An All-American Way to Celebrate Liberation Day
From Dictator to Democracy: The Top 5 Ways to Get Liberated! (Plus Chubawamba!)
As we speak, President Trump is getting set to announce a new holiday he’s naming “Liberation Day.” He could either be A.) preparing to tank global markets by announcing a whole new raft of highly unadvisable tariffs upon everything under the sun or B.) celebrating the historical triumph of democracy over dictators, of the people over autocrats, and of social justice warriors over the greedy.
Since there’s no possible way Trump would twist the word “liberation,” which has traditionally been tied into all sorts of positive, pro-democracy movements, into something darker and nefarious (fingers crossed!), I say let’s celebrate the REAL meaning of Liberation Day.
Here are my Top 5 All-American Ways to Celebrate Liberation Day:
1.) Catch Some Liberation Day Viewing
Every year around Halloween, I get almost fidgety waiting for my ol’ friend Chuck and those giant punkins to appear on my teevee with the cuhlassic 1966 special “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.”
So I was feeling kinda bummed that there wasn’t anything special on the tube for Liberation Day besides Trump’s speech this afternoon when BOOM, my new favorite AI video artists at MRIAA released their latest video covering last night’s Musk debacle in cheesehead country, where American democracy prevailed over an unelected wannabe dictator who showed zero shame or concern with “laws” in trying to buy himself a Wisconsin Supreme Court judge.
Amazingly, remarkably sane judicial candidate Susan Crawford defeated Musk’s handpicked lackey Brad Schimel, despite Musk dropping a cool $25 million on the other guy.
Cool stuff, right? AI surrealist artists MRIIA thought so, and today they released this remarkable parody video to celebrate. If you’ve never seen MRIAA’s work, it’s really similar to the freaky video Trump posted back in February previewing his plans for Gaza, so I assume this is just the kind of stuff DJT loves.
If that video leaves you (like me) a little discombobulated and depressed but also wanting more, check out “This is Trumpmerica,” another mind-blowing piece of AI parody that uses Donald Glover’s genius song “This is America” as a soundtrack.
2.) Go to Church
Many of Trump’s followers are church-going folk, so I have to think that in highlighting the word “Liberation,” he must have been giving a nod to that long, solid Christian tradition of Liberation Theology.
I first heard about this concept years ago when reading Collum McCann’s joyous National Book Award-winning novel “Let the Great World Spin.” That book covered two of my favorite subjects, Philippe Petit's historic walk across a high wire between New York's Twin Towers AND the idea that "The Christian faithful are also obliged to promote social justice and, mindful of the precept of the Lord, to assist the poor."
According to The Gospel Coalition, “The theology of Liberation developed in the 1960s to argue for the liberation of various groups—primarily poor, black, women—from economic and political bondage. For these theologians, it is not enough to support the oppressed; one must be committed to social movements, even revolutions, dedicated to overturning the structures of society.”
Their movement was so popular that it actually became part of the Catholic Church’s canon law: “The Christian faithful are also obliged to promote social justice and, mindful of the precept of the Lord, to assist the poor."
Social justice? Releasing groups like the poor, women, and the black community from economic political bondage? Sounds like Liberation to me!
3.) Read a Good Book
In order to really dig into what Trump means by “Liberation", I’m just starting to work my way through Gene Sharp’s 1993 book (originally in essay form) “From Dictatorship to Democracy, A Conceptual Framework for Liberation.”
In the world of non-violent political strategists, Sharp (no relation) is a baller’s baller. His first book on Gandhi’s non-violent tactics from 1951 has a foreword written by his buddy Albert Einstein, and he has been nominated multiple times for a Nobel Peace Prize.
“He’s been called the father of nonviolent struggle. He could be also described as a revolutionary’s best friend. Or perhaps, more accurately, as a dictatorship’s worst nightmare.”
As Sharp puts it:
“If our language doesn’t have clear meanings and accurate meanings, you can’t think clearly. If you can’t think clearly, you have no ability to evaluate or influence what happens. So the distortions of our language help make us helpless.”
As I swim around the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico, I couldn’t agree more.
Buy “From Dictatorship to Democracy, A Conceptual Framework for Liberation” from an independent bookseller here.
4.) Learn Some Songs
You might have a hard time spelling Chubawamba (I sure do). You might also think of the now-defunct band as the evil craftsman of all-time awful earworm “Tubthumper.” You’d be right. They are that. But wait, there’s way, way more.
Here they are absolutely killing it with a rousing version of the legendary Italian anti-fascist, anti-Nazi all-time banger “Bella Ciao.”
Originally written by Italian rice workers protesting harsh economic conditions, it became the go-to song for the Italian Resistance fighting Mussolini and Nazi occupiers during WWII.
In what I can only guess is a (wink wink nudge nudge) coinkydink by President Trump, Italians actually sing this song every year on April 25th when they celebrate the end of the fascist regime.
The name of the holiday?
Not making this up: Liberation Day.
5.) Watch a Dictator Fail/Fall in Real Time
The best way to learn about liberation is to watch it happen live.
After directing the military to mow down several hundred Romainian citizens gathering against his regime with automatic weapons at a protest in December of 1989, dictator Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife Elena (who had been appointed as First Deputy Prime Minister) were at an all-time low in popularity.
They had already taken a chainsaw to the economy with austerity measures that directly impacted the lower and middle classes, leaving Romanians in a state of abject poverty while Nicolae and Elena lived in considerable luxury. The cold-blooded murder of their fellow countrymen in broad daylight proved to be the last straw.
In this video of Ceausescu’s final speech, you can watch the literal exact moment when he realizes that the people of Romania have decided that they will no longer acquiese to his reckless, destructive ego-driven reign of terror.
As the crowd, which could normally be seen complying with cheers and pro-government slogans, murmurs and finally jeers, leading to yelling and boos, you see Ceausescu realize that he no longer has legitimacy as a leader.
Moments later he flees, the beginning of the end of a tyrannical regime.
It’s Must See TV.
Thanks to President Trump for reminding us on this first American Liberation Day that democracy can always overcome despotism if only the people will it.