On Cowardice

This past weekend, the President summoned the California National Guard to the streets of Los Angeles because its citizens were incensed that ICE would raid Home Depots looking for undocumented immigrants. Yesterday he announced he would be deploying Marines against US citizens. Stephen Miller, Trump’s Senior Advisor and Temu Heinrich Himmler, went so far as to refer to the protests as insurrectionists, which is something he knows a thing or two about. Leveraging force is the only way Donald Trump has ever known to overcome obstacles, and there are many theories about whether he’s playing 4D chess, natural instincts or some other secret to his success, but I’d suggest that he and the conservative movement he embodies is built upon something much simpler: cowardice.

It’s easy to view the conservative movement in a position of strength. They do have many levers of power at their disposal, but the folks operating those levers? Cowards. Lest, we stick to mere name calling, let’s talk about it. Borrowing Toyota’s 8 step problem solving method, there is a key step called Root Cause Analysis where the entire goal is to dig beneath the surface to uncover a true point of origin rather than lazy analysis. For example, if employees are consistently doing the wrong thing, the lazy answer is that they don’t care, but a true analysis might reveal the training they’re given is pretty poor. You get the idea here.

The method they use is called “5 Why Analysis” where you start with the surface level issue, and simply ask, “why?” From there you answer the question and repeat until you find the point of occurrence for the problem. So let’s try it here, shall we?

• The President has authorized the use of the National Guard to stop protesters in LA to stop he protestors.
• Why?
• People are protesting the raiding of Home Depot and other places, blocking deportations
• Why?
• ICE is indiscriminately looking at these places for immigrants to deport
• Why?
• The government claims there is an invasion of immigrants.
• Why?
• The government claims the presence of these immigrants poses a threat to the United States.
• Why?
• They are afraid of immigrants.

As a quick self check, there is a somewhat pedantic but useful step, where you reverse the order and connect them with “therefore.”

• They are afraid of immigrants.
• Therefore, the government claims the presence of these immigrants poses a threat to the United States.
• Therefore, the government claims there is an invasion of immigrants.
• Therefore, ICE is indiscriminately looking at these places for immigrants to deport.
• Therefore, People are protesting the raiding of Home Depot and other places, blocking deportations.
• Therefore, The President has authorized the use of the National Guard to stop protesters in LA to stop the protestors.

In the end you create a logical sequence, that is sturdy enough to follow and if someone wants to disagree, they need to argue which specific point is not true.

To be clear, being fearful of something does not make one cowardly. I’m fearful of many things. We all have fears. Fear, in and of itself, is a natural emotion. Cowardice is a result of what you might choose to do with that fear. In this case, this fear has led the government to abandon any sense of responsibility to the Constitution and the people within its borders and concluded that any use of force is justifiable because, somehow, this a scourge that demands maximal force.

Now, there is ample data that says immigrants are an overwhelming positive to the country. They pay taxes into systems they can’t access, fill critical jobs in many different industries, and commit far fewer crimes than US Citizens. However, these facts don’t matter because we’re talking about fear. And using the might of the American military to overcome and silence this fear is cowardice. But it’s not only in this instance. This same fear animates so much of the discourse in the conservative movement, and resultant actions of this administration and they rely on power and aggression to deal with it. They are not bold. They’re scared, and it’s easy to spot if you know what to look for.

I haven’t been in many fights. Most of them were in the throes of puberty when idiot boys found themselves granted an excess of testosterone and insecurity in equal measure. In truth, most fights at that age end before they start because one person quickly realizes they’ve made a mistake and finds a way out before they’re compelled to cash that check. In elementary school, I intimidated a few into backing down. They were small boys. Wiry boys. Habitual line steppers who, when they were finally faced, wilted like a bomb pop in the peak of summer. But then I got to middle school. A school where boys knew how to fight, and suddenly I was on the other end. The same bravado got me put into a chokehold. It got me into a headlock and thrown headfirst into lockers. A clean .000 average in 6th grade fights told me that life wasn’t for me, but I learned real quick to assess who can fight and who can’t.

The coward only threatens when he is safe - von Goethe

If you know that, you know that Trump is little more than a flat track bully. How is the same man who screams in every tweet about how manly he is and whose followers pretend he’s some kind masculine demigod when he turns around and claims a CBS interview gave him “mental anguish” or complains that a reporter asked him a “nasty question” and should be ashamed. Is this your king?? One minute he's the supreme deal maker and the next he's just a smol bean and everyone is angry with him. It’s a tell that he talks such a big game, but steadily takes losses in the courtroom because when he actually has to give account for his actions, he fails. Instead, he talks himself up like some great dealmaker turned king, but if I learned one thing from the Westerosi philosopher Tywin Lannister, “any man who must say 'I am the king' is no true king.” If you have actual power, people know it. If you have to tell them, it’s wishcasting.

“You don’t care about the invasion of America!!!” or so I’ve been told. And they’re right. I don’t care because it’s not an invasion. Imagine getting hot and bothered because Jose wants to come earn some money for his family. Couldn’t be me. As a black man, I am far more likely to be shot by a cop than to suffer any harm from an immigrant. And what’s more, immigrants are dope, and I love having them in my city.

This conservative fragility is laughable. They couldn’t last a day on The Creek. They do not possess the requisite bravery it takes for a trans person to leave their house on a given day. They do not have the composure of any given Black woman in a professional work environment. In no world do they have the fortitude of an immigrant crossing the Darien Gap on foot, or braving La Bestia across the Mexican wilderness all so they can get a little money and send a little home. Stephen Miller wrote essays in college about not “sympathizing with The Help” or complaining about picking up after himself because the school has janitors. Riley Gaines has built an entire career on being 5th place and not liking the person who tied her.

In response, we don’t have to treat this cowardice as valid. It’s not legitimate. Peter Hegseth wants to take Medgar Evers’s and Harvey Milk’s names off of boats. He claims “DEI” but those men were decorated and honorable. Pete could never hold a candle to them and he knows this, but to acknowledge that is to acknowledge his own mediocrity. Their response to this fear is to become both ultra aggressive towards the target of their fears, and fainting goats the moment they encounter any kind of pushback, but we ought to push back at every turn. It’s not about a “right way to protest” or a “right way to enter the country”. They’re just scared. 

The benefit of having been in fights as a kid is that I learned how to tell when perceived threats aren’t actually threats.  Immigrants are not threats. Trans folks aren’t threats, and I have no interest in litigating your fears. The people who rely on force, violence and intimidation as a means to deal with their fears? Those are the threats.