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04-09-01
STAY ON TARGET
Remember the great scene near the end of Star Wars, when the Rebel pilots
are beginning their assault on the Death Star? Remember the squadron
leader telling his men over and over again, "Stay on target...stay
on target"?
Easier said than done, of course, since the Rebel pilots were under
heavy attack from the surface of the Death Star itself and vastly outnumbered
by the Imperial 'Tie' Fighters swarming about them. But 'staying on
target' was essential. The Rebels could not afford to let themselves
be distracted by their attackers, no matter how threatening or persistent.
In our efforts to fight back against the Cheney/Bush regime, we need
to be equally determined to 'stay on target'. It is far too easy to
become distracted by the daily outrages and lose sight of the one sure
way to defeat those who carried out the recent coup -- the constant
reminder, given at every possible opportunity, that Bush is illegitimate
and was not chosen by the people; the constant repetition of the fact
that he has no mandate to push through extreme right-wing legislation
and appointments.
This is the heart of the resistance; it's what makes our objections
and arguments rock-solid. When we let ourselves be drawn into debates
over the merits of one policy or another, when we focus on whether decisions
made by the Cheney/Bush administration are good for the country or not
and forget to draw attention to the fact that ALL decisions and policies
are illegitimate, then we veer off target and weaken our position.
This is not to say that we should avoid debating policies - not at all.
But while we're debating, we absolutely must keep in mind that we are
aiming for a more important victory than simply blocking a right-wing
appointee, or defeating a piece of corporate-friendly legislation, or
preserving an environmentally necessary policy.While those victories
are certainly worth fighting for - and also weaken our ultimate target
- we can't allow ourselves to fall into the trap of fighting back ONLY
against specific issues. It is, I'll admit, pretty easy to fall into
this trap, because our arguments are so much stronger than the opposition's...they
have to resort to lies and misdirection to convince the public that
what they want to do is good for the country; we need merely to tell
the plain, unvarnished truth. And so at times I find myself arguing
against the "soup kitchens for billionaires" tax cut proposal,
or the plans to drill in ANWAR, or any number of the equally ludicrous
and dangerous ideas put forth by the far right, on the merits of the
ideas alone.
But here's the thing - when we argue against a Bush proposal on the
merits alone, we are giving him - however unwittingly - legitimacy that
he doesn't have and doesn't deserve. We are, unconsciously, fostering
the notion that he has the RIGHT to make such proposals. We are using
civilized weapons to fight against an uncivilized adversary.
Here's another analogy for you - if one family kidnaps an infant from
another family, would anyone even listen to any arguments the kidnappers
made concerning which set of parents was better suited to raising the
child? Would the parents of the infant waste time trying to show proof
that they would do a better job? Of course not.
We need to remain focused. The issue at stake is our democracy. The
right-wing continues to throw outrage after outrage after us, knowing
that we'll be distracted, knowing that we'll end up expending most of
our energy arguing against the details instead of arguing against the
whole picture. And every time we enter into a debate and fail to mention
the strongest argument against Bush's actions - that he is illegitimate
- we reinforce the belief of many that it's just "business as usual".
Stay on target and (to mix my metaphors a bit) don't lose sight of the
big picture. If someone asks why you oppose Bush's tax cut, make sure
to state as your number one reason the fact that we voted against the
man and his tax cut. If you're drawn into a debate over Bush's assaults
on the environment, start off with the reminder that Bush's environmental
policy is one of the reasons he lost the election. If you fire off a
letter to the editor about the right-wing assault on reproductive rights,
point out that it's an illegitimate assault. Only then should you go
into details and address the issues on their merits...and you SHOULD
address the issues on their merits, because there will always be thick-headed
idiots who'll refuse to accept that our democracy was stolen, and they
need to know that Bush's agenda would be dangerous and wrong even if
he HAD won the election.
Regressives often whine and complain that liberals keep trying to 'de-legitimize'
Bush. But the fact is that you can't 'de-legitimize' something which
has no legitimacy in the first place. What we are doing, and need to
continue doing, is REMINDING people of Bush's illegitimacy. If we stop
doing that, then we lose half the battle right there.
~Rose
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