It’s Time to Fight Back: We Need Our Own January 6 Insurrection

Ever since Joe Biden was elected president, the Republicans have been on the assault, from the January 6 Capitol invasion, to the state-by-state attack on voting rights, to legislative rollbacks of reproductive rights, to censorship of disturbing historical truths about America. Now Senator Joe Manchin, the mouthpiece for West Virginia’s retrograde business class, has announced he will continue acting as a Republican fifth columnist, dooming the Biden agenda on everything from financing the modernization of America’s crumbling infrastructure to safeguarding democracy to protecting the world from rapidly increasing climate meltdowns. Republicans want to kill you, your children and grandchildren for short-term profit — or out of white nationalist/Christian zealotry. It’s that simple.

Up until last year’s elections, those of us who believe in life were also in a fighting mood. We wanted Trump gone, along with his racist and dictatorial ways. Well, Trump is gone (for now) — but Republican fanaticism is still alive and well. And, unfortunately, too many of us have taken a long lunch break, blithely assured that Biden is taking care of business. It’s true that Old Joe has turned out to be more “woke” than we imagined. He went big early on and got his Covid bailout passed over unanimous Republican opposition. But now the Republicans — with Manchin’s help — have stalled Biden’s progress and are swiftly completing the dismantling of democracy.

And we’re still napping.

Well, goodbye to all that. We need to feel the rage again. We need to get into the streets. We need to put the fear of our own righteous God in the hearts of the white supremacists, women-haters, End-of-Days wack jobs, and corporate toadies who are blocking our chance for national redemption. Remember — they are the minority. We have might and right on our side.

If you need some inspiration, pick up a copy of my new book, By the Light of Burning Dreams, the intimate story of the leading icons of the “second American Revolution.” Tom Hayden, Jane Fonda, Anne Weills, Bill Zimmerman, Fred Hampton, Bobby Seale, Kathleen Cleaver, Heather Booth, Cesar Chavez, Dolores Huerta, Craig Rodwell, John Lennon, Yoko Ono, Dennis Banks, Russell Means, Madonna Thunder Hawk. Like all of us, they were flawed human beings. But they were warriors for peace and justice, and they never gave up. They radically changed America — but not enough.

Now it’s up to us, and to the next generation. Don’t let the Republicans steal America, my friends. Fight back — fight to win.