By Daniel Franco
“Hope for a better world. Hope for a better tomorrow. Hope will never be silent! You gotta give ’em hope!!” – Harvey Milk
Nothing ever ends.
America thought it had defeated bigotry in 1864, yet; it came back. America thought that going to the Moon in 1969 would lead the world into a glorious future of jetpacks and monorails. Yet Neo-Liberalism and Libertarianism put a slow painful end to those goals. Still we go on. Still we try to build a better nation, a better planet. Triumph or setback, the work goes on.
Right at this moment, we all have our doubts.
This week’s SCOTUS events give us brand new reasons to worry. Please keep in mind that we’ve defeated these cretins at least 3 times already in American history. Woodrow Wilson was a friggin’ Klansmen! He was far more effective at doing “official evil” than Donny ever could hope to be. But his effects were not lasting, and by the time of FDR the harm he’d done to the government was mostly remedied. Not all of history is bad, not all of it points to evil triumphing. That’s not much to go on, but it’s not nothing, either.
We who believe in the idea of a melting pot, who revere the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, we are the true majority. It’s not obvious because bad news (from a vocal minority) fills the headlines. But we are. Most of America does not want the hate-filled Theocracy and Plutocracy that the current MAGA goons are trying to shove down our throats. We the majority are called to use all our talents to motivate voters and protect the vote counts, so that a clear and un-deniable result will be shown. The Republic will survive these small-minded ghouls. Democracy will survive these wannabe tyrants. Ask yourself what you can do, now, to help ensure it.
Not one of us is powerless, all of us can be role models to others. Some of us can work to prevent the darkness. Some of us can work to shorten the darkness. And some will tend the fire. All roles matter. Even those of us who can only tend to the fire are valuable to the struggle. We’re not all born to race into the arena swinging a big rhetorical sword. That’s fine, because there is much to be done, and most of the work is not glamorous or even dangerous. We have four months.
Let’s get to it.