As our thrilling national descent into fascism proceeds day by day, along with it comes an increasingly frantic search for the answer to the question: “Who will save us?” The more ruthlessly the crank of oppression turns, the larger the pool of citizens becomes who begin casting their eyes to the horizon of American society in search of saviors. Where will we find those fabled heroes of civil society, those true believers in freedom and democracy, who will form the firewall to stop what is happening from happening?
None of us can predict the future, but it is possible to make some well-informed guesses about where we should—and should not—expect to see The Resistance forming in earnest. In any situation like ours, where a vindictive and dictatorial figure with no regard for law or morality is centralizing power in his own hands, it does not take a crystal ball to know how different groups will respond. It only takes an understanding of incentives, and of human nature. Here is one thing that I feel very confident in saying: The people and institutions in America who have the most will do the least in this fight. Do not be surprised when your search for saviors among the pillars of society fails.
Business will not save us.
Rich individuals will not save us.
The law will not save us.
Congress will not save us.
Universities will not save us.
Unions. Will unions save us? Organized labor is the most robust form of resistance to the type of oppression that is coming. That will not change. The existing union establishment, though, is vulnerable to the same forces that are pressing other institutions down into their holes. Big unions are entities completely enmeshed in a legal framework that the government is capable of manipulating or scrapping altogether. The administration just tossed out an existing union contract covering nearly 50,000 TSA agents. Is that “legal?” Maybe, though that is an illustration of the inadequacy of the law more than anything else. Is it an outrageous and existential attack on union power that demands a strike in response? Yes. But a strike would be illegal, and the workers could be fired, and the union itself could be subject to enormous fines and penalties, and it is extremely unlikely that a strike will happen. (I do not mean to portray this as an uncomplicated choice. Some of the most aggressive strikes in labor history have failed and destroyed entire unions and harmed worker power for decades to come. The dangers are very real.) What existing unions already have acts as a disincentive for them to take risks, lest they experience an abrupt and major loss. Instead, they will subject themselves to slower, more gradual losses: The government will make it hard to organize new members, easy for employers to retaliate against union drives, and public sector unions will be stripped of every last scrap of influence. I believe in the labor movement, but it would be dishonest not to observe that our own institutions have the same weak points as those discussed above.
So where does this leave us? If the most powerful and wealthiest parts of society will not form the vanguard of the resistance, who will? It is a question that answers itself. Grassroots movements made up of regular people are where the resistance has to happen. Ideally, enough pressure can be created from below to bolster the fearful institutions into joining the fight. But they will not lead it. At best, they will get on the right side of the fight when they make the judgment that doing so is a bet that has a reasonable chance of success. Allow your disappointment in this fact to be leavened by the knowledge that you, yourself, are the most important determination of what America’s future will look like. If you, and millions of people like you, resolve to stand up, we will win. We have the numbers. If you and I sit around waiting for all of those Respectable Institutions to take the lead, we will be spending the next few years doing nothing except being crestfallen by the inaction from above. I guess we might as well get to it, then. Don’t be sad you’re not rich. Be happy that you’re free.