Grieve? Hell Yeah! Roll Over? No Effing Way!

...Not a Time to Despair...lick your wounds, breathe deeply, then buck up and move on

I suspect you — like me — were deeply disappointed, but not surprised when the results started coming in Tuesday night. I had spent the day in a dual role as a poll greeter handing out literature for Democratic candidates and as a VOTER PROTECTION volunteer at a very red polling place in south-central PA, and it was not encouraging.

Got a number of snide remarks, dismissive looks and “discussions” about the state of the economy¹ and about Democrats in general. I got the distinct impression that Democrats in that locale keep their heads down. So I was glad to be showing the flag in unfriendly territory.

But as the night wore on depression set in, lasting well into Wednesday. By Thursday morning I was over the initial disappointment and reflecting on what had led us to this point. A point where more than half of the voters in this country lapped up the sewer sludge spewed by an insurrectionist and aspiring autocrat, and handed him the keys…

…because they weren’t informed enough or smart enough to seek out and act on facts. Or maybe because that aspiring autocrat gave voice to their own hatred, ignorance, racism, and stupidity.

It’s hard to swallow…but

Take Time to Lick the Wounds and Breathe Deeply…

…because dwelling on those thoughts is too debilitating and self-poisoning. Step back, relax…rest up before mulling over how to react next.

Here are a few items that helped elevate my mood and bolster my to do what I can when the time comes.

An old friend’s FB post: “I guess it’s time for mending fences. During hard and depressing times, my sanctuary has always been art.”

…Find your sanctuary for awhile to rest and recharge. Maybe it’s art, or meditation, or hard physical work, or playing with the kids. Perhaps its volunteer work for a local non-profit.

Recharge, get your energy back. There’s time later for contemplating resistance.

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Sometimes a little humor helps, even if it is black humor…Jimmy Kimmel had some things to say…with humor and deadly seriousness.

…if you REALLY want to be non-plussed, be sure to watch starting at 13:04, when he talks to voters about voting on Wednesday, November 6. Are these the “low propensity voters” the Trump campaign was working so hard to find? Apparently they missed these folks.

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…And when you are about ready to be re-inspired…have a listen to Sam in “The Two Towers” from “Lord of the Rings.”

Now…

…Buck Up and Move On

Inevitably though, we need to build a resistance because — as conservative Never-Trumper Bill Kristol wrote in The Bulwark today:

…Trump has won. The Trumpist planning to deploy the federal government on behalf of America First policies abroad and the Project 2025 agenda at home is underway. The efforts to change, even transform, our governing institutions and many others are about to begin. And so the planning for it has to begin. And not just the planning. The actual organizing, the actual accountability, the actual pushback has to begin as well…

What that means for each of us depends on a lot of things. For some it is using your professional skills to fight the injustice and defend the threatened. For others it’s speaking up and emboldening others to do so as well. It can be joining a demonstration in opposition to the “regime.”

Some of us are office-holders who have considerable power and resources to resist. And already Democratic governors in four states — CA, IL, WA and NY — have begun to prepare for anticipated Trump/MAGA assaults.

…Democratic leaders in at least three state capitals have begun mobilizing to push back against potential Republican policies on issues like reproductive health and the environment.

In California, Gov. Gavin Newsom called lawmakers on Thursday into a legislative special session next month “to safeguard California values and fundamental rights in the face of an incoming Trump administration.”

In Illinois, Gov. JB Pritzker said on Thursday he would ask his state’s legislators, possibly as soon as next week, to address potential threats from a second Trump term. “You come for my people,” Mr. Pritzker said at a news conference, “you come through me.”…In Washington, Bob Ferguson, the attorney general and governor-elect, said on Thursday he hoped not to take an adversarial role. But he said that his legal team had been preparing for months in anticipation of a second Trump term, including a line-by-line review of the Project 2025 plans touted by Mr. Trump’s allies. “I hope to God, I pray that things we are talking about don’t come to pass,” Mr. Ferguson said.

The announcements echoed a vow on Wednesday by Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York to “honor” the election results and to try to work with Mr. Trump, but also to fight any efforts to curtail reproductive freedoms, expand gun rights or curb environmental regulations. At a news conference, Ms. Hochul addressed Mr. Trump directly: “If you try to harm New Yorkers or roll back their rights, I will fight you every step of the way.” — NY Times, “Leaders in Democratic States Begin Planning to Fight Trump Policies”

We can all do something, large or small…but all are important.

I will end with this recollection from Jonathan V. Last in The Bulwark about “never give up, never give in, keep working:

Sports metaphors are unequal to this moment. But even so, I can’t stop thinking about Andre Agassi.

At the 2005 U.S. Open, Agassi was 35 years old and near the end of his career. In the quarterfinals he ran into a young James Blake, who was having a monster season. Blake dominated the first two sets; Agassi’s back was killing him. He could barely walk. Then Agassi rallied. He took the third set. Then the fourth. Agassi went down a break in the fifth, but came back to win a tie-break in one of those magical late-night matches that stretched into the early morning.

During the post-match interview a reporter asked Agassi what he did to turn the match around and he replied, matter-of-factly, “I don’t have the answers, I don’t pretend that I do just because I won the match. Just keep fighting and maybe something good happens.”

That’s the only answer we can have. We keep fighting. And maybe something good happens.

1. My favorite? Responding to a Trump supporter who asked how I liked the price of gas. Told her that in the low 3’s it’s about what it’s been for years; her response was “At this time in 2020 it was $2.11.” I told her “At this time in 2020 we were deep into Covid and no one was driving anywhere; you couldn’t give gas away.” (I checked later and found that indeed, the national average price of regular was indeed $2.11 on 11/5/2020. At least she’d done her homework, albeit using the data without acknowledging pretty important context.