The doctrine or political position that opposes the withdrawal of state recognition of an established church; — used especially concerning the Anglican Church in England. Opposed to disestablishmentarianism.
– Wikipedia article
As a child, my father taught me to do some dumb tricks, like spell Antidisestablishmentarianism. Unfortunately, he didn’t teach me the meaning. As you can see above it was used in Britain to talk about the separation of church and state. Given our current political climate I think we can repurpose this word for a new purpose.
Establishment
In today’s politics, I feel there are two main forces: Those who believe the current system works and those who want to blow it up. These forces are found both on the far right and left. The word we often use for the “system” is the “establishment”.
People like Chuck Schumer represent the establishment. He is old and wields power to keep the status quo. Corporate interests love the establishment because they can pay to play. Money via super PACS is unlimited and unaccountable. It is what powers the establishment.
Disestablishment
Dis-establishment can be interpreted as blowing up the status quo or tearing down the establishment. Trump is very much representative of disestablishment. It’s easy to believe in blowing things up because most people don’t have patience to do the hard work of building something solid. DOGE and Elon Musk fired thousands of people and broke much of the bureaucratic establishment.
Antidisestablishment
Anti-dis-establishment are the people who defend against the people who are trying to destroy all of the systems. There are good reasons to do this, especially if the systems in place serve an important public function. Not having an establishment can cause chaos.
It’s like the difference between “Defund the police” and “Reform the police”. Defund is interpreted as “eliminate”; whereas Reform is not elimination but rather improving for a purpose.
Antidisestablishmentarian
A person who wants to defend the establishment, or even reform it can be called Anti-dis-establishment-arians. Personally, I am one of those people because I believe in large-scale reform, not total destruction of the establishment. However, I also sometimes believe that it is a lost cause and California, Oregon, and Washington should succeed from the Union and start a new country. This would certainly be disestablishment but also it would be creating a new establishment.
AntiDisestablishmentarianism
Finally, the belief system in all of its 28 letter glory. No longer referring to the Church, it can be repurposed to defend or reform the establishment from forces like RFK Jr or Elon Musk. The biggest problem with this concept is the difference between leaving the status quo as-is like Chuck Schumer advocates for or rather to systematically reform and update it for the modern world the way AOC, Pete Buttigieg, and Zoran Mamdani are attempting.
I believe strongly that building something that serves the needs of the populace as a whole requires tough choices. These choices will confuse many people who want it to fit on a bumper sticker. I hope we have it within us to find a way to improve without blowing ourselves up along the way.
Whatya think?