Don’t Deny Your Fear And Anger. Use Them.

James Baldwin’s state of rage

Donald Trump has conquered the United States through an electoral coup where a near majority of Americans willingly sacrificed their democratic birthright in exchange for cheaper eggs, which aren’t forthcoming. Even mermaids who traded their impressive singing voices for otherwise normal human legs made better satanic pacts.

Trump is openly ignoring the law because he’s a gangster who only understands constraints through brute force, not judicial rulings. He’s deporting people without due process to Salvadoran concentration camps and personally targeting the judges who stand in his way.

Some people have suggested that it’s wrong somehow to criticize Democratic leadership during such an obvious crisis. They say we should focus on the “true enemy.” That certainly has its low-key fascist appeal — our “betters” know better than we do and we should never question them, even as they lead us into a ditch. We should just donate more money for shovels.

Chuck Schumer's Desperate Denial Tour Day 2, With Stacey Abrams And Possibly The Magna Carta

It’s almost impossible to defend Chuck Schumer’s total surrender to Republicans over their radical funding bill, but that hasn’t stopped the “peons are revolting” types. They insist that Schumer was playing three-dimensional chess when he gave Republicans everything they wanted and didn’t even receive cab fare home afterward. Someone on Bluesky suggested that Schumer was operating according to a “game” theory too complex for us mere taxpaying mortals. “I get your anger,” they wrote. “It’s not useful in this manner.”

That’s the sort of liberal condescension that alienates normal people. Anger is actually pretty useful. In 1961, James Baldwin said, “To be a Negro in this country and to be relatively conscious is to be in a state of rage almost, almost all of the time.” This now applies to any relatively conscious racial, gender, or sexual minority. Beware of anyone who tells you to bottle your fury. They usually have the privilege of a calm life and would prefer you not disrupt it.

Trump has announced that he plans to shut down the Department of Education. That’s illegal, but he knows that the law is just a bunch of words unless someone is willing to enforce them. This is why we need leaders who are both angry and afraid.

In Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises, the villain Bane (Tom Hardy) defeats Batman (Christian Bale) and traps him in a foreign prison, through a set of actions arguably more legal than Trump’s mass deportations. As Bruce Wayne recovers and prepares for his escape, he insists that he’s not afraid. He’s angry. (Watch below.)

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‘To Be In A Rage, Almost All The Time’

Chuck Schumer has shown performative anger at rallies and during interviews. When he shook his fist defiantly on The View, it was obviously a practiced gesture, intended to convince frustrated Democrats that he can still lead like it’s 1999, in a PBS documentary. I doubt, though, that Schumer is truly enraged. He’s annoyed that others might challenge his authority. He’s maybe even a little worried the political fallout won’t immediately blow away, but he’s not afraid. He won’t even say that democracy is at immediate risk. That might threaten his calm composure.

“Now, you may be right,” Schumer told Chris Hayes on Tuesday, as if wearing fascism-cancelling headphones. “I don’t think so … We’re not there. You know, I think we’re getting there. We have to be really vigilant. I just had a meet up today with the Judiciary Committee to decide how we’re working through this. As it goes further, it hasn’t been up to the Supreme Court yet, which would be the classic, ‘if they disobey the Supreme Court,’ we’re on our way there. God, God forbid. But I think we are, and we’ll have to go at it and at it and at it.”

This is total denial — a cluelessness perhaps borne from the fear of an unpleasant reality. It’s why Schumer keeps moving goalposts — “OK, Trump is ignoring court orders and attacking judges, but if he defies the Supreme Court, that’s super illegal!” Pretending you’re not at war doesn’t stop the bombs from falling on your head.

Schumer fears the loss of the comfortable status quo so much he hides within an obvious illusion. It’s not a constructive fear. Schumer doesn’t feel directly threatened by his GOP gym buddies. He still holds out hope that they’ll change. People who are losing freedoms by the hour — trans people and other minorities — are less afraid about what might happen, especially such lofty concepts as “constitutional crisis,” as they are justly terrified of the literal horrors occurring right now.

Bruce Wayne, in The Dark Knight Rises, eventually realizes that fear and anger are intertwined, and he must embrace his fear, not reject it. He’s finally able to escape his prison when he’s willing to make the impossible leap without the security of a rope that only grounds him. He’ll either escape or die trying. There is no safe, sensible center. (Watch below.)

Bruce is told, “You do not fear death. You think this makes you strong. It makes you weak … How can you move faster than possible, fight longer than possible without the most powerful impulse of the spirit: the fear of death?”

So, anger drives Bruce to make the leap, but fear fuels him, and it’s Batman who emerges from the pit. (Yes, this is mostly superhero metaphor, though a true burst of adrenaline can push the body to greater limits.)

Schumer and his defenders are very cautious but they are not afraid. They think this makes them smarter, less reckless, than the teeming masses. Yes, people take more risks when they’re desperate, but your fears can provide clarity when you accept them.

In The Godfather, Don Corleone (Marlon Brando) has been shot and the family struggles with how to proceed. Their best option is to accept a deal from his would-be assassin Solozzo. Michael (Al Pacino) rejects this and offers an alternative — take out Solozzo and the crooked police captain who serves as his bodyguard. On the surface, this is incredibly reckless. It would upset the peace between the rival families, but Michael understands the Corleones are already at war. (Watch below.)

Michael also has the vision to consider how they can spin the narrative in their favor after killing a police captain. He’s not as calm when discussing those options, because they are unknown. He’s afraid, but he’s not a prisoner to his fear.

It’s no secret that former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi didn’t care for Schumer’s voluntary pantsing. However, Pelosi seemingly maintains her support for Schumer’s leadership (a generous term).

“It is about what comes next,” Pelosi told reporters the other day. “I myself don’t give away anything for nothing. I think that’s what happened the other day. We could have, in my view, perhaps got [Republicans] to agree to a third way.”

Schumer might assume he’s safe. He’s got Pelosi on his side. It must be nice. But Pelosi was very careful in her wording, like when Don Corleone (Marlon Brando) told the rival families, “I swear, on the souls of my grandchildren, that I will not be the one to break the peace we have made here today.” This was technically true.

What should come next isn’t complacency. Democrats should fear what’s happening now more than whatever they imagine Republicans might do if they emerge from their tortoise shells. It’s take to take the leap.