Tiny steps

One of the most shocking defeats in our country’s relatively young history was December 7, 1941. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor was brilliant tactics, strategy, and execution and they were reasonable to think that would knock us so far back that they would be able to continue marauding the Pacific theater unopposed. The attach broke all of the conventional “norms” of warfare, which made it a surprise and gave it terrific shock value. Initially there was great sorrow, fear and a sense of defeat (I recently visited the Pearl Harbor Memorial and it should be on everyone’s list of things to do).

The Japanese did not, however, fully appreciate something unique about American spirit. At some core level we didn’t appreciate being bullied and tricked, but we hadn’t really established ourselves as a super power or scary country able of projecting strength around the world. And yet.

In June 1942, in the Battle of Midway, US naval forces sunk four of the Japanese aircraft carriers that had participated in the Pearl Harbor attack. We also managed to win a critical battle, far from our comfort zone, deplete the Japanese forces, put a chink in their confidence, and ramp up our industrial production at a scale that is really hard to believe. Within two years we were acting like a global superpower, gaining momentum on multiple fronts, and beginning to push back dictatorial, fascist, objectively evil aggressors that resulted in a decisive defeat before 1945 ended.

There are lots of parallels to that narrative of getting knocked down, shaking yourself off, and coming back in the competitive sports world where I have spent most of my professional career. I’ve used that trope myself many times as a coach - “we started slow, they (metaphorically) punched us in the face, but we’re going to gather ourselves and finish strong”. Some of the most compelling stories in sports are iconic comebacks against tremendous odds or extraordinary underdog stories (I highly recommend the Anthony Robles story on Netflix, “Unstoppable”, in the latter category).

Now I’m ready to start framing our current reality in those kinds of terms, because we’ve been seriously knocked back on our heels for the last few weeks. A group of malevolent, vengeful, angry people have attacked our democracy at its roots, breaking all manner of norms and laws. Occasionally they mask their work under the guise of “efficiency” or something, something, values. There are even occasional threads of reasonable ideas, like improving the quality of the food we eat. But it’s all been a pretty frightening tidal wave of awful for anyone who cares about human rights, justice, democracy, or the rule of law. It’s felt like we were shocked to the floor and there haven’t been many signs of getting back up.

But today we have some wins and a glimmer of democracy trying to get off the mat. Civil servants and their unions are pushing back. FBI agents have a union and they’re filing suits and getting injunctions. Journalists are digging deep and shedding light in some of the darkness. We’re finding out some of the terrible things Elon and his flying monkies are trying to do in secret. Judges are making public statements that might put themselves at risk. Congresspeople are finally physically acting in ways that look like resistance and public servants are refusing to be run off.

I think it’s starting to occur to more and more folks that we’re under attack, that the attackers are more organized than last time, but that they’re largely incompetent. Ideologically strong, but intellectually and still largely ignorant about how things actually work. Today I tried the “5 calls” website and it could not have been easier to generate a script and call the offices of my two senators and congressperson. I left two voicemails but also talked to one actual staffer who listened to my concerns, logged my call, and made me feel heard.

Democracy is under perhaps the most serious threat we’ve seen since the Cold War. But there is still a core to this country that doesn’t like being bullied, that embraces the underdog mindset, and gets riled up when threatened. Less than a third of eligible voters chose this madness, which means two thirds of the country did not want this and they may be able to stand up, even when all of the institutional cards and the communications universe seem stacked up against us.

When the actual implications of thoughtless, extremist actions start to show (e.g. conservative farmers who did vote for Trump are about to lose $2 Billion in agriculture sales to USAID because the Incel Clown Posse doesn’t get that most of our foreign aid goes to buy US goods from US producers), anger and disappointment are going to build. It’s December 1941 and we’ve been hit hard, but the forces of good are gathering steam.