Resistance? The Lesson Liberals Seem Most Resistant to Learning.

Only Power is Power.

IF YOU WANT to see a large group of enthused, invigorated, upbeat people, you need not look farther than a protest march of progressives and left-leaning individuals. Observe. They are not only charged up, the majority of these joyful dissidents also seem perfectly chosen for the role as if by some Hollywood director. Marching for political issues and against social injustices that should make them mad as hell, most appear downright happy as they weave, like a multi-colored caterpillar with signs, down the street.

Yes, it’s a huge social event, and we’re a social species. Yes, marches and mass demonstrations provide group voice and solidarity. But, generally, their effects, like their energy, dissipate within a day or two after the protest ends.

Why?  Because, often, a protest is a group reaction to those in power, be they politicians, police, very rich and powerful plutocrats, or others who pull the strings and have the clout.  A protest is a concentrated rejoinder, a response to power.

But only power is power.

Many broadminded Democrats were elated when Joe Biden chose Ketanji Brown Jackson as the first African American woman to the Supreme Court. She is a breath of fresh air, one with a sharp intellect, not to mention fully qualified to sit on the highest court in the land. And yet we might recall that the Court remained 6 staunch conservatives to 3 liberals even after Ms. Jackson took her seat on the bench.

That’s because crafty, big picture conservatives spent around 30 years strategizing and maneuvering, chess-style, one move at a time, to make the Supreme Court solidly conservative, and hard Right conservative at that. They knew the grand project they were engaged in could change big laws, and society, and so they (especially Leonard Leo and The Federalist Society) patiently brought about a judicial revolution. Say what you want about these archconservatives and their aims, they know how to acquire, and use, judicial power.

And only power is power.

Recall too how excited people were in the summer and early fall of 2024 when Kamala Harris filled large stadiums and was joined on stage by Beyonce. In various events she was also joined by Katy Perry, Lizzo, Lady Gaga, John Bon Jovi, Usher, Cardi B, Christina Aguilera, Magic Johnson, Stevie Wonder, and Oprah.

The crowds were consistently fired up, enthused to the point of bursting. This waving wand of celebrity, a form of modern magic, was set up to wash away past Biden-Harris sins, omissions and big oops, and act like a collective Cupid, making the nation fall in love again with those they had fallen out of love with many months prior.

The love affair, like the joy, came and went.

Harris lost all seven swing states, and the popular vote, something Democrats had not lost in 20 years. In under three months, she went from the seat of power to completely powerless. The same can be said of the Democratic Party, still trying to figure out what the hell went wrong, and wandering in the desert with more than a few internal squabbles and lots of finger pointing.

The former Vice President of the United States of America, a heartbeat away from an aged, sometimes frail man, has hardly been seen or heard in the last nine months. The authority, the sway and levers of control she once wielded vanished.

Think what you will of Kamala and the dreadful and appalling man who defeated her. Only power is power.

(Worth considering: while Donald Trump was out of the White House, and under multiple indictments, from January 2021 until January 2025, did he lose his power? He did not, and not just with his base or within his Party, but with the media, much of the nation, and the nation’s attention. It would be wise to contemplate the Why of this. And if your answer is his outsized personality or the naivety of his base, you may want to think harder and go deeper. Start with this question: Did Donald Trump ever surrender his power?)

And here we are.

Now liberals and other unhappy Democrats are left booing from the cheap seats on Facebook, Threads and X, armed only with the mushy snowballs of satire and flinging mud that falls far short of the Capitol and courthouse steps.

Sometimes it feels like a group of teenagers acting out and being rude to Mom and Dad when their credit cards, the car keys and weekend party privileges are taken away. It also feels distressing. It’s the dismay of being… essentially powerless.

AS FOR GETTING POWER BACK, and what centrists, progressive Democrats, independents who are paying attention, and patriots of all stripes should do to regain power, you have likely encountered over a hundred articles and Substack essays on the subject. There are more than a few deep analyses and roadmaps.

So allow me to say these few things…

Democrats need to stop being a collection of grievances.

Yes, every group, like every person, has a story to tell, and some stories contain more hardship, oppression and obstacles than others. But that truth always comes up against another truth: how far every single group in America has come. All things remain eminently possible for nearly every person in every single ethnic and religious group. Saying otherwise is, at root, condescending. And limiting.

Looking at What’s Possible, and at the ongoing, dynamic potential for positive change — and talking about it — gets people elected.

Democrats would also do themselves a huge favor if they stopped framing so many things as a struggle between oppressors and the oppressed. It’s a generalization with “more than a little” historical accuracy. But in the 21^st century it comes across, in political debates, not so much as social justice as stale cheese – old Swiss with as many holes in it as cheese. Or to iterate the previous statement another way: which “oppressed group” is not substantially better off in 2025 than they were 150 or 50 years ago? Which individuals in which groups are unable to achieve escape velocity? Who, when we are dispassionate and other-than-political about it, is unable to rise?

What might life, and American society, look like when we replace partisan thinking with clear-sky thinking?

Accordingly, Democrats need to put a check on so much cynicism and negativity. America is a land with a grand and horrible backstory. The lists for each assertion, the light and the dark, are both long. But where is our focus now, in the turbulent present? And where do greater possibilities, and greater voter popularity, reside?

We should breathe this all in, deeply, and quietly consider the question.

(Does it need to be stated that we should all vote every single opportunity we get, even if we are slightly disappointed in our party, and even if the process takes a couple of hours, and even if they put obstacles in our way?)

I WILL END with this intuitive declaration. I have now lived long enough, been involved in enough commerce, conflicts and resolutions, been a parent, did enough meditation and yoga, struggled, fallen and gotten back up, did plenty of reading and seriously contemplated the matter -- to know where power percolates and where it really starts. It starts deep within. It starts with each of us, in our hearts and bones, and in our will and intentions. It can start nowhere else.

Now, if that sounds facile, or New Age, or you-gotta-be-kidding-me, I sure as hell understand. But to say the Grand Canyon is actually grand, and that you have to see it in person and stand at its edge to fully experience it -- as in, to really know you have to go -- that too can sound too simple or cliched.

But it’s true. True as a vast and stunning canyon that is many millions of years old. True as all creation. True as true gets.