Back from the Abyss

It's time to move on

I know last week—a week that started with the debate (which included President Biden’s rough performance, Donald’s outright fascism, and the media’s insistence that only the former matters) and was capped off by a corrupt Supreme Court declaring my uncle above the law—felt like a perfect storm of horrible.

But we’ve had enough time to freak out. It’s clear that much of the corporate media is not on the side of democracy so we factor that in to every decision we make going forward. Today, Pres. Biden declared definitively that he’s running. We need to take him at his word, and pull together. We’ve got a lot of work to do.

The Supreme' Court’s immunity ruling was a chilling but compelling reminder that, while stopping Donald is our most immediate task, we also have to stop the people who enable him. They are arguably even more destructive to our country and, unlike Donald, their plans to dismantle our institutions go far beyond putting him back in the White House. Now that the Supreme Court has removed the guardrails, we need to factor in the need to build new ones. That starts by putting the same amount of care, attention, and energy into down-ballot races as we do the presidential race.

The only thing scarier than the idea of my uncle being in the Oval Office again is the idea of the Republicans controlling the Senate and the House of Representatives. Both, the House in particular, would very likely be filled with even more extreme sycophants who hate the Constitution with the same blind passion with which they hate women and minorities. All the worrying in the world won’t stop that from happening. 

Donald nominated three of the justices who overturned Roe v. Wade, destroyed the ability of federal agencies to do their jobs, and decreed the presidency a dictatorship, but he had no idea who Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, or Amy Coney-Barrett were. He was merely doing the bidding of people like Mitch McConnell and unelected officials like Leonard Leo, co-chair of the Federalist Society, and Kevin Roberts, president of the Heritage Foundation. It’s very likely that the next president will have the chance to replace Sam Alito (74) and Clarence Thomas (76). The idea of having two Federalist-Society-grown embryos put on the Court to ruin the lives of the next four generations of Americans is enough to make my head explode. The best way to prevent that is to hold the Senate—and, preferably, increase our margins so we can get rid of the filibuster, too, while we’re at it. 

As for the House of Representatives, imagine a Republican majority, with even more Gaetzes and Boeberts and Greenes rubber-stamping Donald’s agenda, going after his political enemies, and refusing to fund the war in Ukraine. They’ve already abandoned all pretense of working for the American people and have made it clear that they are devoted to working for my uncle instead. They want to be his retribution.

Versions of this are playing out in state houses and school boards where MAGA is spreading like a virus and leading to book banning, discrimination of the LGBTQ+ community, and the whitewashing of American history.

In times of chaos and uncertainty, it’s important to focus on two things: 1) Self-care — be good to yourself; take a break; and 2) control that which you can control.

We can’t control the Biden campaign. We can’t control Donald’s campaign. And, tragically, we can’t control the Supreme Court.

But we can control your own actions and our own decisions. As the saying goes, action is the antidote to anxiety. Adopt a race or two; pick an endangered Democratic senator or a vulnerable House Republican and go to work. Organize, make calls, write postcards, knock on doors, give if you can. It won’t make all the scary stuff go away, but it will give you agency and remind you that the future of this country is decided by its people, by us, not just the bad people. 

Of all the terrifying prospects we’re facing right now, apathy and uncertainty is just as much of a problem as anything Donald and his ilk are planning for a second term. Now that we know the Supreme Court has ensured Donald is free to operate outside the Constitution with impunity, we have to find other ways to stop him. 

The court has destroyed the guardrails. We have to build new ones. 

So let’s roll up our sleeves and get to work. Because together we can still save this country if we’re willing to do the work. 

The best way to secure democracy is to back the team that has led the greatest presidential administration in my lifetime: Team Biden/Harris.

Let’s go.