hey, do you remember this thing? this place where a 19 year old abby began her journey into political thinking and engaging in something so important that would become a major part of her life forever without even knowing it? it feels like a faint memory and a real archive of my (not so distant) past that i do often forget about. but now in the crazy political climate that we find ourselves in, i figured now is as good of a time as any to dive back into dissecting and discussing what the hell is happening around us because it’s, a lot. and most if it uh, isn’t great. so let’s look into it, huh?
we are now in the aftermath of a political disaster and honestly in many ways are still in the midst of one, and in this chaos we find ourself in the position of democrats holding the majority in all three branches of government (after voting out one of the most dangerous men in us political history and removing him from the pedestal built on the backs of 400,000+ dead americans that he built himself) and asking ourselves “what the fuck happens now”?
well, some good shit hopefully.
but legislatively speaking, i do truthfully fear that we may find ourselves in a standstill on the things we can and should be doing because frankly, democrats are cowards and republicans are assholes.
right now, many congressional democrats are too hyper-focused on the ideas of unity and forgiveness and forgetting the fact that in trying to unite and forgive, we are being asked to say that the fascist ideals and actions from the right are okay while congressional republicans continue to live in a fantasy world where they can do things like, oh i don’t know, incite riots in the capitol and carry on with little to no backlash beyond cyberbullying on twitter.
i say this as a registered democrat and someone who openly campaigned a TON for these people over the past year and a half because i know the democratic party can and should do more not only for itself, but for the us as the people.
i personally have had a long political journey and if you would have told me 10 years ago that i donated and canvased for a democratic socialist to win the presidency, spent my weekends phone banking for a runoff election in a state that i don’t even live in to gain democratic control of the senate, and called my own elected republican representatives demanding them to resign, i would have shit my pants and not believe a word you said but well, here we are. and here i am. so if the manipulated and propagandized into conservative thinking abby can come around and realize human decency and equality is actually rad as hell, i’d like to think theres hope for elected officials to do the same.
we are slowly moving in a direction that gives me hope for the democratic party though. i hate idolizing politicians because at the end of the day, they work for us and are not our friends and need to be held accountable, but there are some people that are doing the god damn work and are the people that i believe can and will make the push to get the democratic party where is needs to go.
bernie sanders, alexandria ocasio-cortez, ed markey, ilhan omar, cori bush, rashida tlaib, ayanna pressley. these people (and more!!) and organizations like democratic socialists of america and the sunrise movement are doing the god damn work to no only put progressive legislature into action in the capitol, but spreading the word and those ideals and beliefs to us as voters and showing us that hey, maybe these “fantasies” of universal healthcare, a $15 an hour minimum wage, student debt cancelation, a green new deal or you know, basic human rights, are a possibility and by voting these people into these positions, we can make it happen.
so thats where we as constituents and voters come into play and the real fun begins.
have you ever cyberbullied your senator? ever called and demanded that they resign? demand that they vote a certain way? if you haven’t, you should. like i said before, these people work for YOU. they represent YOU. do you disagree with that they are doing while speaking and voting on behalf of YOU? TELL THEM. hound them with calls, @ them on twitter, write them a letter! it’s literally their JOB to do what YOU want and if they don’t, they should RESIGN and if not, get ready to be voted out.
i guess the tl;dr version of this whole post is bully your elected officials and become a leftist and as my first post back, it’s fitting. i think this next four years could be huge. i think a lot of good shit can happen. but it’ll take work. work in the capitol, work in our own local governments, work on us as voters and activists in our own communities.
i’m situating myself in a place that is maybe recklessly optimistic, but i do feel a glimmer of hope that i haven’t had in a minute so, who knows. for now, let’s just ride this next wave and punch a few fascists and nazis as we go.
leaving you with a little cross-paws chairman of the senate budget committee (!!!) bernie action because as optimistic as i’m trying to be with the administration we have and the work we can do, god damn would i have loved to see this man become the president.
not too shabby 