Slow Boring

Let expressive action be expressive

What Booker’s action had in common with Sanders’ rallies is that while you could critique them as purely performative, the good news is they were genuinely purely performative. The big problem with the pressure on Chuck Schumer to filibuster a government funding bill is that the motivation was expressive, but the action people wanted had genuine real world consequences that would be counterproductive.

Does holding a giant rally accomplish anything tangible? Not really. But there’s no downside.

By the same token, I saw some snark directed Booker’s way that his grand speech didn’t achieve much. Which is true, there is just not that much on a day-to-day basis that can be done. What Booker achieved was to help a segment of the population that has been feeling pretty depressed feel inspired instead. And that’s good! Sadness at what’s happening to the country is in many ways appropriate, but feeling sad doesn’t achieve anything and it tends to be demoralizing. Feeling good about fighting back doesn’t change anything on its own, but it does lay the groundwork for constructive action. If it helps push one more person into running for office or donating to key candidates, that’s pretty good!