Catching Up
Where'd you go? What'd you do?
Howdy!
So, I’ve been quiet on here for a few weeks. The list of unsent drafts is pretty long at this point, a lot of false starts. I even did a write up on the DNC convention that got so damn long the sheer size of it was just too much and I stopped. I think I’ll re-write and finish it next week and send it out to help us remember how much joy we were feeling just a few weeks ago.
It’s weird out there right now.
I can’t manage to wrap my head around just how insane things are.
I was running a congressional campaign a few years ago, and I remember how the right was running around screaming Posse Comitatus at multiple volumes. They were convinced that the Federal government was planning to invade the states and declare martial law … never did quite figure out why, that was never really explained outside of the gibbering narcissistic oddities that believed the government gave a shit about them. This was when their guy was in the White House, too.
At the same time, the republican we were running against went on spanish speaking radio and encouraged folks listening to vote for him by any means necessary. It was bold, I have to admit, to petition folks you’d been publically shitting on in Congress with racist screeds about job theft and welfare fraud.
It was confusing behavior, to be sure, but …
It was a simpler time.
There’s so much hate, I’ve been saying to myself, until I realized I was wrong. This isn’t hate. Hate is a heady emotion and it often takes control of your mouth and your actions and makes you commit instances of dipshit. Hate is pure, hate is unreasonable, and hate is unpredictable.
The GOP is VERY predictable these days. Their race to the lowest common denominator is predictable in it’s speed and energy, if a little startling the depths they’ll go to in their power grab.
It occured to me a few years ago, and was proved yet again a couple of days ago that a lot of these new, frothy mouthed MAGA just want to be able to drop the N-word without consequence. Over on the Megyn Kelly show the other night, when talking about Haitians in Ohio, Conservative Rich Lowry called them … that word. Not a fucking peep about it from Kelly, just a nod and a smile.
They’re demonizing non Christian religions and their people. They’re pushing toward global isolationism with the plan of kicking non-whites out of the country.
They’re demonizing the LGBTQ+ communities, making them out to be predators and miscreants even though all available information shows that it’s their GOP leaders and GOP preachers, and GOP activists that are committing atrocities against women and kids.
The GOP War on Women is just … out of fucking control at this point.
It’s a fight, and one of the things I’ve seen since the DNC convention that lifts me up a bit is watching the Left fight back. The Harris campaign is pulling no punches. Walz is a beautiful, flaw-repaired man that is teaching a whole generation of new voters what healthy masculinity looks like. Up and down the ballot, it feels like the left is waking from a decades long nap and is ready to show hands.
It’s not enough, not yet, but it is SOMETHING. I’ve been goofing off in and around politics for a long time now, and this level of active engagement is awesome. It reminds me of the passion of the Obama years, but with an edge that we’ve lacked since the civil rights act passed.
It feels like we went to sleep after that, and that Reagan locked the door behind us. It’s good to see us get our dander up, to start taking an aggressive stance against bullshit, injustice, inequality, hate, misogyny, racism, homophobia, and punitive economic targeting of the poor.
I like to fight. I’ve been doing it for years, often in strange, illogical directions, but always doing what I can to try and get between the right and their targets. I can’t count the number of invites that the chickenshit right has declined to join me a round of regulated fisticuffs. I mean, if they won’t listen to Democrats “Lakoff-ing” their long and boring prognostications, maybe a ring and a referee and a couple of punches in the mouth might get their attention. Never a nibble from these “alpha” cowards.
This year, out of the blue (no pun intended) I’ve watched folks standing up and shouting back at a level I’ve not really seen before, en masse. Of course, over the years, there have been instances of fighting back, heroic ones, to be sure. I’m talking about the volume and the volume (yes, I wrote it like that) of Democrats that have been fed up for decades shaking off the dust and rolling their shoulders. Fighting back.
I don’t know how this election is going to shake out, I really don’t. I’ve predicted the last few pretty accurately, but this year, I have no fucking idea. What I do know is that if we go down, we go down fighting for what is right, and not hoisted on the petards of our own intellectual disengagement.
Check your registration, and vote. In between that, set an example, talk to those you don’t normally talk to. Show the apathetic why it’s time for them to wake up and join in. Volunteer for down ballot races in your area - the more you motivate voters to vote locally, the better the left does in the Federal elections.
It took the world standing up and fighting against evil to end WWII, and it’s going to take that kind of effort to do it again. Mass mobilization! I believe, for the first time in years, that we have the chance to do it. I believe in you.
Hey, a little personal note here. I launched the Kickstarter for my book It’s Monday In America: The Book this month. It’s doing great, to be honest, and I’m quite humbled by the support I’ve had so far, but I wanted to give you a heads-up that’s it’s available and you can only get this edition through the Kickstarter. I hope you’ll consider taking a look, and taking a chance on me.
Thanks for reading. I love you guys.
