Tuesday 29 October 2024

The Horrors Persist, But So Do I

I keep wanting to write about this election, and it's hard to even know where to begin. 

It's horrifying that it's close. There's only one way that we tip the scales, and that is to vote, and to talk to each other about these issues as we march to the polls. If you are eligible to vote, you need to vote, wherever you are. 

The other day, I had a conversation with a politically conservative loved one, in which we discussed abortion bans and their impact on women's lives in the United States right now. He sighed heavily, and let me know that he saw the horrors. I asked him directly to vote for Kamala Harris, because the other guy is a  danger to me and other people he loves. 

I have a backup plan if this all goes wrong, but most of my nearest and dearest don't. I'm not living through another four years of the United States eating itself while I'm trying to raise small children. I can get them out of here, but not everyone. 

So I'm going to vote like I don't have another option. I'm going to use my vote to help buoy Harris to the presidency so we can continue to have tough conversations. I've happily voted for Kamala before, and it's honestly an honor to do so again in a historically consequential way, but this is about more than that. 

We are already hearing the orange oaf truthfully state that he wants to turn the military on our citizens for protesting. His own advisors have called him a fascist and explained how he admires dictators.  His closing arguments on the campaign trail have been promises of violence, racism and misogyny. He used his previous presidential term to erode our international standing, make the rich richer, and endanger women; to demonize difference, degrade our environment, and elevate christofascism to our highest offices. 

2020 wrung me out. My first child was born in 2017, and together we attended so many protests, made so many phone calls, knocked doors, spoke up. January 6th, 2021 started with joy about Georgia's contributions to the Senate, and within two hours of that celebration I was watching, horrified, as congresspeople I follow were live-tweeting a coup. 

By the time Biden was safely inaugurated, I needed a break to nestle in with my family and rebuild. After so much national instability, I bet you needed some normal, too. 

But the side effect of needing that normality is that we seem to have forgotten the big lessons we needed to take forward. As someone else wonderfully put it, the only excuse for voting for Donald Trump now is having just woken up from an 8-year coma. 

Kamala Harris is a brilliant, thoughtful politician, a joyful warrior who is presenting policies to make having a family safer, to make buying a house easier, and to stop the horror of rising maternal and infant mortality, among so many things. Her lived experience has brought her through so many angles on our nations toughest problems. She is deeply experienced, and has a record of accomplishment that proves her brilliance and commitment. I am excited about her presidency, and I also don't agree with her on everything. I look forward to continuing the work that her administration will make possible, even without perfect agreement. 

Meanwhile, Donald Trump stands there, old and visibly losing his mind, exhausted but viciously going mad, a poor person's idea of a rich person trying to outrun a lifetime of fraud and abuse of working people. He has had so, so, so many decades of throwing those who stand with him under the bus at the first opportunity. He is a convicted felon who has thrown in his lot with our enemies, so long as they flatter his brittle ego. He is a coward, a draft-dodger, a serially bankrupt loser who arguably only ran for president in the first place to keep himself out of jail, and I suspect that's much of his motivation still. 

It's been a long road. Take a deep breath, and make your plan to vote. Move democracy forward. Get it done.

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