Public Shaming: How The Powerless Can Win
The children in cages and swampy head of the EPA episodes of the sick reality show known as the Trump administration teach a valuable lesson. Even the shameless can be bullied into taking action by constant public shaming. Trump was not ashamed that nonwhite children were crying for their mothers and fathers while housed in cages; he's a racist sadist who enjoys torturing nonwhite people. Nor was he bothered by Pruitt's corrupt use of his Cabinet position to try to enrich himself and his wife. Pruitt is an innocent, selfless public servant compared to Trump and his parasitic family. Still the media's constant focus on the shame of abusing small children by separating them from their parents and the number of scandals swamping Pruitt forced the electoral college President to take action (or at least pretend to take action in the case of the children who are still separated from their parents).
The Democrats, who seem unable to figure out how to beat shamelessly corrupt Republicans, need to adopt this strategy immediately. Instead of trying to prevent the shameless McConnell, Trump, and the Republicans from ramming through another Supreme Court justice who doesn't represent the views of the majority of Americans, they should shame the justices who would accept a Supreme Court nomination from an insane bigot who is torturing small children and is at best a puppet of Putin and at worst working for him against our country. They should heap shame on Gorsuch for accepting his position on the court when it was stolen by McConnell, and it is increasingly clear that the election of the man who selected him was aided by the Russians. Even if the Russians hadn't interfered in our election, Trump lost the popular vote by almost three million people, several of the states that he barely won had voter suppression laws, and the electoral college is rigged against urban nonwhites, the Democrats' base. Instead of focusing on policy issues like Roe v Wade, voter rights, and union rights, the Democratic Senators should focus on the shame of being appointed by an insane bigot. They should ask questions not only about the Mueller investigation and the justice's need to recuse him/herself if Trump's case comes up for review, but about the justice's understanding of how a democracy works. I would ask, "Do you believe patriotic Americans should support and vote for a Presidential candidate who seems dangerous, unhinged, and ignorant about the rules of democracy as long as he agrees to appoint conservative Supreme Court justices?"
This shaming tactic should also be used against other Republicans. I like Maxine Waters' idea of confronting Trump's Cabinet members and staff in restaurants, department stores, trains, airplanes, theaters, and wherever else they have the nerve to show their faces in public. But why limit the strategy to the executive branch? Shame McConnell, Ryan, Collins, and any other Republican who supports this insane President. Our so-called Democratic leaders should be ashamed for criticizing Representative Waters. They have already used fake sexual misconduct charges to drive two great liberals--John Conyers and Al Franken--out of Congress. Franken was a formidable fundraiser and very good battler, although not as good as Conyers was in his day and Waters still is. If Schumer and Pelosi had been Congressional leaders during the sixties, they would have objected to the civil rights movement, would have asked King to tone it down, stop marching and sitting in. Shaming of the powerful is a 21st Century version of the 20th Century civil rights activists' bus boycotts, sit-ins, and marches. Instead of the powerless protesters being uncomfortable, being attacked by dogs, beaten, and spit on, the powerful bigots are made uncomfortable. The powerless can be civil, but firm as they shame these racist enemies of democracy. They can ask their questions or make their statements civilly. They can go "high" while denouncing these lowlifes and making them answer for their corruption and bigotry.
Of course, as they've shown with their obsessive focus on sexual scandals, members of the media are the most effective at public shaming. They can stay focused on a topic (like the children in the cages and Pruitt's scandals) until even Trump waves the "black" flag of fake decency. So the Democrats need to shame the media into shaming the Republicans. Whenever a Democrat is being criticized by the media, she needs to point out that the media created Trump and didn't demonize him off television when he told his racist birther lies. Democrats who appear on NBC should point out that NBC fired Matt Lauer, but not Donald Trump. They should point out how long Lauer was on the "Today Show," how polite and decent his public persona was, how much money he made for NBC, etc. Democrats or liberal activists, especially women, can do the same with CNN. They fired Kathy Griffin from the New Year's Eve show for holding a bloody head that resembled Trump but continued to allow Trump on their shows after he joined and led the racist birther campaign. The liberal/Democrat talking point should be: Jimmy Fallon did the right thing when he apologized for humanizing Trump. When are the other media figures and networks going to join him in apologizing to President Obama, his family, blacks, other people of color, all Americans, and the world for their part in creating this disaster?
The brutal killing of Emmett Till, the attacks on the Little Rock High School students, the murder of Medgar Evers, and the images of police dogs and water hoses being used against peaceful black protesters helped shame a racist southern President (my second favorite) into signing the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts and declaring, "We shall overcome." The insane, shameless Trump is not capable of that kind of conversion, but he knows how to read polls and crowds. If the crowds and his powerful enablers are shamed into turning against him, he will reluctantly change.
Public shaming is the new civil disobedience. Let's use it to save our democracy.
The Democrats, who seem unable to figure out how to beat shamelessly corrupt Republicans, need to adopt this strategy immediately. Instead of trying to prevent the shameless McConnell, Trump, and the Republicans from ramming through another Supreme Court justice who doesn't represent the views of the majority of Americans, they should shame the justices who would accept a Supreme Court nomination from an insane bigot who is torturing small children and is at best a puppet of Putin and at worst working for him against our country. They should heap shame on Gorsuch for accepting his position on the court when it was stolen by McConnell, and it is increasingly clear that the election of the man who selected him was aided by the Russians. Even if the Russians hadn't interfered in our election, Trump lost the popular vote by almost three million people, several of the states that he barely won had voter suppression laws, and the electoral college is rigged against urban nonwhites, the Democrats' base. Instead of focusing on policy issues like Roe v Wade, voter rights, and union rights, the Democratic Senators should focus on the shame of being appointed by an insane bigot. They should ask questions not only about the Mueller investigation and the justice's need to recuse him/herself if Trump's case comes up for review, but about the justice's understanding of how a democracy works. I would ask, "Do you believe patriotic Americans should support and vote for a Presidential candidate who seems dangerous, unhinged, and ignorant about the rules of democracy as long as he agrees to appoint conservative Supreme Court justices?"
This shaming tactic should also be used against other Republicans. I like Maxine Waters' idea of confronting Trump's Cabinet members and staff in restaurants, department stores, trains, airplanes, theaters, and wherever else they have the nerve to show their faces in public. But why limit the strategy to the executive branch? Shame McConnell, Ryan, Collins, and any other Republican who supports this insane President. Our so-called Democratic leaders should be ashamed for criticizing Representative Waters. They have already used fake sexual misconduct charges to drive two great liberals--John Conyers and Al Franken--out of Congress. Franken was a formidable fundraiser and very good battler, although not as good as Conyers was in his day and Waters still is. If Schumer and Pelosi had been Congressional leaders during the sixties, they would have objected to the civil rights movement, would have asked King to tone it down, stop marching and sitting in. Shaming of the powerful is a 21st Century version of the 20th Century civil rights activists' bus boycotts, sit-ins, and marches. Instead of the powerless protesters being uncomfortable, being attacked by dogs, beaten, and spit on, the powerful bigots are made uncomfortable. The powerless can be civil, but firm as they shame these racist enemies of democracy. They can ask their questions or make their statements civilly. They can go "high" while denouncing these lowlifes and making them answer for their corruption and bigotry.
Of course, as they've shown with their obsessive focus on sexual scandals, members of the media are the most effective at public shaming. They can stay focused on a topic (like the children in the cages and Pruitt's scandals) until even Trump waves the "black" flag of fake decency. So the Democrats need to shame the media into shaming the Republicans. Whenever a Democrat is being criticized by the media, she needs to point out that the media created Trump and didn't demonize him off television when he told his racist birther lies. Democrats who appear on NBC should point out that NBC fired Matt Lauer, but not Donald Trump. They should point out how long Lauer was on the "Today Show," how polite and decent his public persona was, how much money he made for NBC, etc. Democrats or liberal activists, especially women, can do the same with CNN. They fired Kathy Griffin from the New Year's Eve show for holding a bloody head that resembled Trump but continued to allow Trump on their shows after he joined and led the racist birther campaign. The liberal/Democrat talking point should be: Jimmy Fallon did the right thing when he apologized for humanizing Trump. When are the other media figures and networks going to join him in apologizing to President Obama, his family, blacks, other people of color, all Americans, and the world for their part in creating this disaster?
The brutal killing of Emmett Till, the attacks on the Little Rock High School students, the murder of Medgar Evers, and the images of police dogs and water hoses being used against peaceful black protesters helped shame a racist southern President (my second favorite) into signing the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts and declaring, "We shall overcome." The insane, shameless Trump is not capable of that kind of conversion, but he knows how to read polls and crowds. If the crowds and his powerful enablers are shamed into turning against him, he will reluctantly change.
Public shaming is the new civil disobedience. Let's use it to save our democracy.
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