Micah Sifry has tied together the threads of dread that have haunted us since November 2016, combining into inescapable webs of anxiety when Covid and the insurrection entered our national story.
Yes, this overdue catharsis is beautiful, but Micah is right: Only the grassroots groups ON THE GROUND can finish the work of winning this election, and start us on a healing path afterward.
Posted this to Field Team 6 volunteer Slack, both California Grassroots Alliance volunteer Slacks, and to my local Indivisible groups. Thanks, @Micah, for publishing this at exactly the right moment with the most useful observations!
I really appreciate your work. Yes, I feel lighter in every single way. My soul feels lighter. It's not that I'm unaware of the hard work ahead — of course I am — but I feel like there's this deep sense of refueling, a sense that I WANT to do that work. I have always felt that way, but it's been getting a littlle bit threadbare and a little too Little Engine that Could. Now it feels, once again, POWERED.
Thank you. And yes, let's remember that groups like MVP, PAStandsUp, RedtoBlue, SisterDistrict, Field Team 6, Seed the Vote, etc... often get the work done where it is most needed and most effective. And we can feel th joy and hope while remaining fierce and recognizing the challenges ahead, regardless of a Harris victory given the strong possibility that January 6th may have been a dress rehearsal.
Thanks Micah. I don’t understand what you mean by this: in the same way that not one of the delegates bragging on their state’s history last night during the roll call did a land acknowledgement.
Fair question. I threw that line in late and should have spent a little more time on it. What I was trying to say is that performative activism and language aimed at stoking shame and guilt just doesn't get us very far, especially if your goal is winning a majority of the vote in a country as divided and as conservative as ours. I was also thinking of how many of the pro-Palestine activists refer to the USA as "Turtle Island" and imagine that their advocacy of dismantling the "settler-colonial" state of Israel is connected to eventually dismantling the "settler-colonial" USA. Most of the countries of the world could be defined as "settler-colonial" and this whole notion of conferring "indigeneity" to one "people" strikes me as deeply misguided. The state delegation roll call showed many of the threads in the weave that makes America, including some Native delegates, but unless I'm mistaken even they didn't do a land acknowledgement.
Thanks for the explanation. I agree with much of this, especially "if your goal is winning a majority of the vote in a country as divided and as conservative as ours." I've been grappling with land acknowledgments and wondering what the next iteration might look like. There's a lot in them that feels so important, and I've seen them get wheels turning in many fruitful ways in my community. And yet, there's little denying that they can so easily work at cross purposes, too.
Exactly. I have been saying this for the past month. Yes, the Dem ticket has something to do with the outbreak of joy, but I have said it is a more a backlash against a decade of despair and doom. The combination of Trump and Covid were not just a lethal mix but a depressive one. Biden's appearance and slow motion behavior blotted out the sun for millions who resigned themselves to some dystopian future under MAGA rule. Once those clouds cleared, people could see the sun again. As of today I am pretty confident we are on the road to victory. I cant take any more disappointment :)
Late for the sky here Micah (if I may) - we met thru Larry Goodwyn about 25 years ago...- I was getting FIRST OF THE MONTH off the ground. Aimed to change the game - failed but, what the hey, still at it...Here's my angle on Kamalamentum....https://www.firstofthemonth.org/emergent-dems/ Forgive if T.M.I. Benj D.
Micah Sifry has tied together the threads of dread that have haunted us since November 2016, combining into inescapable webs of anxiety when Covid and the insurrection entered our national story.
Yes, this overdue catharsis is beautiful, but Micah is right: Only the grassroots groups ON THE GROUND can finish the work of winning this election, and start us on a healing path afterward.
Posted this to Field Team 6 volunteer Slack, both California Grassroots Alliance volunteer Slacks, and to my local Indivisible groups. Thanks, @Micah, for publishing this at exactly the right moment with the most useful observations!
Thank you, Patti, for being one of my most loyal and aligned readers!!
I really appreciate your work. Yes, I feel lighter in every single way. My soul feels lighter. It's not that I'm unaware of the hard work ahead — of course I am — but I feel like there's this deep sense of refueling, a sense that I WANT to do that work. I have always felt that way, but it's been getting a littlle bit threadbare and a little too Little Engine that Could. Now it feels, once again, POWERED.
Thank you. And yes, let's remember that groups like MVP, PAStandsUp, RedtoBlue, SisterDistrict, Field Team 6, Seed the Vote, etc... often get the work done where it is most needed and most effective. And we can feel th joy and hope while remaining fierce and recognizing the challenges ahead, regardless of a Harris victory given the strong possibility that January 6th may have been a dress rehearsal.
Thanks Micah. I don’t understand what you mean by this: in the same way that not one of the delegates bragging on their state’s history last night during the roll call did a land acknowledgement.
Fair question. I threw that line in late and should have spent a little more time on it. What I was trying to say is that performative activism and language aimed at stoking shame and guilt just doesn't get us very far, especially if your goal is winning a majority of the vote in a country as divided and as conservative as ours. I was also thinking of how many of the pro-Palestine activists refer to the USA as "Turtle Island" and imagine that their advocacy of dismantling the "settler-colonial" state of Israel is connected to eventually dismantling the "settler-colonial" USA. Most of the countries of the world could be defined as "settler-colonial" and this whole notion of conferring "indigeneity" to one "people" strikes me as deeply misguided. The state delegation roll call showed many of the threads in the weave that makes America, including some Native delegates, but unless I'm mistaken even they didn't do a land acknowledgement.
Thanks for the explanation. I agree with much of this, especially "if your goal is winning a majority of the vote in a country as divided and as conservative as ours." I've been grappling with land acknowledgments and wondering what the next iteration might look like. There's a lot in them that feels so important, and I've seen them get wheels turning in many fruitful ways in my community. And yet, there's little denying that they can so easily work at cross purposes, too.
Exactly. I have been saying this for the past month. Yes, the Dem ticket has something to do with the outbreak of joy, but I have said it is a more a backlash against a decade of despair and doom. The combination of Trump and Covid were not just a lethal mix but a depressive one. Biden's appearance and slow motion behavior blotted out the sun for millions who resigned themselves to some dystopian future under MAGA rule. Once those clouds cleared, people could see the sun again. As of today I am pretty confident we are on the road to victory. I cant take any more disappointment :)
Late for the sky here Micah (if I may) - we met thru Larry Goodwyn about 25 years ago...- I was getting FIRST OF THE MONTH off the ground. Aimed to change the game - failed but, what the hey, still at it...Here's my angle on Kamalamentum....https://www.firstofthemonth.org/emergent-dems/ Forgive if T.M.I. Benj D.
Tim Walz is a certifiably unglued. https://shorturl.at/TPFWD