Walk Away Part Four: A Powerful Idea
(This essay was written right after the #walkaway march on Washington in late October. I had intended to post it then, but the mid term election and other events worthy of comment intervened. After rereading it today, however, it still seems relevant, so I decided to post it, belatedly, here).
Many of the “walkaways” that spoke at the WalkAway rally told the same story. Many were individuals that walked away from groups (liberals, LGBT advocates, minority advocates) that they had been a part of for years. And when these individuals walked away, many faced a cruel backlash. They were ridiculed by former “friends”. They were admonished by some of their coworkers. They were “unfriended” on social media. Some were even FIRED by their liberal employers. They were criticized by their families. Black “walkaways” were called “coons” and “Uncle Tom’s”. Gay “walkaways” were called “Nazis”. They were rejected. They were insulted. They were shunned.
Yet, these individuals were undeterred. Some said that all the opprobrium actually strengthened their resolve. And this, ladies and gentlemen, led me to meditate on the power of ideas.
A deep truth came to mind about the human psyche: once we come to embrace an idea and realize that it’s TRUE, we can’t simply make that idea go away. Once we really believe something, we can’t wish it away. We can’t make it vanish. The idea may be detrimental to us. It may cause us pain. It may cause us anguish. It may result in turmoil. But, despite all this, we can’t relinquish it, or at least, not privately.
And once a deeply held belief captures us, it changes us. For some, that change will be internal. Others, however, will change in the public eye as well. And those individuals that do so may be ridiculed. They may be ostracized. They may be shunned. No matter. They can’t make the idea go away.
Once Galileo realized that the earth moves around the sun, he COULD’NT NOT BELIEVE IT. He was jailed, and at one point was in danger of execution, yet he couldn’t relinquish what he KNEW to be true. Some accounts say his last words were: “…Eppur si muove” (“…yet it moves”).
Some people are willing to die for an idea. Socrates and Thomas Moore are among the philosophers that defended their ideas with their lives. In more recent times, political activists like Václav Havel in Czechoslovakia and Boris Yeltsin in Russia, put EVERYTHING on the line, to advance the cause of freedom. (I will never forget August 20, 1991, the day after the coup d’etat that ousted Mikhail Gorbachev. Gorbachev was under “house arrest” at his dacha and Boris Yeltsin, a fierce advocate of democracy, was holed up in the Kremlin as tanks circled around it. I remember the chill that ran up and down my spine as Yeltsin ended an interview with (a very brave) Diane Sawyer, by saying: “Well, were NOT DEAD yet! Wish us luck!”
Other examples of people putting their life on the line for an idea are the brave patriots that SIGNED the Declaration of Independence. It’s not usually emphasized in school, but EVERY SINGLE ONE of the signatories on that document, were defying the King Of England, and were, without any exaggeration, signing their OWN death warrants. Had England been victorious, every single one would have been captured and executed. When Patrick Henry said “Give me liberty, or give me death.” his words were in no way figurative. Henry was prepared to die for the IDEA of liberty. Ideas are very powerful things, indeed.
The powerful idea that has recently gripped many liberal Democrats is a realization that America’s Democratic party has been hijacked by virulent leftist politics. That the party has become so socialistic that it threatens the remarkable engine that is the American economy. That the party has become so totalitarian that it threatens venerable American traditions such as free speech and due process. That it has become so anti-American that it threatens the stability of our social order. That it has become so self serving that it no longer represents the middle class working people that are SUPPOSED to be its core. In short, that the Democratic Party is failing America. A powerful idea, indeed.