American political culture celebrates the idea of protest and dissent. But it is often extremely hostile to the dissenters and protesters themselves.
America loves its civic martyrs and freedom fighters when they are dead. But it imprisons and punishes them while they are alive.
To canonize an American radical in the country’s public memory involves robbing them of their radicalism. The myth-making process has limits on how much truth it allows to be spoken to power.
The political rodeo surrounding Donald Trump, the American Il Duce and proto fascist, carnival barker, right-wing con man, is being met with protests across the United States. As I witnessed firsthand in Chicago, a loose coalition of young people including Black Lives Matter activists, Muslims, Latinos, white progressives, and other forward-thinking and progressively minded individuals are saying “no!” to Trump’s bigotry, nativism, and racism. Even while they are assaulted by Trump’s thugs, these protesters continue to resist. Their behavior is in the best tradition of American civil society and free speech.
Unfortunately, large swaths of the American public are not supportive of them.