A war-game exercise simulating the 2020 election unmasks some key vulnerabilities …compared to Black Lives Matter
I’m not saying all is lost. I’m just reading the same news you are and coming to terms with what we’re up against if we want to stay free and democratic. This article from Atlantic really got my attention.
How the 2020 Election Could Go Wrong
A war-game exercise simulating the 2020 election unmasks some key vulnerabilities.
The Atlantic: How the 2020 Election Could Go Wrong
“… The good news is that Trump cannot postpone the election or the next presidential inauguration… The bottom line: There do exist outer legal boundaries to the mischief that can be done by even the most corrupt president.
The bad news is that there is a lot of mischief that can be done within the legal boundaries by a determined president…
The worst news is that, faced with presidential lawlessness, few of the participants at the Transition Integrity Project found effective responses … Many of the games turned on who made the first bold move. Time after time, that first mover was Trump…”
GROAN. I can’t read anymore. You’ll want to read this yourself.
What I have to admit is that it’s turned my mind in a defensive direction. I want to feel more confident that the world I leave to my grandchildren’s generation will not be too shitty. And this has made me even less confident of that not-so-lofty vision. But it reinforces my confidence in the strategy that I feel has the best hope of weaving supports for a future beyond the shit. A networked world of people, planet and communities of life that are there for each other.
That’s the vision that came up in an article in the NetworkWeaver Blog. Author Sadia Hassan details some history from the Black Lives Matter movement: “Decentralized Networks and the Black Radical Tradition.” The article is in two parts. Here’s part two, “The Revolution Will Be Built on Trust”.
That’s how fast the world is moving… the Black Lives Matter Movement has history already. And it’s pretty amazing.
Maybe you also had this thought after George Floyd was killed: “how did BLM pull all that support together so fast?” After Michael Brown was killed there was so much resistance, and the dialogue kept getting tangled up, and white people asking were the protests too violent and all that stuff. This time the message became clear instantly, and the allies were ready to step in with support. The blue lives matter crowd had to scramble to catch up. It sure seemed like some brilliant minds in BLM spent their time wisely since 2014 building support that knew exactly how to respond when the moment came to act. How did they do it?
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In 2014 my granddaughter lived an hour and a half from Ferguson, and she and a friend decided to go support the protests. When they arrived, they went to a coffeeshop for breakfast. They listened to the radio as they sipped their coffee and had this bizarre experience. They heard an NPR report on a protest at the police station two blocks from where they sat, so they jumped in the car and headed over to see what was happening. When they came around the corner they stopped in amazement. The “protest” they’d heard on the radio had mass chanting, glass breaking, police sirens and all. What they saw at the police station was two old people in lawn chairs. It was an out-of-body shock for trust in media.
Traditional media has never been the friend of social change. Even NPR. It was social media that empowered the sharp minds of the BLM movement to create their own media networks. Someday I hope the mystery of how it all pulled together will come to light. In my minds eye I’m imagining the internet lighting up across the globe as young people on fire with the cause told their own stories and inspired people like me with their dedication and zeal. We saw through the eyes of people of color how the world worked for them and many of us had to face for the first time our own role in the structural racism in America.
Between then and 2020 BLM put broad energy into creating their manifesto . It’s been revised a lot and is becoming a work of collective inspiration now. It’s a magnanimous and honorable vision of a world where Black lives and all the others of us do matter and it shares our progressive vision of a world that works for all.
What have they been doing since then? Seemingly quiet but not? What connections prepared most progressive groups to heed the call when George Floyd died? And having ready tools to cast nets like this… it’s amazing! The response was massive and effective, and anybody who wants to see a world that works for all needs to pay heed.
This is not the “them” winning out over “us” scenario that frightens the conservative-minded. This is an awakening of the human spirit that can’t be stopped, and we can come along if we’re brave enough to learn the lessons they’re teaching. What a gift… a democracy and an economy that work for all. This can be the birth of a networked world where we care for each other even if our skins are different. We are so lucky to live in these times.
The simulation was run by congressional Democrats and some anti-Trump Republicans. They found that in every possible scenario, the results of the presidential election would result in escalating street violence nationwide. Additionally, one of the possible outcomes would be the secession of the West coast from the United States. In Chicago, Seattle, Portland, DC, Louisville, etc. we are already seeing extreme street violence: rioting, arson, murder, terrorism, and mafia-style extortion. This is being done under the guise of “Black Lives Matter,” which is what the rioters chant as the move through the streets, starting fires, obstructing traffic, brandishing weapons and attacking people in their cars, businesses, or homes. The protests were never peaceful. They simply provided cover for the violent extremists to throw massive temper tantrums.
Wow. Sounds like you’ve been watching the Republican convention, Adam. That’s not what I’m hearing from people who live in Portland and Louisville. What they’er saying is that the violent extremists were the federal agents sent by DC. Which is to say that the situation looks different from different perspectives.
I didn’t watch either convention. I stay up-to-date with current events from independent sources. I also spent time in Ferguson, Cleveland, Wilmington, New York City, LA and DC meeting protestors, black nationalists, and national leaders of the NAACP during the inception of the “black lives matter” movement. The progressive activists in Fayetteville are unaware of how their activism (and ideology) is causing harm and actively deny information that would expose their mistakes.
Riots have been going on for three months straight. Only for a few days were the feds active and that was after 2 months of rioting. Until then, they only protected the federal courthouse from rioters who were attempting to burn it down.
It’s possible that these movements have been infiltrated and steered toward violence by undercover law enforcement agents in order to manufacture consent for martial law. There were whispers of that in Ferguson in 2014. If that is true, it would only have been possible because of the anger that was already being nurtured within the movement.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Adam.