A Pep Talk, A Recalibration
An opportunity, etc.
It doesn’t feel like 2008 anymore. But it’s not a carbon copy of 2016, either. Donald Trump is entering the White House more prepared, less surprised by his win, and with a sharper brand of chaos.
The richest man in the world made a publicized purchase of our president-elect and will remain the high-output chaos agent behind their institution-gutting operation. (Until the two malignant narcissists turn on each other like Siamese fighting fish in the same bowl, but that’s for another day.)
I’ve spent the last 24 hours in seasoned shock and a familiar flavor of grief, but I also feel more prepared to weather the next 4 years, one day at a time.
I’m drafting a ton for future newsletters but today I’m sharing thoughts and ideas from others that help and inform me at this moment.
This clip from The Daily sets the stage for some necessary introspection.
“Action absorbs anxiety.” — Dan Harris
And lots from other Substacks.
Here’s what I know: America voted, and America decidedly voted in favor of many candidates who were not my choice. Such is democracy. The American people have spoken. We may not like what they have to say, but that does not recuse us from listening. Here is what I hope we can do in this election’s aftermath: Not make each other bad. Not morally exclude. Not blame and shame. We will hear a lot about who is treasonous and who is at fault for this election in the coming weeks: White women, Latino men, Black men. All men. If life were only so simple that we could identify the “problem element” and eradicate it. But we are not problems to be solved, and the world is not ours to sanitize. Life certainly doesn’t always abide by our preferences—often, we get circumstances we do not want and would never choose. It’s what we do next that matters.
Allow me to suggest to you one concrete thing that you can do, in the event of a political catastrophe, that will actually matter: Join a union. If you, like most people, work a job that is not unionized, you should make it your project to organize and unionize that workplace.
Organize your job and form a union. Now you are part of the labor movement. Now you can participate democratically in an existing union that has resources and organizational capacity and, vitally, power. Labor power, which all working people have, rests in the ability to act collectively, and to make demands, and to strike in order to win those demands if necessary. The only way to tap into this enormous source of latent power is to unionize. Unions are inherently progressive. Not because they endorse a particular political party, but because the nature of the work they do is about empowering the working class and increasing equality and enabling regular people to stand up effectively to the power of capital, of the rich, of corporations, of unrestrained capitalism. When you win a union and sign a union contract it is not just an act of improving your own life and the lives of your coworkers; it is a battle won in the class war. And the political war that you are stressed about right now is, at its heart, a class war. We must build permanent institutions to fight that class war or it will be lost. The only permanent institution suited to this task is the labor movement.
Don’t look ahead too far. Answers will come.
Remind yourself that you’ve been through great periods and terrible ones and your intuition always kicks in.
We’ve had great presidents (FDR, Lincoln, Obama) and execrable ones (Andrew Johnson, Herbert Hoover, Donald Trump). The flag is still here.
Remember ... that you are a resident not just of the United States—but of your neighborhood, your city or town, your state, and the world. Concentrate on these other places where you live—locally and globally—and skip federal and national obsessions for awhile. New York City needs your help. Springfield, Ohio needs your help. Your block needs your help. As does Tanzania, Taiwan, Ukraine, and Gaza. Help your neighbors and help the globe and let the overhyped White House be.
Remember that you are a prism and have multiple aspects to you. Even whole, distinct personalities. One personality can be bereft, while another can be brave, a third can keep its equanimity, a fourth can cultivate irony and have fun, and a fifth can say fuck it and eat sandalwood candles.
America is not just one place. It’s a huge and diverse nation, and it’s frankly kind of unbelievable we’ve been able to hang it together for this long. Sometimes, this country does the incredible. And sometimes, it does the inconceivable. We’re a nation founded on slavery, that excluded the majority of the population from political participation and still called ourselves a democracy. And we’re a nation that has fomented movements for women’s rights, for racial justice, for LGBT equality. We’re a nation where a Black and South Asian woman, the daughter of immigrants, had a real shot at the presidency. And we’re a nation where she lost to a racist reality TV star.
We are a place in constant flux, and often in forward motion — and also a place that seems to return, again and again, to the darkest corners of our past.
You can’t pull all the usual Democrat tricks. You have to actually figure out what’s wrong with your party, root and branch. Because you called the guy a fascist, again, and he walked right through that insult to the Oval Office, again. And the eternal question presents itself: what are you going to do about it?
And from the unhinged but usually funny MCM Wholesale:
Til next time.