or played along with Trump’s voter fraud claims, cementing distrust in the democratic process and encouraging the spread of misinformation, which, like Trump’s actions, increased political division, the potential for violence, and the odds of overturning a fair election. As with voter suppression, gerrymandering, denying justice confirmation votes, and much else, it is clear that power is more important than democracy to many Republicans. Anything to keep the White House, Congress, the Supreme Court. You can’t stand up to the Madman and the Masses. The Masses adore the Madman, and you can’t lose their votes (or, if an earnest supporter, go against your dear leader). Some politicians may even fear for their safety.

It was frightening to realize that democracy really does rest, precariously, on the truth. On human recognition of reality, on sensible standards of evidence, on reason. It’s misinformation and gullibility that can end the democratic experiment, whether by coup or democratic mechanisms or both.

What would happen next? First, no one would be punished, at least not for long. American law allows presidential pardons, another systemic weakness. Anyone who joined a violent coup or quietly worked against democracy would be forgiven and legitimated by the victorious president. Trump, after using this power during his term to free corrupt allies, later vowed to forgive the January 6 rioters if he ever returned to the White House.

More broadly, tens of millions of Americans would celebrate. They wouldn’t be cheering the literal end of democracy, they would be cheering its salvation, because to them fraud had been overcome. So a sizable portion of the population would exist in a delusional state, completely disconnected from reality, which could mean a relatively stable system, like other countries that drifted from democracy. Perhaps the nation simply continues on, in a new form where elections are shams — opening the door to further authoritarianism. Despite much earnest sentiment toward and celebration of democracy, there is a troubling popularity of authoritarianism among Trump voters and to a lesser extent Americans as a whole. Unless the rest of the nation became completely ungovernable, whether in the form of nationwide strikes and mass civil disobedience or the actual violence that the typically hyperbolic prophets of “civil war” predict, there may be few alternatives to a nation in a new form. Considering Congress would need high Republican support to remove a president, or considering Congress would be neutered by the military, an effective governmental response seems almost impossible.

We truly witnessed an incredible moment in U.S. history. It’s one thing to read about nations going over the cliff, and another to see the cliff approaching before your very eyes. Reflecting the rise of authoritarians elsewhere in history, Trump reached the highest office using demagoguery (demonizing Mexicans and illegal immigrants, Muslims, China, the media, and other existential threats) and nationalism (promising to crush these existential threats and restore American greatness). The prejudiced masses loved it. As president his worst policies not only acted upon his demagoguery, with crackdowns on all legal immigration, Muslim immigrants, and illegal immigrants, he also consistently gave the finger to democratic and legal processes, such as ordering people to ignore subpoenas, declaring a national emergency to bypass congressional power and get his wall built, obstruction of justice (even a Republican senator voted to convict him of this), and so on. Then, at the end, Trump sought to stay in office through lies and a backstabbing of democracy, the overturning of a fair vote. And even in all this, we were extremely lucky — not only that the judicial and military systems remained strong (it was interesting to see how unelected authorities can protect democracy, highlighting the importance of some unelected power in a system of checks and balances), but that Trump was always more doofus than dictator, without much of a political ideology beyond “me, me, me.” Next time we may not be so fortunate. America didn’t go over the cliff this time, but we must work to ensure we never approach it again.

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The Toolbox of Social Change

Posted on by under Politics

After reading one of my books, folks who aren’t involved in social movements often ask, in private or at public talks, “What can we do?” So distraught by horrors past and present, people feel helpless and overwhelmed, and want to know how we build that better world — how does one join a social movement, exactly? I often say it’s easy to feel powerless before all the daunting obstacles — and no matter how involved you get, you typically feel you’re not doing enough. Perhaps even the most famous activists and leaders felt that way. Fortunately, I continue, if you look at history it becomes clear that social change isn’t just about one person doing a lot. It’s about countless people doing just a little bit. Howard Zinn said, “Small acts, when multiplied by millions of people, can transform the world.” And he was right, as we’ve seen. Whatever challenges we face today, those who came before us faced even greater terrors — and they won, because growing numbers of ordinary people decided to act, decided to organize, to put pressure on the economically and politically powerful. I then list (some of) the tools in the toolbox of social change, which I have reproduced below so I can pass them along in written form.

The list roughly and imperfectly goes from smaller, less powerful tools to larger, more powerful ones. The first nine are largely done “together alone,” while the last nine are mostly in the realm of true organizing and collective action. Yet all are of extreme importance in building a more decent society. (It ignores, perhaps rightly, the sentiments of some comrades that there should be no participation in current electoral systems, instead favoring using all possible tools at one’s disposal.) This is in no way a comprehensive list (writing books is hopefully on this spectrum somewhere, alongside many other things), but it is enough to get the curious started.

Talk to people

Post on social media

Submit editorials / earn media attention / advertise

Sign petitions

Call / email / write / tag the powerful

Donate to candidates

Donate to organizations

Vote for candidates

Vote for policy initiatives

Volunteer for candidates (phonebank / canvass / register or drive voters)

Volunteer for policy initiative campaigns (phonebank / canvass / register or drive voters)

Run for office

Join an organization

Launch a policy initiative campaign (from petition to ballot)

March / protest / picket (at a place of power)

Boycott (organized refusal to buy or participate)

Strike (organized refusal to return to work or school)

Sit-in / civil disobedience / disruption (organized, nonviolent refusal to leave a place of power, cooperate, or obey the law; acceptance of arrest)

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