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As I read about the various solidarity actions held around the world after the sentencing of Pussy Riot members to two years' hard labor, I kept thinking: Imagine the exploding heads if bands of feminist punk rockers showed up to protest at the American churches who have chosen to align themselves with the right wing politicians. (It's a little ironic, considering that being religious was enough to make you suspect under the old Soviet regime.)

Those women took tremendous risks to speak out, and they're paying for it. But they'll inspire others:

In an eloquent final statement to the court, Maria Alekhina explained that the group had been protesting against the Putin system and its “vertical of power” that suppressed freedom in Russia. ….Pussy Riot has laid bare a structural weakness of a highly personalised political system that operates without institutional checks and balances, supported by a judiciary whose function is to turn the desires of its political masters into legal decisions. The regime’s self-protection mechanism lost control because it was unable to calibrate the consequences of its actions."

Pussy Riot enjoys the dubious advantage that “their story is more accessible than the tragic fate of murdered female champions of human rights, like the journalist Anna Politkovskaya and activist Natalya Estemirova,” notes Der Spiegel:

The three women of Pussy Riot have understood the rules of the game, and they have used them brilliantly. They will be, probably for the last time, a focus of global attention once again on Friday. But only after that, when the verdict has been pronounced and the pathos of their final words has died down, will the lasting effects of their protest become clear….It remains to be seen to what extent the reputation of the despot in the Kremlin has also been harmed.

“A new political Rubicon has been crossed in Russia,” Lough contends. “The Putin model could quickly start to look shaky if others follow Pussy Riot’s example and exploit the vulnerabilities inherent in its decision-making process.”

Yep, that's what I'd like to see. Instead of solidarity protests, I'd like to see feminists, anarchists, Occupiers and everyone else pouring into the churches, because they're a major source of our regressive politics.

It will probably won't happen here, but I wish it would. Because when churches get in bed with the right wing, you have to attack it at the root.