Pritzker and Budde Need Your Support

Cynicism isn't helping right now.

While there has been a lot of repulsive groveling and Trump-orange-ass-licking this week, there have also been some notable voices of dissent.

Illinois governor JB Pritzker, for example, denounced Elon Musk’s fascist salute: “I think it's disgusting, and should be called out,” he said. “The president should call it out, and Elon Musk owes an apology to the American people." And Episcopal Bishop Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde, preached a sermon directly to Trump, asking him to have “mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now…. There are gay, lesbian and transgender children in Democratic, Republican, and independent families, some who fear for their lives.”

Progressives have mostly cheered on Budde, especially. But she and Pritzker have also faced some skepticism because of the way they both called on the fascists to do better. Musk, many pointed out, is not going to apologize. Trump is not going to offer mercy. What is the point of asking bad actors to behave? Why address bad actors at all, when you know that they have no decency, no conscience, and no souls? Won’t pretending they are decent or normal effectively normalize them?

I understand and to some extent share these concerns—especially the discomfort with Budde’s use of “mercy”, which suggests that LGBT people and undocumented people did something wrong, or should present themselves as supplicants to power rather than demanding equal rights.

At the same time, though, I think that both Pritzker and Budde, in calling on the fascists to do better, are offering direct resistance in a way that precious few others are right now.

Pritzker and Budde aren’t radicals, and they aren’t framing their criticisms as radical demands. Instead, they’re speaking as people who are invested in a system of democratic norms, and who are calling on the new administration to follow those norms—to avoid the symbols of fascism, to govern for all the people in the country.

Standing up for democratic norms right now can feel naïve, foolish, and futile. It’s easy to be cynical and say, “Well, obviously Pritzker and Budde don’t understand who they’re dealing with.”

The thing is, more cynicism doesn’t necessarily lead to more radical demands, or to stronger calls for accountability. On the contrary, people who are cynical about democracy, or who have given up on democratic norms, are all currently racing each other to fall to their knees. “There’s no point in asking Trump to do better,” has led a lot of people to say, “well, if we can’t ask him to do better, we should just do worse.”

Trump is, once again, in a position of great power. But he does not have absolute power; it is still possible for people to hold him accountable, and to push him to change course. There are a range of ways to do that—through the courts, through congress, through state and local government resistance. But all of those also depend on ideological resistance; people need to explain why what Trump is doing is wrong and build willingness and consensus to fight back.

When Pritzker and Budde ask Trump/Musk to do better, they aren’t really asking Trump and Musk to unilaterally do better. Rather, they’re highlighting evil by pointing out what goodness would look like. Someone who was not a Nazi would apologize for making a fascist salute; someone who was not a bigoted monster would govern in a way that reassured and empowered children, rather than bullying and terrorizing them.

I don’t think all resistance should be or has to be civil; I’m fine with people organizing around a banner which reads, “Fuck Trump” or the equivalent. I think though that it’s important to recognize resistance as resistance, even when it’s couched in ostensibly civil terms—or when it’s couched in the language of hope rather than cynicism.

Trump attacked Budde personally, and she’s certainly getting death threats; what she did was brave. Pritzker is in a less vulnerable position, but he’s putting his political career on the line and Trump could easily target him for criminal prosecution or use the federal government against him in other ways. It’s fine to disagree on tactics and rhetoric. But the anti-Trump forces have precious few outspoken allies or leaders right now. When Pritzker, or Budde, or Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez forthrightly denounces one of the many things that needs denouncing, we should try to back them up, even if we find the exact rhetorical approach or style off-putting.

The choice right now is speaking against Trump or bending the knee—and an awful lot of people are bending the knee. Those who aren’t need back up. Yes, Trump and Musk aren’t listening. But Pritzker and Budde aren’t really speaking to them. They’re speaking to us. If they stop, that’s when we’re really in trouble.