Tuesday, December 31, 2019

Bye-bye, 2019!


Obviously the scholar of anti-democratic populism Yascha Mounk isn't seeing what's overwhelming my email. He worries that

... the fear and anger that propelled such big protests in the first months of 2017 seem to have dissipated.

Perhaps -- or perhaps what was once an anguished inchoate #resistance has institutionalized. It's thrown up local protest groups, legal efforts, immigrant assistance projects -- and candidates galore. They all want year end donations, but there's no way to give to all of them. They clamor. That's what a maturing social movement looks like.

He's certainly right to be frightened by the prospect of a second Trump/Republican/white supremacist election. But that evil outcome hasn't happened yet and there's more than enough to get involved with to prevent it.
...
Meanwhile, New Yorker journalist Robin Wright has her eyes on the true big story of 2019: popular rebellions are breaking out everywhere.

When historians look back at 2019, the story of the year will not be the turmoil surrounding Donald Trump. It will instead be the tsunami of protests that swept across six continents and engulfed both liberal democracies and ruthless autocracies.

Throughout the year, movements have emerged overnight, out of nowhere, unleashing public fury on a global scale—from Paris and La Paz to Prague and Port-au-Prince, Beirut to Bogota and Berlin, Catalonia to Cairo, and in Hong Kong, Harare, Santiago, Sydney, Seoul, Quito, Jakarta, Tehran, Algiers, Baghdad, Budapest, London, New Delhi, Manila, and even Moscow. Taken together, the protests reflect unprecedented political mobilization. The global consequences dwarf the turmoil of the Trump year and his rippling impact beyond America’s borders.

... Leaderless movements are not designed to govern, but they often generate momentum among politicians who take up or exploit their causes.

She has interviewed "experts" and doesn't know in what direction these eruptions are taking us. That remains to be seen. But people are refusing to be silent.

But we do seem to be living in 1848, and 1968, and 1989 again. On to 2020.

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