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My favourite Republican is “The Governator,” the former state governor of California. On a web sound bite recently, I saw Arnold Schwarzenegger say with emphasis, “Don’t whine!”
Perhaps he thought whiners are without hope.
Ya, but Arnie himself has spoken on YouTube, in fact once I linked to his words about Ukraine.
You may wonder, then, what would be speaking that is not whining? Maybe it’s when someone exposes the White House press corps to those of us who aren’t journalists. Recently (July 8) Lawrence O’Donnell said he never imagined that the stupidest president in US history would face the stupidest press corps in US history. And then backed up what he said.
I have his exact words below. Warning: I think you’ll find it hard to stop listening once you start.
It might be whining to talk merely to complain about Trump, yet not be whining to explain with a purpose: “We are not helpless,” and “It’s our job to tell the truth” as Heather Cox Richardson says below. (July 8)
I remember a Readers Digest story about a guy learning not to whine. He starts out by always saying, “If only…” but at last his mentor teaches him to say, “Next time…” Because whining “if only,” can leave you with slumped shoulders, feeling deflated.
Almost a week ago, a Canadian publisher, Lisa Sygutek, wrote, “Recently, I was a panellist at the Canadian Association of Journalists conference in Calgary…” (July 3, Calgary Sun)
I hope that next time when there is a “dictator,” —“but only on Day One!” said Trump— US journalists will gather for a conference where they can explore what to do if a public official lies multiple times as part of a single address. Obviously the tried and proven journalism ethics don’t suffice anymore. Journalists could give each other peer support for not being as stupid as the reporters described by O’Donnell. This while other reporters, in living memory, had ethics and self respect. Reporters could cooperate to compose a code of ethics for how a reporter might ask his editor for help if tempted to sane wash a president’s word salad.
To encourage social change, I’m sure artists have a role, as do novels that take place a few decades from now.
In The War Against the Chtorr series, the “Chtorr” is an “invasive species” infestation, not aliens from outer space with ray guns or humans with bullet guns. The infamous (to the world) US hubris has been drastically reduced after the US has stupidly dropped two atomic bombs, —kinda, sorta— and then had harsh treaty terms imposed on them. This masterful science fiction series is by David Gerrold.
The novels depict “on the job training for a hero.” There are flashback chapters to when the hero was a spoiled kid in high school. His teacher gives the class a most unpleasant experience: a hands-on workshop where they learn the hard way about the power of kings… and then learn how to create and enforce a Magna Carta (great charter) to curtail the king’s power. Note: Canadians curtail their government with a Charter Of Rights and Freedoms.
Afterwards, the kids debrief: What should we have done? The teacher answers: You should have acted to STOP the Dear Leader the very first minute he overstepped the line, before he could accumulate still more power.
Next time a president is elected, and on his very first day, king-wise, overrules congress by “impounding” the funds they had allocated to further their democratically voted-on aims, (which did happen) then the senate and the people could say STOP. (Which didn’t happen)
Speaking of kings, what about those mass protests all over for “No kings day?” Was that whining?
American activist Saul Alinsky (died 1972) explained how the power of the people may be used in a rhythmical series of tactics for best effect. As I’m not living in the US, I can’t say whether the demonstrations were functional, as part of a strategy, but from up here I saw no rhythm, no resulting action to STOP anything. Of course, the protests could have been intended as a symbolic thingy to start a new ball rolling. (Like how someone doused himself in gasoline and kicked off the Arab Spring) But maybe that day of protests were what Alinsky called a mere “terminal tactic,” as when a wave crests and terminates, disappears, leaving nothing but empty sand.
When a muscle beach surfer enters a weight room, then as he lifts a barbell he might yell like a sensei. What he won’t do, just before a lift, is mutter, “It’s hopeless.”
As for hope, the teacher in The Chtorr Wars reminds the high school students that by years end they would be grown ups, citizens with responsibility to choose whether to allow a president to do military adventurism and kinda, sorta drop a Bomb. As I recall, he asks rhetorically, Who else but you has ultimate responsibility? He proclaims: If you argue in advance that ‘it’s hopeless’ then you are arguing in favour of your limitations.
From up here in Canada, I sense Americans think that a majority of the supreme court believe in Trump, and that a majority of congress believes in Trumpism, and that the majority of Americans are True Believers too. It’s as if Americans think their neighbours are mesmerized by Fox News into voluntarily wearing big horse blinders and iron ear muffs. Suddenly I recall that scene out of the movie Tommy where a crowd gathers in a grassy park wearing blind folds, ear plugs and mouth plugs. My answer to my American cousins is: How do you know? How do you know Americans won’t change, unless you try?
And furthermore, what is this silly fixation Americans have about caring so intently what Trump believes? True, they now have a one-man government, but still… The protestors of the 1960’s didn’t quote from Hamlet,
“The play’s the thing,
wherein we’ll catch,
the conscience of the king.”
No. When they put on their street dramas, such as lying down covered in red paint, it was to educate the ordinary silent majority because activists, reaching across the generation gap, cared about their shorthaired fellow-Americans, cared to teach them “power to the people.”
The US, I believe, has always been a “can-do” nation. Surely there’s still time. Time to organize to educate reporters, and time to build up a grass roots movement to catch congress—not the king.
Some folks say Reaganomics has screwed the economy, so that good people are angry and genuinely prefer a populist. My answer is: Maybe next month some rich middle class activists could take action by ditching their hubris and humbly, honestly, talking with the common people, debriefing with them, not at them, about how, so far, Reagonomics has worked and has not-worked. This wouldn’t be a comfortable conversation for middle-class folks, but still, activists should know that citizenship was never meant to be comfortable, and that desiring politicians to be honest starts at home.
(Update: Someone who is probably not rich is selling merchandise saying, “Reagan ruined everything.” The word is getting out… link)
Meanwhile, the fellow who put The Ugly American into our vocabulary also wrote on how Americans can change in his book A Nation of Sheep. A harsh title, but here’s the thing: He had hope
… …
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With hope for continuing towards the light,
As god gives me courage to see the light
Sean Crawford
Kamloops
July 2025 Footnote: Actually, I linked not to Arnold directly but to a footnote to an Arab site that links to Arnold’s video, during some awful times that we may have forgotten; the Arabs also link to Putin’s lies that the White House seems to forget about.
