7 Days
And the news is coming fast and furious.
There are seven days until the election. And the news is coming fast and furious, isn’t it? My brain wants to rationalize and say this is like other elections that I have been worried about. That no matter the outcome, in the big grand scheme, it won’t mean that much and we will, as a country, adjust and carry on.
And yet.
This isn’t a normal election, is it? This weekend, Trump held a rally at Madison Square Garden where, to warm up the audience, a comedian made horrifically racist jokes,1 Stephen Miller declared that “America is for Americans and Americans only” and multiple speakers referred to Kamala in racist and crude terms. Unfortunately, these messages are carefully calculated and designed to bring out the worst in people in order to win an election.2 They tap into a very human, very primal but very ugly instinct.
And they just might work.
I have family and friends who consider themselves conservative who are planning to vote for Trump and those who consider themselves progressive and are planning to vote 3rd party or not at all. Each one has very personal reasons for doing so - the reasons they tell themselves and use to distance themselves from the ugliness and reality of Trump’s rhetoric and authoritarian tendencies.
In many ways, I get it. I was in my own place of denial before Biden’s debate performance. I had concerns about his age, but chose to ignore those misgivings. I chose to not look too close (I easily dismissed criticism as selective editing or partisan politics and read what he said rather than watching or listening).. That is until I couldn’t ignore it any more (at which point I emailed my senators and other elected officials urging them to get Biden to not run.)
Unfortunately, Americans (and Republicans especially) have gotten really good at ignoring their misgivings about Trump.3 Denying that he is saying what he is saying and that he will do what he says he will do, makes it easier to justify voting for him. Buying into his alternate reality that the election was stolen, immigrants are “eating cats and dogs”, Russia would never have invaded Ukraine and the biggest lie of all—that he alone can fix it—makes it easier to not only support him, but to feel righteous in doing so.
The problem is that we live in the reality we live in and, when it comes to Trump, you get to pick and chose what you get. If you vote because you think your taxes will be lower or the economy will somehow be better, you are also sending a message that the racist messaging and unconstitutional threats are ok and that January 6th was not the dealbreaker it should be. You are signaling your approval of someone who encourages people to distrust our democracy with the result that people now seem to think it is ok to set ballot boxes on fire and harass election workers. This is how it works - it is a package deal.4
I woke up this morning feeling utterly exhausted. As someone who cares deeply about this country and our elections process. As the parent of a young adult trans kid I love dearly. As a woman who is horrified at the idea that the government should get a say in what happens with my body. As a history nerd who sees the similarities with other not-so-great points in our history and can’t believe that this kind of rhetoric might be working again.5
This election truly could go either way, which makes my heart hurt. We won’t know until election day which electorate shows up (which shows the limitations of polling). Truth is that Trump's strategy of targeting "low-propensity voters" and putting Elon in charge of voter turnout could look brilliant or it could completely crash and burn when the potential voters they are targeting don’t show up. Same with Kamala's strategy of trying to make the tent as big as she can and appealing to as many people in as many ways as she can. We just won't know until the votes are tallied.
And maybe that is a good thing? It means that the only thing we can do is put our heads down and look ways we can help. For me, that has meant writing postcards and working locally to elect pro-housing members in the Alexandria City Council race. And of course voting.
I’ll also be working as an election officer on Election Day, doing my part in making sure that the election goes off as smoothly as possible. Something that I highly recommend! Going through election training and seeing how much effort and care goes into running an election truly does my heart good. Not to mention it will be a good distraction.
So this is where I am a week before the election. Surprisingly not disheartened but cautiously hopeful. The energy and excitement I am seeing as folks come out to do their part to make this happen makes me feel good about our country, no matter how the vote turns out. The odds that we pull this off are just as good as the odds that we don’t. And that is where I am placing my faith and what I am using to keep myself grounded.
At the very least, next week, we will know where we stand and will go from there. Here’s hoping that all the organizing and care that I am seeing in support of this incredibly messy country I truly love makes a difference.
At Madison Square Garden, Trump Deals a MAGA Dopamine Rush - found this take by Tressie McMillan Cottom about the appeal of what Trump is offering to be an interesting one
Jon Stewart on Trump's McDonald's Shift & His "Enemy Within" Threat - sometimes a Jon Stewart righteous rant hits the spot & I found this one extremely cathartic.
Donald Trump Says He Will: Believe Him - Pretty good summary of what is at stake and why: “His rallies offer a steady stream of such promises and threats — things like prosecuting political opponents and using the military against U.S. citizens. These statements are so outrageous and outlandish, so openly in conflict with the norms and values of American democracy that many find them hard to regard as anything but empty bluster. We have two words for American voters: Believe him.”
Terror in the Heartland by Timothy Egan - fascinating look at another time when racist rhetoric made real political gains in our country. I find history (and its reminder that we as a country have gone through hard times) can be very comforting.