Shall the U.S. have an unchecked dictator continue the rest of his term with the reins removed? Or will the government actually be given license to step in and stop the madness?
Even if they are given that mandate by a tidal wave of Blue votes, will they do it?
To say we’re nervous on the eve of the midterm elections is a vast and dramatic understatement. From the outside looking in, the United States looks like a powderkeg with a lit fuse, and we’re all praying someone with a brain will step up to snip the cord before it blows.
Optimism is not a word many of us cling to anymore. But I would like to.
I would love to wake up in a couple of days and feel secure, to feel like an adult is back in the room and the scissors are out of the maniac’s hands. Trump is like a frantic toddler pitching violent tantrums left and right, waving at empty space like he’s staring down crowds and, apparently, not even aware of where he is a good chunk of the time.
Leaving him in power with nobody willing to intervene is horrifying enough from our perspective. From the perspective of people living under his rule, it must be ten times worse.
Day by day he becomes more and more unhinged, losing the plot at his rallies and drifting away in meetings.
The people behind the scenes, his aides and his sycophants and the people using him as a puppet President are desperate to keep him in the Oval Office and exempt from the rules.
Removing Republicans from positions of power and replacing them with Democrats and Progressives won’t kick him out, but it can open the door to that. And at the very least, we might get some opposing voices pushing back.
Maybe. If the Democratic Party gets its shit together enough to try.
I hope they do.
But even more, I hope the people who say they won’t bother voting this time get their collective heads out of their own asses and make it to the polling stations. I hope they exercise the most basic of their democratic rights and cast a vote.
I hope y’all help each other, volunteer to drive people in to vote, to help each other register, to support people waiting in line for hours with words of encouragement and reminders of why you do this and what you have to lose.
Democracy is worth fighting for. And it does take work; it doesn’t happen on its own.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again; democracy only functions on the backs of its citizens. Without you, the fragile, beautiful system will collapse like so many ruins of the ancient past.
Help it stand tall.
We’ll be watching. Don’t let the world down. Don’t let yourselves down.
Get out to vote, and make it count.
Solidarity wins.
Amen.