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Philip Bump: This is what democracy looks like
https://www.pbump.net/o/this-is-what-democracy-looks-like/-snip-
What’s important about this movement is that the only power that most of these protestors have is their own. They are expending all of it — and in doing so helping to build a bigger, aggregated power. The stewards of large accumulations of power are wary and timid. Enough stewards of personal, individual power are bold and engaged that a significant counterweight to the administration has emerged.
It’s telling that so many defenders of the administration can’t accept this for what it is. The constant refrain that opponents of the administration are paid to express their opposition is generally nothing more than a bad-faith effort to delegitimize it. The idea that tens of thousands are being slipped cash to whistle at ICE officers without any evidence of such payments emerging is as dumb an argument as saying that 2020 was affected by rampant fraud — which is a reminder that the stupidity of an argument is no barrier to its adoption. Even the idea that liberal donors giving to liberal groups somehow constitutes “funding” the protests is a deflection from the fact that bespoke responses to ICE have been created on the fly, with thousands of volunteers chipping in.
-snip-
But democracy isn’t solely about elections or about the exercising of aggregated national power. As the old protest chant has it, activism is also what democracy looks like. Citizens piecing together ad hoc institutions to confront oppression is democracy. People stepping up to protect the country when Congress and the Supreme Court won’t is democracy.
Democracy isn’t simply being defended. It’s being reorganized — out of unfortunate necessity, but effectively. So much so that the huge centers of power are finally starting to notice.
What’s important about this movement is that the only power that most of these protestors have is their own. They are expending all of it — and in doing so helping to build a bigger, aggregated power. The stewards of large accumulations of power are wary and timid. Enough stewards of personal, individual power are bold and engaged that a significant counterweight to the administration has emerged.
It’s telling that so many defenders of the administration can’t accept this for what it is. The constant refrain that opponents of the administration are paid to express their opposition is generally nothing more than a bad-faith effort to delegitimize it. The idea that tens of thousands are being slipped cash to whistle at ICE officers without any evidence of such payments emerging is as dumb an argument as saying that 2020 was affected by rampant fraud — which is a reminder that the stupidity of an argument is no barrier to its adoption. Even the idea that liberal donors giving to liberal groups somehow constitutes “funding” the protests is a deflection from the fact that bespoke responses to ICE have been created on the fly, with thousands of volunteers chipping in.
-snip-
But democracy isn’t solely about elections or about the exercising of aggregated national power. As the old protest chant has it, activism is also what democracy looks like. Citizens piecing together ad hoc institutions to confront oppression is democracy. People stepping up to protect the country when Congress and the Supreme Court won’t is democracy.
Democracy isn’t simply being defended. It’s being reorganized — out of unfortunate necessity, but effectively. So much so that the huge centers of power are finally starting to notice.
Much more at the link. No paywall.