California Governor Gavin has done some wack things.
The way he’s standing up to Trump right now isn’t one of them.

At a certain point we have to make and have room for people with varying degrees of alignment with our own beliefs in order to gain critical mass and truly impact control systems we’re under.
I think it was Adam Jordan Wills I heard say on a mic one time “I don’t have to like you to want your liberation.”
This is the downfall of the left and the woke movement (largely due to co-opting by white folks trying to assuage their own guilt instead of staying in their lane and helping new arrivals de-program and get educated but that’s another essay).
It didn’t leave enough room for people to unlearn the programming and unmask safely and a lot of us didn’t (and still don’t) truly understand the concept of solidarity.
Solidarity isn’t sameness.
It isn’t perfect alignment.
It doesn’t mean we agree on everything.
It means we stand together against a system built to divide, oppress, and exploit us.
Fred Hampton’s rainbow coalition brought together Black Panthers, poor white Appalachians, and everyone in between. Everyone at the bottom being crushed by the people at the top.

Of course there are politics at play.
Governor Gav’s a politician, fam. And of course he’s going to manipulate the optics to his favor. That’s the name of the game. We all know that.
No one is saying not to hold him accountable for his political actions. But on this ONE overarching issue that stands to tsunami us all …
Right now he’s the one elected we’ve got steering any kind of offensive against the rise of American fascism.
We either figure out solidarity and have some kind of chance or we keep fighting amongst ourselves until the America we’re fighting about no longer exists.
This round, I’m solid behind the Governor and urge everyone to consider what solidarity truly looks like because it’s the only way out.

I love the tactics.
I love the mockery.
Tyranny requires fear.
South Park is the new Charlie Chaplin.
ICE melts at the same temperature no matter how expensive the water is before it freezes.

Keep up the pressure. This is the chapter where they find out just how many more of us there are than them.
I love you and you can’t do $%!? about it.

—andru defeye
Flommist Andru Defeye is the Guerrilla Poet Laureate of Sacramento. Copyright © 2025 Andru Defeye.
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