Waging War at Two Levels
Simultaneously
The
analytical framework for of my posts since 2023 has been idea that we are in a
battle for hegemony over the values that will define what it means to be
American in the 21st Century. We have used the terms war of
position and war of maneuver as alternative ways to conceptualize
the political tools most appropriate to taking on the challenges faced in given
periods in time.
I argued
that ...
the conditions of liberal democracy
in the US called for a Gramscian ‘war of position,’ or ‘trench
warfare’ in the institutions of the
state and civil society. The war of position is a way to fight for incremental
change, and sometimes fairly significant reforms, while continuing to make
value-
based ‘what does it means to be an
American’ arguments to support policy initiatives.
This is
in contrast to ...
the “war of maneuver”
where military forces are in movement and ground is being taken and lost
rather swiftly ... In
the war of maneuver minoritized races build cultural and institutional sources
of power to survive
and also to defend themselves from the hostile larger society.
In
February as Trump 2.0 began to take effect I exclaimed that we were entering
the war of maneuver as it indeed appeared that Trumpist forces were
taking political and institutional ground at a breathtaking pace. I mentioned
minoritized races, because, as you know, my broader research focuses on the
role of race in defining Red and Blue Nation Americas. I likened the plight of
Blue America to the maroons, escaped slaves who formed communities in remote
mountains or swamps as one example of how people of color carved out
geographical spaces where they might exercise the autonomy to live according to
their own values. This is the war of maneuver, the fight for survival of
our way of life against an external enemy.
Under
Trump, the federal government has gone Red and is indeed an external enemy of
our Blue way of life. But we must not abandon the dense trenches of the
national state wholesale. Federal district and appeals courts have ruled
against challenged Trump’s policies on several occasions already. But in the
instances where his executive orders have reached the Supreme Court, it has
chosen not to rule on the constitutionality of his orders, but more narrowly.
For
example, when three federal district courts ruled that Trump’s executive order
terminating birthright citizenship was unconstitutional, the Supreme Court “partially paused” the district courts
rulings saying they had no authority to impose their localized rulings
nationwide.
More
recently, regarding the wholesale firing of Department of Education employees,
a federal judge in Boston ruled that Congressional approval was required for
such a move. But the Supreme Court ruled that it was okay for the Trump
administration to continue its gutting of the agency and rescinded the lower
court order.
The high court rulings in each instance
sidestepped the ultimate legal and constitutional issues. Regarding birthright,
the court would eventually have to rule on the constitutionality of the 14th
Amendment, of which birthright is a part. That is a ball its conservative
members likely, want to kick down the road as far as they can. On the
Department of Education, Trump wishes to render it unable to function It would
be unconstitutional for the executive to close down the department without Congress’s approval. However, freezing
the disbursement of funds already allocated by Congress is illegal --- an
overreach of the executive power, and therefore also unconstitutional!
Pay close
attention to these and other cases that could ultimately reach the Supreme
Court. They illustrate that although we are in a war of maneuver, a
military-styled battle against an external power we must continue to fight the war
of position in institutional settings around our constitutional rights to
stave off victory of the MAGA forces.
Institutions outside of the state in civil
society are sites where dogged trench warfare must also be waged. Two examples
from my home state of Ohio are salient here. The Underground Railroad Freedom
Center in Cincinnati is a museum dedicated to telling the heroic story of Black
people escaping from slavery and the role Black and White allies in
facilitating that great escape. In April Woodrow Keown Jr, the president of the
center was reporting that a $500,000 federal grant to support the completion of
an exhibit on social justice movements was on hold. I was not able to find out
what the status of that grant was at the time of this writing. But the center,
though it is a Smithsonian museum, is mostly privately funded. Keown said in
April that private donations to support the exhibit were already coming in and
the exhibit, though delayed, would open sometime in 2026.
At the other end of the state the Cleveland
Guardians baseball team, formerly known as the Indians, came under attack by
Trump who called for the name to be changed back. The change came after a years
long public education and pressure campaign. Team ownership indicated it was
focused on the “opportunity to build the brand as the Guardians over the last
four years and are excited about the future."
In Prison Notebooks Antonio Gramsci
cautioned the left about the interior defenses that often fortified oppressive regimes
after the initial assault and left them intact. His words are timely today for
progressives as we face a withering attack from MAGA on the systems we’ve built
up over the generations. Gramsci trenchantly observes that
...
at the moment of their advance and attack the assailants would find themselves
confronted by a
line of defence which was still effective ...
the defenders ae not demoralized, nor do they abandon
their
positions, ... nor do they lose faith in their own strength or their own
future.
Arts and
cultural institutions, our sports franchises, universities like Harvard ... these institutions are
not behaving as if they are “demoralized,” nor have they lost “faith in their “strength
or their own future.” As progressives we must follow these examples.
“Keep the
Faith Baby!”
