One of the most distinctive and unfortunate aspects of the American style of politics is the misplaced faith in inaction. Specifically, what I mean is, the belief that the best strategy is to do nothing and wait for the other side to implode. Often, the addle-witted proponents of this approach mouth Napoleon’s famous quote, “Never interrupt the enemy when he is making a mistake.“ You can almost see the smirk and raised eyebrow, hear the self-congratulatory tone for their cleverness.
Of course, none of that smugness is justified, because the “strategy” never works. In fact, it’s not even a strategy.
We’ve heard people in the Democratic Party especially make this argument for at least the last 30 years. I know, because I’ve been able to date it back to when I became infuriated with the relentless requests for money that continue through today, from various campaign committees and the Party itself. If all you’re doing is asking me for money, so that you can sit back and do nothing, then don’t bother. In fact, please stop relentlessly calling, texting, and emailing, because all you’re doing is making me increasingly angry with an obviously failed approach.
Remember Senator Larry “Wide Stance” Craig? Or Congressman Mark Foley? Back in the 2000s, the received wisdom among many Democratic “strategists” was that the expected implosion had happened. Sex scandals had disgusted enough of the voting public that the Republicans took a drubbing in the polls. Combined with the alienation of Hispanic voters, which was supposed to inspire an agonizing reappraisal among Republicans, the electoral losses were supposed to have “chastened” the Republicans, forcing them to change their ways, tacking in a more moderate direction, and paying more attention to the crimes and misdemeanors committed by people in their ranks.
Except that’s not what happened. In fact, the opposite occurred. As a collective, Republican politicians and voters became more radical, more brazen, more hateful.
The reasons why were blazingly obvious at the time. It was one of the biggest and most destructive moments of political denial in American history, as we can see from the chaos and ruin that has been the inevitable result.
- Christian Nationalists are not “chastened” by bad election results.
- Anti-abortion advocates are not “chastened” by bad election results.
- Dedicated misogynists (now occupants of the repulsive “manosphere”) are not “chastened” by bad election results.
- Racists and anti-Semites are not “chastened” by bad election results.
- People who hate LGBTQ+ people are not “chastened” by bad election results.
- Members of a cult of personality are not “chastened” by bad electoral results.
- People who want to burn it all down, putting an end to democracy and the rule of law, are not “chastened” by bad electoral results.
- Enthusiastic fascists are not “chastened” by bad electoral results.
- Conspiracy theorists are not “chastened” by bad electoral results.
- Robber barons and wannabe oligarchs are not “chastened” by bad electoral results.
- Paramilitary groups are not “chastened’ by electoral results.
And the list goes on. I wrote the preceding lines in the fashion that I did because those statements should have been a litany among people who could have done more to put a stop to the obscenities that we now must endure. Instead, that list of obvious political truths were exactly what the people advocating some brainless version of Fabian tactics refused to acknowledge.
By using the term “Fabian tactics,” I’m giving the various Democratic consultants, politicians, and other notable actors more credit than they deserve. The typically American reflex to do nothing and fantasize about the results of inaction isn’t a strategy. In fact, I imagine if Napoleon were alive today, and heard his quote misused the way it was, he might slap someone in the face. A defensive military strategy takes a huge amount of effort, planning, thinking, preparation, and stockpiling, not just for a vigorous defense, but also for the later counterattack. Just look at how Napoleon’s enemies did exactly that, as the Grande Armée overran Europe. In contrast, not only did Democrats not execute much of a defense, there was never a plan for a counterattack. We saw that plainly in every election where Democrats seemed inept at any kind of political action beyond messaging, fund-raising, and voter registration, either as part of a lively defense or offense.
Of course, the Democrats are not the only people afflicted with this destructive form of denial. The supposed moderate Republicans, the hoped-for opposition within Republican, has been waiting for a decade for the MAGA movement to implode. Maybe this vile social media posting will finally sink Trump. Or this attack on a popular program. Or this personally disgusting behavior. Or something, somewhere, sometime. (And maybe that will be my moment to leap into the public spotlight…) But again, the opposite happened. MAGA became more mobilized, more militant, more cruel, more impatient to destroy institutions, more fevered in their imagined conspiracies. We have just as much reason to be angry with their laziness and ridiculousness as we are about the Democratic inactionists.
Aside from planning, organizing, and everything else that goes into a real strategy, effective opposition requires inspiration. You need to motivate people, provide them with something to do, and ensure the actions will have likely outcomes (something that purely symbolic efforts lack). While the worst have been full of passionate intensity, the inactionists have provided no reason to be passionate. Again, the opposite has occurred. Many American citizens were led to ask the question, “If these leaders aren’t willing to fight for themselves, why should I believe they will fight for me?” For a prime example, see this part of an interview with Michael Fanone, one of the most famous among the police who battled the January 6 insurrectionists. No lover of Trump or Trumpist, and no shrinking violet unwilling to take a stand, he has also been disgusted with the inaction of Democratic “leaders.”
The other obvious fallacy of inactionism is that there is no time left for the implosion to happen. In a few short weeks, the incumbent regime has elevated the incompetent and malign to high positions, wrecked the federal government, alienated our allies, dragged us into a de facto alliance with Russia, taken actions like tariffs that will have major economic repercussions, moved to favor white heterosexual males over anyone else, sent repurposed law enforcement agents to incarcerate and expel immigrants, enabled corruption on a mass scale, and even crowed about turning ethnic cleansing into a business opportunity for the current occupant of the Oval Office. Action is needed, now, not continued feckless waiting for voter backlash, internal contradictions, or whatever one imagines the mechanisms of delivering just deserts to operate.
Even when we had normal politics, the “sitting on the sidelines eating popcorn” method wasn’t working. It’s orders of magnitude more dangerous now, that politics is anything but normal.
This is not the article in which I suggest a new strategy, which is clearly beyond a single blog post. (To be honest, I don’t have a detailed grand strategy.) Instead, I simply want to sweep further inactionism off the table during our collective discussion of what to do next.
