Take responsibility for the face of the world
Lesson Four from "On Tyranny"
The symbols of today enable the reality of tomorrow. Notice the swastikas and the other signs of hate. Do not look away, and do not get used to them. Remove them yourself and set an example for others to do so.
I have to confess something:
Trump flags and MAGA hats trigger me.
I hate to admit that, in this instance, I am that snowflake liberal that conservatives love to mock. Generally, I'm not. I grew up in rural America. Most things roll off my shoulders. But the flags and the hats and the t-shirts and all the Trump/MAGA memorabilia: they get to me.
The reason they bother me so much is because of the sense they give that politics, for the MAGA crowd, has become a team sport. Wearing hats emblazoned with logos, flying flags from your house or truck, building elaborate signs and displays in your yard or along highways: these are the kind of things fans of sports teams do. This is all fairly harmless sports fandom, because letting your identity get tied up in a community of fans, and the myopia that can come with fandom, is usually not harmful to others. In sports, we are meant to stick to our side, through good and bad. Nothing is on the line besides enjoyment.
Politics is not sports. Political parties are not teams. And, with very, very, very few exceptions, politicians are not heroes or stars. Political parties and movements do not deserve our unwavering support, or our unstinting opposition. Parties are vehicles for ideas, and for the people who represent those ideas. They should not be able to take your support for granted; your support should be parceled out carefully, and only after they have shown they deserve it, and withdrawn swiftly and ruthlessly when they fail to live up to their promises and ideals.
The problem with the MAGA movement is that, by and large, it has become a fandom. When you wear a MAGA hat, or fly a Trump flag, you are declaring that your support is no longer qualified or conditional. You have shown that what is important to you is beating the other team, and when that becomes your priority, then there are very few means you won't approve of to achieve that end. Most crucially, you are telling politicians that they can do almost anything - legal or illegal, ethical or unethical, moral or immoral - to win, because winning - not good policy, not improving peoples lives, not following the Constitution - is the end goal. You have become, in short, an easy mark, a stooge, a sucker. Red MAGA hats and Trump flags are signs you have been duped.
What Dr. Snyder is conveying in this lesson is that symbols matter in politics. As he writes,
Life is political, not because the world cares about how you feel, but because the world reacts to what you do...In the politics of the everyday, our words and gestures, or their absence, count very much.
Symbols help interpret, and create, and the reality we all live in. In the terms used by Dr. Snyder, we can take responsibility for the world by refusing to allow symbols to become more important than people, by refusing to make politics a team sport. Don't let individuality- yours, or others - get sunk underneath symbols of loyalty. Politicians should have to work for your support; don't yield it to them to easily, and don't fail to hold them accountable when they fail.