No place is lost. And even so, there are people within the state who don’t deserve to be written off like that. It might take more work that people are willing to do, which is easy for folks in blue and deep blue states. But sometimes it’s just about taking a deep breath and moving forward. Part of the reason that the right has been so successful is that they aren’t writing off entire blue states. They’re making their insidious moves in the judiciary, the state legislatures, and the offices that deal with elections while folks on the left say "eh, I’m not going to worry about it.
I mean, what’s the alternative? Do we sit back and say “well, at least we have California, and New York, and a few other states I can’t recall. Sure, fewer than last go-round, but at least my state is safe.”
And of course, it’s safe until it’s not. Because, as they keep telling us, this is not about taking “back” the “confederate states”… it’s about taking the whole country and trying to make it into a white Christian ethno-state.
One of the faculty who served on my dissertation committee in the late 1990s was a 60-something Black man. He had a massive scar on the top-front of his head. Like, a gouge and an big ugly scar. I asked him once how he got it. He said “I was marching across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma in 1965. It was the First march. A man cracked me on the head with a club. Knocked me to the ground and split my head open.” I said “Oh my god! What did you do?”
“Got up, kept walking.”
I think about him a lot. I’m not anywhere near that brave. Even thinking about that exchange brings tears to my eyes, and it reminds me that however bad things seem to be, other people suffered through far, far worse to gain even the most basic of human rights.
I mean 47.86% voted for Biden. It’s pretty safe to say half of the people are “ok”. More if we could over come the apathetic and apolitical. ETA and disenfranchised/suppressed.
I wonder if the Good Liars or Jordan Klepper have tried asking the MAGA-volk if Trump completed his border wall-- chances are some will say “Yes, he did, just like he promised!”
To which Klepper could reply “so we’re good then, Trump solved immigration by building the wall. Now we can move onto other issues, right?”
Reason for despair. And who knows how more wider, given the SCOTUS appeal labor strike lost earning liability issue, this can go? But there is still a chance for a majority against all gerrymandered odds. Right?
Are we all categorically screwed? Should we just throw our hands in the air and give up?
Faking NO! If there is a means, there is a way. Even if someone says that shit ain’t gonna work, it’s better to give something a try than not try at all. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.
