Amidst the dark chaos, we got a "masterclass in effective resistance" this week when former NFL punter Chris Kluwe rose in a California city council meeting to decry a dumb, unctuous proposed plaque that spells "MAGA," which he deemed "explicitly a Nazi movement." As the packed room cheered, he declared he would "now engage in the time-honored American tradition of peaceful civil disobedience," went limp as police rushed him, and got arrested for the crime of telling the truth.
Kluwe's action came as the ravaging of democracy continues apace. The figurehead president is so out of it he didn't know Russia started the war in Ukraine - sullenly calling the popular Zelensky a "dictator" who "never shoulda started it" - or that his sycophant Treasury Secretary met with Zelensky who no wasn't "sleeping." He also didn't know the head of Social Security just resigned, Medicaid is being massively cut, plundering Fuhrer Musk "accidentally" fired several USDA avian flu experts as the disease spreads widely and the agency is "working to swiftly rectify the situation." Some suggest he may not know those things 'cause he's a demented ole man who's spent more than half his first ungodly 31 days "in office" at his golf courses or crappy hotels, though he did emerge to randomly kill New York's new "congestion pricing" tolls to raise money for mass transit, approved after four years and 4,000 pages of federal review, by posting, "New York is SAVED. LONG LIVE THE KING!" Not so fast, Jack. New York, along with everyone else, is suing.
Also, buyers' remorse is in the air, and some people are memorably speaking up. Illinois Gov. J.B Pritzker, despite being a billionaire, offered up a furious. eloquent tirade about "watching (what's) happening in our country right now with dread" as "the authoritarian playbook is laid bare." "The root that tears apart your foundation begins as a seed of distrust, hate, and blame...They point to a group of people who don’t look like you and tell you to blame them for your problems," he said. "Tyranny requires your fear, your silence, and your compliance. Democracy requires your courage." Echoing him, AOC was in Tennessee to proclaim, “Every day our job is to wake up and say ‘what can I do today?’ There is no act too small. Every action matters." And so, somewhat improbably, to Chris Kluwe, a former NFL punter for the Minnesota Vikings and, more vitally, a longtime champion of good who made headlines years for speaking up - yes, a straight football player ! - for same sex marriage. Kluwe played in the NFL for eight years, retiring in 2012.
For the last 15 years he's lived in Huntington Beach, California, a rabidly MAGA-infested town whose cringy city council giddily proclaim themselves the “MAGA-nificent 7." Look at them: Ewww. In recent years they've banned the rainbow flag from City Hall for Pride Month, moved to screen children's books for sexual content, pushed for voter ID at the polls and, last month, just to confirm its viciousness, voted to make it "a non-sanctuary city" for brown people. Now, upping the toadying factor - also the dumb one - they've proposed an acrostic plaque to be set outside the town's public library to celebrate its 50th anniversary. "Through hope and change, our nation has built back better to the golden age of Making America Great Again," it reads, and then ingeniously, vertically declares, “Magical," "Alluring," "Galvanizing," and “Adventurous." Get it?!? It spells MAGA!! See?!? AAMG!! (Alluring, Adventurous, Magical, Galvanizing). What, are they all 8 years old? Just kill us now.
So Chris Kluwe, 43-year-old Huntington resident and decent guy, showed up at Tuesday's City Council meeting to tell them what he thought of their “propaganda” and offer a calm but robust indictment of what MAGA really means. And it was great.
"MAGA stands for trying to erase trans people from existence. MAGA stands for resegregation and racism. MAGA stands for censorship and book bans. MAGA stands for firing air traffic controllers while planes are crashing. MAGA stands for firing the people overseeing our nuclear arsenal. MAGA stands for firing military veterans and those serving them at the VA, including canceling research on veteran suicide. MAGA stands for cutting funds to education, including for disabled children. MAGA is profoundly corrupt, unmistakably anti-democracy and most importantly, MAGA is explicitly a Nazi movement. You may have replaced a swastika with a red hat, but that is what it is."
The room erupted in cheers. Then, still calm, almost weary, he announced, 'I will now engage in the time-honored American tradition of peaceful civil disobedience." And he did. He walked up to the council on the dais, stood there a moment, and as frantic cops rushed around him, sat down and went limp.
- YouTubewww.youtube.com
Kluwe is not an elected official, an unelected bureaucrat, a billionaire, a pundit. He's just a white guy, former football player, patriot and mensch who's fed up with what's being done to what is still his country. His small act of good trouble made headlines everywhere, from the LA Times to Sports Illustrated to Fox News. A phalanx of brave police carried him out; he was arrested on a charge of disturbing an assembly, and spent about four hours in the city jail - four hours, we suspect, he felt were well-spent. "What you’re seeing in Huntington Beach is a microcosm of what’s happening nationally,” he later told the Times. “This is what happens when MAGA gets power.” Citing his own "position of privilege and power" - he played America's game! - he insisted he has "the responsibility to step up and do something," as do others of his ilk, when faced by Nazis. "I can help protect the oppressed," he said. "Because it shouldn’t be on the people who are being oppressed to fight by themselves.”
State troopers prepare to attack John Lewis and other Selma marchers on Bloody SundayBillboard photo of Spider Martin's 1965 Two-Minute Warning from art collective For Freedoms
State troopers prepare to attack John Lewis and other