Bring on Your Wrecking Ball: Americans Defy Election Deniers

A tale of two summers

In the summer of 1983, I visited an old friend who was a young foreign service officer in Manila. Sitting in his living room, sharing beers and shooting the breeze with a few of his colleagues, we discussed the Philippines’ future. One colleague granted that its then-dictator, Ferdinand Marcos, was a repressive ruler. But he insisted that the dictator was “the only game in town.”

Less than three years later, Filipinos’ “People Power” ousted Marcos.

Pro-democracy Americans’ summer of discontent in 2022 obviously differed from that of Manila in 1983. But there was something similar in the despair in the air here.

Recall how bad the news uniformly was just a few months ago. Enforced pregnancy. Climate change. Gun violence. Covid and its lasting health and political legacies. The shrinking separation of church and state. A Supreme Court that my wonderful wife aptly labeled an “Extreme Court” for its rulings on so many issues.

Perhaps worst of all, because it cuts across countless crises, a Republican Party under the sway of a demagogue and election deniers.

Defiance

Which brings me to Bruce Springsteen. His song, “Wrecking Ball,” is ostensibly about the 2010 demolition of Giants Stadium, home of the New York Giants football team and the scene of many of his memorable concerts.

But, as Bruce has explained, it’s also about our inequality and loss of values.

And the song’s refrain, “Bring on your wrecking ball,” is about defiance, not defeat.

Today, it’s also about not giving up as a cast of semi-fascist characters try to take a wrecking ball to our democracy, with their disdain for our institutions, their claim that Joe Biden stole the presidency, and their denial that the January 6, 2021 assault was a violent insurrection.

Go back to this past summer again for a minute; consider the questions that abounded then. Why can’t Biden do a better job? Why can’t the Democrats deliver more? Why is their messaging such a mess? Why is much of the media biased or lazy? Why do so many Americans buy into deniers’ BS?

Those are all valid questions. Certain ones have aged better than others.

The most important question, and the answer

But here’s the most important question: In retrospect, what did we do in the lead-up to November 8?

We could have wrung our hands this year and simply blamed Biden. Or Joe Manchin. Or the Democratic Party. Or folks who supposedly are too woke or too moderate.

In international development parlance, that attitude is a kind of learned helplessness: the notion that because things are bad we can’t do anything to try to make them better.

Which brings me back to “Wrecking Ball.” Though written about the destruction of an edifice and our ideals, it also offers a powerfully constructive line: “Hold tight to your anger, don’t fall to your fears.”

The fear is that the game’s been decided, that we’re in an inescapable downward spiral.

So, back to the question: What did we do? The answer lies in the anger  – and energy, and commitment, and community, and sacrifice, and love – that fueled election-oriented action: voting; encouraging and enabling others to vote; donating; organizing; knocking on doors; making phone calls; writing letters and op-eds; sending postcards; getting involved with a favorite cause or campaign; doing whatever might make even a bit of a difference.

The upshot was an unpopular president’s party doing far better in the midterm elections than pundits or historical patterns predicted.

Deniers get denied

Yes, many election deniers won. But many lost,  particularly in crucial battleground states. They also fared really poorly in the important races for secretaries of state, who oversee elections.

Yes, the relatively favorable results stemmed from far more than citizen engagement. Democratic Party strategies, massive spending, some Republicans deciding that their party (or former party) had gone off the rails, and Trump backing weak wackos for office all played big roles.

But especially in an election where, just like 2016 and 2020, so many key races were decided at the margins, many Americans’ engagement in and for our democracy made a difference.

I’ve already written about the difference that engagement made in my adopted hometown. It’s a story writ large across the country.

Strong, until they’re not

Democracy admittedly is in decline across much of the world. That includes the Philippines, which took a great leap backwards over the past decade and recently elected Marcos’s corrupt son president.

But dictators, despots, demagogues, and others dedicated to destroying democracy often seem strong until they’re not. The Soviet empire, South Africa, Indonesia and other nations offer evidence of this. Ukraine constitutes a shining example today. So does Brazil, since its presidential election last month dumped its own Trump.

In this Season of Thanks, being thankful for a rosier outlook than just a few months ago makes sense.

So does bearing in mind, though, that demagogues and deniers are not going away. Someone like Florida Governor and prospective presidential candidate Ron DeSantis may just be savvier, strategic and legalistic version of Trump, akin to Hungary’s autocratic Prime Minister, Viktor Orban.

Bring it on

What to say, then, to Trump, DeSantis and their ilk?

Bring on your wrecking ball.

Because they’re strongest if we fall to our fear, give up, and simply carp from the sidelines. Because they’re weakest if enough pro-democracy Americans battle them in the electoral arena.

And because democracy is not a spectator sport.