It’s Election Season

Here in the United States, when we start the month of September, we are going to hear all sorts of bloviating about the upcoming congressional elections.

You’re going to hear that it’s the midterm elections and that the party in power is more likely to lose seats in Congress. You’re going to hear how Biden’s agenda has bit the dust because of Joe Manchin and Kristen Sinema. You’re going to hear about how Republicans are frothing at the mouth so that they can reclaim the House and the Senate.

You’re going to hear (rightly) about the fall of democracy and how the Democratic Party isn’t doing anything about it.

You’re gonna hear about how young voters never turn out in midterm elections, but the far right is motivated and they’re going to keep doing what they want to do on the heels of overturning Roe vs. Wade.

You’re going to hear about how environmental regulations can’t be implemented, how Congress won’t pass the laws needed to turn around the climate emergency because no one is going to vote for this stuff in a midterm.

😱        And you know what’s going to happen, you are going to feel exhausted. You’re going to feel like tuning out.

😱        You’re going to feel like the political system can’t really do anything.

😱        You’re going to feel like we’re going to hell in a handbasket.

We could do this. We could give up. I often think that this is the point of this never-ending drum beat of bad news.

But it really doesn’t have to be that way.

So, let’s take a moment. Let’s take a moment and really think about what each of us can do to turn this around. Many of the people on this newsletter are actually teaching in colleges and universities around the world. You have regular contact with younger people, with younger voters. Through the content you teach, you can motivate people to get out there and vote. You can articulate what is at stake this election.

Many of you are lawyers on this list. You know what’s at stake here. You know that what you bust your *** doing I-don’t-know-how-many-years, and you know that that work can be overturned with a bunch of people who think that they have been dubbed king because they are on the Supreme Court.

You need to take out your megaphone and explain to people how politics impacts what everybody does in this world. Nobody knows it as clearly as you do.

☄️        Maybe this means that you need to be writing an email to people in your circles who have given up.

☄️        Maybe this means that you need to talk to people who need to register to vote end need rides to the polls.

☄️        Maybe this means that you volunteer in other states to make sure that this can happen.

We cannot give up.

What’s at stake is that life on earth will stop.

The climate doesn’t give a damn about our elections. But we can impact the climate.

The climate doesn’t give a damn about whether or not we can terminate pregnancies, but we know that this means everything, and women are going to have the power we need to do the right thing with the resources we have. And this means that we need to be able to control when and how we have children.

I’m tearing up as I write this.

The tears aren’t despair. I think I’m oddly hopeful.

And if this missive you can get a bunch of us organized and going, I have no doubt that we can prove the doomsayers wrong.

Let’s get out there.

Michelle

P.S. And don’t forgive to give money to the candidates who mean something to you.