Interesting and valid points.
Here is some more of the piece:
....Too often in my experience on the left, people think names don’t matter as much as ideas and plans of action. Names, they think, are just public relations and packaging, which by definition makes them both superficial and dishonest. If you think this, you could not be more wrong. Names matter. They communicate intention and vision and ambition. And what I understand to be the leading contender for the name of this movement is terrible on every count.
We’ll get back to that. But first: I don’t remember out of which mouth I first heard the words “Tea Party movement,” but I do remember that as soon as I heard those words I thought: uh-oh. That is one killer name. What American doesn’t like the Boston Tea Party? Its coding couldn’t be clearer: We are the true patriots, rising up against tyranny. The name itself makes a person want to belong, pick up the phone, start emailing. Loads of people are going to want to join this.
It accomplished the trick the right almost always accomplishes with names, which is to position itself as the majority, the normal people, the ones defending what’s right and moral. Take, well, Moral Majority. Yes, I disliked every single thing they ever did. But man, that was another great name.
On the left, things have usually been more straightforward. The labor movement, the civil rights movement, the women’s movement. Fine, fine, and fine. They’re descriptive, and they all did a very good job of communicating intention, vision, and ambition to middle America.
There are two great left-movement names of recent vintage. The older of the two is MoveOn. It started life in 1998 as an online petition for Americans to sign who wanted to “move on” from the very unpopular impeachment of President Clinton. It was strong, assertive, optimistic, and crystal clear.
The other is Black Lives Matter, which started as a hashtag after George Zimmerman’s acquittal in the Trayvon Martin case. It took off, and no wonder. It communicates everything in those three words, which even have a little poetry to them. Do you remember seeing the words spray-painted across Confederate memorial statuess_ in the South? As examples of impromptu art striking blows against the empire, those images were as gripping as some similar ones from Prague in 1968.
So now let’s circle back to the matter of what to name this movement. There is one effort afoot, started by former Democratic congressional staffers, called Indivisible. They published an online guide to resisting Trumpismm and got a piece on thee Timeses^ op-ed pagee, and apparently there are Indivisible chapters all over the place.
That’s great. Indivisible is a good name for an online action resource, but it isn’t really what you would name a movement. I have some friends who are involved in these movement-naming conversations, and they seem to suggest that the leading contender right now is The Resistance. This is understandable, since the movement started out as a resistance movement against Trump. But it is a catastrophically horrible name for a movement, which sends all the wrong signals.
First, it’s defensive. It positions the people within the movement as the minority. Resisters are by definition a small and hardy band. No! We’re the majority. He got 46 percent of the popular vote and finished second. Any name should strive to remind regular, apolitical Americans of that fact. He is a Too often in my experience on the left, people think names don’t matter as much as ideas and plans of action. Names, they think, are just public relations and packaging, which by definition makes them both superficial and dishonest. If you think this, you could not be more wrong. Names matter. They communicate intention and vision and ambition. And what I understand to be the leading contender for the name of this movement is terrible on every count.
Second, it’s angry. People on the left always want to think of themselves as fighting the power. But that’s wrong for this moment. Our side needs to convey optimism, communicate that we plan to win this fight.
Third, it’s weak. Resistance members throughout history are some of the noblest people who’ve ever lived. They die nobly and romantically. But they die. They get shot by people who have more guns. Occasionally they win one, but after like 30 years in prison, like the African National Congress.
Third, it’s weak. Resistance members throughout history are some of the noblest people who’ve ever lived. They die nobly and romantically. But they die. They get shot by people who have more guns. Occasionally they win one, but after like 30 years in prison, like the African National Congress....
Just for thought.