The idea of hope tinged with wariness is getting some heft in more spaces than The Jaded Optimist column here.
John Fetterman, the hoodie-wearing Pennsylvania Democrat who returned to serve after a stroke, counseled his fellow party members Sunday against the “constant freak out.”
“You gotta chill out,” he said in an interview with ABC News., about his party’s reaction to the pending Trump 2.0 presidency. “You know, like the constant … freak out – it’s not helpful.”
With several rounds of “freak out” already behind us or still in process in the six weeks following Donald Trump’s victory in November, Fetterman’s advice is becoming more worthwhile almost daily.
Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders and Jared Moskowitz are three Democrats who have expressed possible collaboration with Donald Trump or his nominees.
Warren, Sanders, Moskowitz join Fetterman in leaving space for collaboration
Before you reject Fetterman’s counsel – and this column – as a case of “caving in,” “going soft,” or “losing resolve,” consider that many progressive leaders are echoing somewhat the same message.
Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders have said publicly they’re ready to work with Trump on reducing credit card interest, a promise he made during his campaign.
Jared Moskowitz, a Democrat from Florida, publicly acknowledged his friendship with Lori Chavez-DeRemer, Trump’s union-supporting Republican nominee to lead the labor department, and agrees with embattled Health and Human Services nominee Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., that Coca-Cola should use only naturlal sugar cane as a sweetener.
Yes, even in these seemingly crazy, high-stakes, super-polarized times, good ideas are drawing support from both parties. Somewhere among the doom-saying and division, bipartisanship and collaboration still have a possible home.
Choosing not to freak out is better for our bodies, minds, credibility
Holding space for the moments of possible bipartisanship is the biggest reason to hold back on the Trump freak outs. There are so many more good reasons to make restraint a key part of the progressive response to Trump – especially if you belong to a challenged identity, such as LGBTQ+, BIPOC, or female.
- Being on constant activist alert hurts us physically and mentally. It blows out our adrenal systems, leaving us saturated with cortisol and as a result, dealing with high blood pressure, inflammation, digestive issues, eating to cope, alcoholism and substance overuse, higher cancer rates, and more.
- Constant activist alert leads to compassion fatigue. And that further compounds the physical and mental damage from every battle being the biggest battle yet. Worse yet, compassion fatigue makes it harder to feel compassion for others, conditioning us even further to focus even more on our own rights only.
- Social media is known to compound both anxiety, and compassion fatigue. And challenged identities like people who are LGBTQ+, BIPOC and female are unduly attached to social media. So we’re at greater risk for even more anxiety and compassion fatigue.
- Labelling every wackadoodle proposal or statement from Trump as a crisis hurts our credibility. We begin to seem like the proverbial boy who cried wolf, and protests begin to seem like routine happenings rather than steps of last resort and urgency.
- Constantly sounding the alarm helps build the opposition. You’ve heard the phrase, negative publicity is better than no publicity? We progressives have, without intending to, given Trump, Green, Gaetz, Boebert and the lot an inordinate amount of “better than nothing” negative publicity in the last decade. The free name recognition Trump has received from critics … unimaginable. Our over-reactions help the fringiest seem less fringey, and give them a form of celebrity status, even if it’s a negative form.
Also, many times, our government’s checks and balances – and the universe – work as they should. Many of Trump’s most outlandish ideas and comments already have resolved, for reasons other than protest or outcry.
Matt Gaetz chose to step down from his nomination for attorney general after enough of his fellow Republicans expressed concern. Elon Musk’s looming power, wielded over the government spending bill last week, was eclipsed today by Trump’s pissy post insisting he alone is in charge.
And Fetterman’s willingness to sit down and talk with even Trump’s most criticized nominees, rather than writing them off from the start, led to an important development regarding Kash Patel, the potential FBI chief.
Fetterman came out publicly Sunday with Kash’s commitment NOT to use the FBI to punish Trump enemies, something Patel had previously said he would do. That’s another benefit of putting aside the freak out, and letting communication flow: it’s a lot easier to challenge your opponents, and to hold them accountable.
Next week, we’ll jump into how this kind of “no freaking out” thinking might possibly transform the experiences this year in super-red states like Iowa. For now, to reinvent some key words from progressives during Trump 1.0: resist, and persist.
Resist the urge, and the pressure from some of your peers, to freak out about Trump. Don’t be convinced that keeping your cool, and refusing to see the worst case every time, is a betrayal.
And persist in upholding progressive values the hard way. Not by cutting off the opposition, and trying to marginalize them more than they’ve marginalized us, but with a commitment to keep an open mind, and open lines of communication, as much as possible.
(This is part of a weekly column, The Jaded Optimist, seeking out hope and progress among heartbreak and disappointment. Photos courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)
