By Michael Tyler, EJS Poet-in-Residence
Easter not only commemorated the Resurrection of Jesus for the Christian faithful, and signaled the unofficial start of spring, it also evidenced the reawakening and resurgence of our collective national will and civic intent, as the 50501 protests continued what began on April 5th, with the Hands Off demonstrations.
Millions of citizens gathered over the weekend, in every state, to voice their discouragement, discontent and disapproval of the reckless and virtually unimpeded pursuit of authoritarianism, in our country. The ongoing subversion of the rule of law, the erosion of social cohesion and the destabilization of our democracy has fomented a public outrage about what is happening in the United States, which has eclipsed our public fear to address it. This sentiment and action is being amplified globally, as citizens around the world have taken to the streets, understanding that what happens here ripples across geopolitical seas, with the impact of a tsunami. If democracy can fail in America, it can fail anywhere.
Two-hundred and fifty years ago this month, our fledgling nation took its first step towards actualization. It was in April of 1775 that the American Revolution began in Massachusetts, in the towns of Lexington and Concord. One year later, the United States declared independence from British rule. Much lore and history has been created and recorded surrounding this event. Even more has never been chronicled, or has been forgotten, and even purposely omitted. For example, Paul Revere did not make his midnight ride alone. He was joined by Samuel Prescott and William Dawes, as they rode west and south to warn of the coming invasion. Likewise, Wentworth Cheswell, the freed grandson of a slave and the first Black person elected judge on this soil, who rode north at midnight, for the same cause. Only days later did a sixteen-year-old girl named Sybil Ludington make an equally courageous ride, covering twice the distance Revere rode, to deliver a similar warning in Danbury, Connecticut.
Tales and accounts aside, the start of the American Revolution, as famously penned by Ralph Waldo Emerson in his poem, The Concord Hymn, was “the shot heard around the world”. From the firing of that first round, the history of this country, this continent and this world was forever changed. Such can be the impact of a revolution, for its consequences and outcomes, intended or not, can dramatically alter human existence for all time. This is true regardless of the nature of the revolution, be it political, social, financial or technological. The aftermath of the Industrial Revolution not only ushered in dramatic changes in product manufacturing and energy production, it also affected how governments governed, how families lived, and how society and religion viewed morality, ethics and principles. Following the Civil Rights Movement, a momentous social revolution, our country engraved in its laws and legacy an amendment to the nation’s conscience and ethos that can never be erased or banned from our history, despite the deplorable efforts to do so.
I have long been fascinated by revolutions and have assessed them throughout the course of my life, whether they occurred in France in 1789, Russia in 1917, Cuba in 1953, Poland in 1980 or evidenced by today’s worldwide digital revolution. What I have found to be common to them all, is what has led me to define a revolution as:
Any event or rapidly occurring series of events that galvanizes a massive amount of people, in a brief period of time, to create a permanent change.
The uncertainty and unrest that is developing in our country, with powder keg potential, is priming the nation for another major revolution, the outcome of which could match or eclipse the 1775 revolution, if the moment can be purposefully recognized.
Concurrent with the present level of agitation is a frustration about callowness, cowardice and conformity that now defines the social, political and financial leadership of the nation, across party affiliation and geographic boundaries. This reveals a problem greater than the absence of exemplary leadership, but more one of the lack of a galvanizing idea to follow. Such an idea is always the seed for all social and political revolutions, which grow to bear the fruits — or weeds, of economic and cultural adaptations. When such a seed is planted, the leaders who become the roots of a movement are formed and take hold, to sprout the revolution. From that point, the mobilization of the masses in a brief period of time can occur. I’ve long summed it up this way:
The cause of 1 can be easily mocked.
The cause of 10 can be easily ignored.
The cause of 100 will trigger annoyance.
The cause of 1,000 will petition attention.
The cause of 10,000 will foment awareness.
The cause of 100,000 will rapidly proliferate.
The cause of 1,000,000 will launch a movement.
The cause of 10,000,000 will mobilize for change.
The cause of 100,000,000 will create lasting transformation.
The protests that have taken place have reached the point of rapid proliferation and are now swelling to mobilize for change. To do so will require these protests to be sustained by something other than communal furor and cathartic relief. The “cause” is more than a perspective or a concept. To understand this only requires understanding how a one-woman protest on a bus grew to a movement that marched on Washington and became the Civil Rights Act of 1964. A cause is a specific intention with strategic application, for the tangible actualization of a desired outcome. It must have a defined goal, with a targeted timeline for fruition and an unprecedented scope of collaboration amongst those most marginalized, ostracized and estranged by society, a membership that is growing daily.
This does not equate to a rebellion, which is a flashpoint of vexation that often leads to horrific atrocities, militaristic suppression and emotional burnout. A revolution is more than resistance and reform. It goes beyond being provocative and performative. It requires being more than incensed and insistent. Consequently, the cause for a revolution must be sustained by an unyielding conviction, for its goal is more than a passionate reaction or a volatile lash out. Its aim is to achieve an idealistic objective that is realistically attainable, with undeterred resolve. This is what became of the Velvet Revolution of 1989, in what was formerly Czechoslovakia. There, nationwide demonstrations, against the one-party government, ended forty-one years of Communist Party rule in eleven days — with a non-violent transition of power.
Without the emergence of a cause for transformation, this moment for revolution will likely dissipate and the overbearing ambitions of a few will become the overwhelming reality of many. The key, then, is finding a cause that will be inciting enough to marshal 100,000,000 Americans, across social, cultural, racial, regional, political and personal perspectives, for a brief interval of strategic action, to create the permanent transformation this country needs, now. What will lead to the next shot heard around the world? What will start the next American Revolution? Will it be civil rights? Reproductive Rights? LGBTQIA justice? Immigration reform? Safeguarding Medicare, Social Security and the Affordable Care Act? So far, none of these have proven to be the lightning rod issue to create the coalition across the nation, from the many groups, organizations, unions and individuals sufficient enough to construct and implement a strategy for revolutionary action with revolutionary impact. This is mainly because each of the above causes (and there are several more just as worthy) has a special interest demographic, for whom the concern of the cause means more to it than to other sectors of the electorate. The cause for the next American Revolution needs to be as unifying as the cause of independence was for the first American Revolution. To that end, please consider this.
I propose that the greatest problem with our current political system isn’t the aftermath of the dreadful Citizen’s United decision, nor the despicable divisiveness of party partisanship, nor the reprehensible redistricting of gerrymandering, nor the infestation of people in power who are less principled, morally directed and sensibly guided than intestinal bacteria. At least some strains are good for our guts. Then, what is the greater problem?
Congressional stagnation. All across the nation, at every level of government — local, state and federal, a pervasive truth has led to our invasive predicament. Nonpartisan, unaffiliated, independent and nonprofit data collection organizations like Open Secrets and Ballotpedia have well documented incumbency rates, dating back to the 1960’s. By so doing, they have shown that rarely has the re-election rate for incumbent officials dropped below 88%. In fact, especially in recent history (past quarter century), the incumbency rate has been between 92%-97%. This means that the possibility for new entry into the legislative, judicial and executive branches of government that comprise our government entities throughout the nation, is 3%-8%. This re-election reality ensures that the people who finance political careers will be able to keep in power the very people who have created the country we now live in. Incumbents preserve the status quo.
The future demographics of this nation are rapidly shifting towards a non-white and more pluralistic majority made up of a multiethnic, racially diverse, gender polymorphic, culturally prismatic collection of citizens. This is why there has been such a concerted effort (successful, thus far), in sowing the seeds of contemptible division amongst this growing multitude, to prevent any cohesion for a unified perspective of governance. Pandering to our worst inclinations pits one group’s cause against the other’s. As long as our rate of incumbency is allowed to exist, so too will the continued erosion of our democracy and the increasing oppression of the majority of Americans into becoming an undereducated, economically disabled, socially imprisoned populace.
The cause, as I see it — term limits on every office and an end to lifetime appointments to the courts. To get more people in office concerned about protecting the bodily autonomy of women, the civil rights gains of the past, affordable healthcare for all citizens, preventing the persecution of the LGBTQIA community, preservation of the national safety nets that prevent the disastrous consequences of destitution, reparations for the injustices of slavery and the disparities of systemic racism, deserving and honorable treatment of military veterans, quality education and access to higher learning regardless is race, gender or locale, honest pricing at the grocery store, and the many issues that make up the real life concerns of most real Americans, we must have an incumbency rate that will allow for access to the three branches of government that is greater than 3%-8%. As long as this remains, the congressional stagnation that has given us the current administrations that exist in towns, cities, states and the nation’s capital will continue with the deleterious decline that now defines our way of life. We need a greater purge rate, in order to create leadership entry for more people from a larger segment of the population.
If we could all realize this and come together, in one unified effort, to force voter referendums onto the ballots of every state, town and city in the country, to implement term limits (like what exist for the President of the United States) on all elected positions, the next American Revolution will take place, for nothing would be more transformative for the country. Moreover, not a single shot needs to be fired — but it would be heard around the world.
We ride at midnight.
Word count: 1908 – Note: I intentionally wrote for a word count of 1,908 because it was the year Thurgood Marshall was born. Not only was he a man who stood for equal justice in society, but no doubt the Supreme Court will be the last resort for bringing a halt to the recklessness of the Trump Administration. My word count is a personal salute to Marshall and a hope that the current Court will regain some of the character he brought to it.