Throughout a lot of my political life, I have flirted with accelerationism. The idea that we can make the most progress in American society by allowing conditions to devolve enough that popular will demands radical change. The problem of course, like every consequentialist framework, is that the ultimate outcomes are unknown.
The phrase I came up with for the instability fomented by such popular unrest is “a jump-ball with Hitler.” As in a basketball tip-off featuring progress vs. fascism. Because the conditions that enable popular progress also inspire power-hungry opportunists to take advantage, to capitalize on fear to deliver totalitarianism seductively cloaked as safety.
Right now, in this election, we are facing a different form of jump-ball with Hitler. An American would-be Hitler is on the ballot. He’s promising an end to voting, rounding up people in internment camps, and overt retribution against his enemies. The klaxons are sounding from his own camp. The writing is on the wall.
Kamala Harris admittedly doesn’t represent the kind of radical progress I spent my youth envisioning for America. But I have also had to come to terms (a terrible loss for a child overtly raised on the promise of the 60s by children of the 60s) with the fact that popular protest will not save us. In my parents’ lifetime, angry young people could end Jim Crow or disrupt the Vietnam War. But from the Iraq War protests to Occupy Wall Street to Black Lives Matter, no tangible policy change has emerged from American popular unrest in my lifetime. I spent decades thinking that the Supreme Court wouldn’t risk the inevitable insurrection that would result from ending Roe. When the day came, there was barely a whimper.
I don’t blame people or popular will for this loss. Corporate co-option and consolidation has ensured its own ongoing power. And the political system has enabled some social progress, particularly around LGBT rights, while continuing to promote xenophobic militarism from all corners.
Kamala Harris represents the last best hope of keeping the American ball away from Hitler. There are things you may not think are great about her: you want her to take a stronger stand on Gaza, on immigration, on progressive economics, on criminal justice, on healthcare. Trust me, I see these concerns and I agree with them. But right now, if you want any of those policies to change, you will not be successful resisting a second Trump term while he rounds people up.
And I do authentically believe in Kamala Harris’s character. She worked at McDonald’s. She has been near the bottom rungs of American society. She went to Howard and Hastings. She represents a genuine break from the wealth and privilege that has dominated our political discourse for generations, a pipeline of entitlement that blinds people to the needs of most of our society.
Please vote for her. America is far from perfect and has probably done more harm than good in its cumulative history. But an America under fascism can do so much more harm. Today, this minute, that is still something you can help prevent.
