Oh No You Don’t

Ep 42 Listeners’ Most Memorable Teena... Squeezing the Juice Out of the Semester

Oh No You Don’t

Here’s what you are not going to do.

You are not moving to Canada.

Or New Zealand, or Portugal, or Sweden, or any of the other countries you Googled when you saw that Stacey Abrams lost, or that Andrew Gillums lost, or – I can’t believe I am typing this – Beto O’Rourke lost to someone from Slytherin.

It is infuriating and heartbreaking. I do not minimize the dashed hopes and pain.

But did you really think that white supremacy and the patriarchy were going to lie back and take it in 2018, just because that’s what they’ve been telling the rest of us all these years and we finally sat up and got mad and pushed back? Girl, please. They haven’t even begun to fight yet. This was just a warmup.

Here’s the thing they didn’t plan for, though. All of us who morphed from dutiful voter in, say, 2008, to phone banker in 2012, to canvasser in 2016, to DEMOCRACY DEFENDER WHO IS CANVASSING, PHONE BANKING, DONATING ALL MY MONEY, AND BAKING COOKIES FOR POLL WORKERS FOR GOOD MEASURE IN 2018. Do you want to bet against where we’re willing to do for a more just and equitable future for America in 2020? I wouldn’t. It probably involves a cape and a jet pack.

They didn’t plan for the first openly gay governor to take office in Colorado. The first queer Native American woman to represent Kansas in Congress. The first Muslim woman to head to Congress. The first black Congresswoman from Massachusetts to be elected. And Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez will be the youngest woman ever headed to the House. The number of women heading to the House smashed records. Congress suddenly (and about a hundred years later than it should have) is starting to look like you and me. That matters.

Also, if you are at all like me, you are not just familiar with the candidates up and down the ballot in your county and state. You know the names of candidates who ran in districts far from you, because you donated to them, or you phone banked for them, or someone you know and love did that. I could not have told you as recently as 2016 who the candidates were in TX 31st, or NY 27th, or California’s 10th district. This year, I not only know, but I’ve read position papers. Even if I can’t vote for them, I’m pretty sure this is the model of democracy that the founders were hoping for.

And it’s not just us. I went to vote on Tuesday and the person who verified my identity was a 17-year-old girl I’ve been driving in high school carpool for three years. (Looking very natty in her business-casual jacket, I must say.) The person feeding ballots into the machine was my former agent who told me she had to do SOMETHING to preserve democracy. My friend Liz took her young son to hand out water and snacks to people waiting in line to vote, and he told her he’d do it again any time. My daughter peeled off six very precious pounds from the Guinness budget to mail in her absentee ballot from her semester abroad in Dublin. My friend Heather basically set up a nonstop slumber party/phone bank at her house for the last week before the election. As I was leaving it Monday night, having done calls to Georgia on behalf of Black Voters Matter, the high school debate team was showing up to do their round of calls.

We’re different than we were. We’re tougher. We’re more capable. Less idealistic.

You know this is going to take time, and money, and protests, and calls to our representatives. But we already know how to do all that stuff. That’s the bright side of 2016-2018: we got tons of practice at throwing sand in the gears. Now it’s just more of the same, and louder. Standing up for the vulnerable. Demanding truth and justice. Refusing to allow anger and fear win over love and kindness. Channeling the determination of the Americans who fought for civil rights and equality, as we face our own 21st century challenges that seek to keep us from a more perfect union.

I’m glad we’re in it together. I’d miss you if you went to Canada.

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