This past Christmas, my sister gave me the box set of John Lewis’s graphic memoir March, about his early days as an organizer, civil rights leader, and founder of SNCC. It’s a great story and pretty timely, as the principles of non-violent activism and resistance are likely to come in handy in the coming years. Of course, as you know, John Lewis has been in the news over the last few days, though not because of his books. He spoke ill of our president-electoral, as Sam Seder so accurately calls him, and that naturally brought a somewhat delayed social media response from Herr Mr. Hair, who drunk tweeted about John Lewis being all “talk, talk, talk,” and never getting anything accomplished.
Lots of people have taken issue with this reaction, and more than 50 sitting congresspeople elected not to attend Trump’s inauguration as a protest. And this incident is being spun in the media as just another instance of the president-electoral not being able to let any critical comment pass, of being too thin-skinned or too sensitive. I have to say, though, that I think there’s more to this social media rant than just the T-bone’s usual expression of his hyper narcissism. This incident seriously smells of Bannon, which is to say that it’s a strategic tirade, aimed at a very specific audience.
Remember that Trump’s alt-right fans follow him on Twitter. They’re his attack dogs – when he Twitter bombs someone, they pile onto the carcass. Ripping on John Lewis is prime grade red meat for those fuckers, and what better time to pull it off than on Martin Luther King day? I took a look at David Duke’s Twitter feed and saw that he posted a photo of Congressman Lewis with the headline: “Another loud-mouth, do-nothing Democrat. No hero here – just another Racist; zero results for blacks his entire tenure in house!” That’s just a slight variation on Trump’s message, which Duke posted under the hashtag MAGA – “make America great again”.
As the Cheeto-headed freak takes control (the nuclear codes in his pocket), bear in mind that he is not just a thin-skinned loudmouth. He is part of the broader reactionary political machine that encompasses Congressional Republicans, conservative foundations, rogue billionaires, and sheet-wearing (as well as non-sheet wearing) Klansmen. The problem is bigger than just one man.
luv u,
jp
Now I’m not crazy about the legislative approach, particularly with regard to the expansion of the terror watch list – I just don’t think it’s the best way to deal with this issue – but I think it’s high time somebody occupied the freaking House. I tweeted my support to Barbara Lee and John Lewis on Wednesday night, attracting a flurry of ammo-sexual Twitter trolls. If these folks are willing to take direct action, the least I can do is give them some encouragement. (Elizabeth Warren brought donuts, after all.) That said, there’s a lot more to do, and it can’t all happen in Congress (though some of it must).