Take a deep breath
Anand Giridharadas suggests (not in so many words) that if we want to defeat nascent fascism the left needs to get over itself:
We need to build a movement like we never have before: attractive, fun, substantive, visionary, tomorrow-oriented, rooted in people’s lives, open-armed, fiery, merciful.
A movement that understands the emotion and psychology and anxiety that are at the heart of politics. The right gets this; the left largely doesn’t. We need a new movement that does.
A movement that isn’t tedious and hairsplitting and gatekeeping and purist and more interested in petty internal beefing than outward expansion. We need a small-e evangelical movement more interested in finding converts than heretics.
If you’ve read “The Persuaders,” the roots of this post are obvious. The left needs to focus more on building critical mass than on criticism. A movement with a tribal language and that finds a dark cloud in every silver lining isn’t inviting. A real movement doesn’t erect barriers to entry.
A movement that has a sense of humor. That can tell the difference between people awkwardly trying to catch up with progress and people who are vicious threats to that progress.
A movement that knows how to provoke and command attention, get people talking, play to emotion, tell stories, constructively address anxiety and fear — a movement that doesn’t look down on communicating on more guttural levels, that isn’t wonk-drunk.
A movement that finally gets over any aversion to patriotism. A movement that reclaims patriotism from those who befoul it. A movement that understands that regular people love their country, and that if you don’t sound like you do, too, you’re doomed.
“Freedom has always been a contested value,” says Anat Shenker-Osorio, to whom Giridharadas devotes an entire chapter. “It is not coincidental that freedom to vote is the name of the newer form of what was the For the People Act. That name was very deliberately chosen.” The left cannot forfeit the word to MAGA Republicans. It’s a winner with Americans across the political spectrum.
A movement “vividly paints the beautiful tomorrow it seeks.” It stands “for something.”