Fight with Love

A mere few days ago, we watched as John McCain voted “heck yes” to push the the Obamacare repeal through to a vote. The liberal universe cursed his name. Today, the opposite after watching him vote “heck no.” It goes this way all the time, all hate and vitriol until something changes.

Nine months ago we (liberals) sat in front of our screens dumbfounded that Hillary lost the election. We — well, many of us — talked about being in a bubble. We talked about listening. We talked about the good fight and how we’d always win that one.

Today, we’re right back in that bubble. Pointing our fingers at the “others.” Hating them until they prove us wrong (if we even can put our pride aside for a second to let them do so).

But here is how you fight the good fight and win it: you have to fight FOR what you believe and not against something else. Don’t show up to a women’s march with an anti-DT sign and tell me you’re full of love, that you’re fighting the good fight — because you’re not. You’re fighting for yourself and only yourself. We get it: DT is the absolute worst. We know you (literal and metaphorical sign holder) hate him — but what does that do to further the good fight? Show up at a women’s march with your sign that is pro-equality, or something else you are fighting FOR. Same for science and whatever else that gets you out of bed and fired up in the morning.

Because there will always be DTs. Everywhere. And sometimes he will — yes, it’s crazy — be president. And sometimes he will be your asswipe coworker who pulls down the team and never seems to be punished for his wrongdoings. And sometimes he will be a spouse that you figure out you shouldn’t have married. Or a boss or whoever. The point is, if we put our love or hate into individual figures or groups, rather than the issues, then we have nothing to root us. And you can’t fight the good fight without some really strong roots.

Where is the love? If John McCain’s “yes” can make folks spew nastiness, and a few days later his “no” can make those same people all giddy and feel full of “forgiveness,” then we aren’t doing this whole fighting thing in an effective, sustainable way. We cant be reeds in the wind. We can be disappointed. But why spend energy being nasty? What good comes out of hating *anyone* or *any* group. Let’s take out some glasses and look at politics for what it really is: a circus. A circus that sometimes works and often doesn’t, regardless of who the ringmaster is. No president has been perfect because they are all humans, and humans working in a very broken system, at that.

I’m challenging myself to pop the bubble, to see differently like the harrowing day after the election. I’m sick of riding a wave that I don’t need to ride. My emotions, judgements and causes I fight for are not inextricably tied to politics, the tides of which will continue to ebb and flow. I stand for universal human rights. I stand for unity. I stand for peace. I stand for love. I stand for respect. I stand for choice. And I will always fight FOR those things, whether with my vote or walking down the street and helping someone in need. And as for the party that is letting us down in many/most ways? We’ve got their number. We get it. It’s mind-blowingly shitty. We don’t need to re-post it and re-play it and bathe in the shit. Don’t add to it. Instead, fight FOR something. Oh, and if we fight FOR what we believe, the fight will last; we will sustain it because it will be in our hearts. It will be ours, not theirs.

Election cycles will come and go. The good fight will always be here. So let me ask: what do you stand for?

with love and gratitude,

e.

a san francisco year

Written by

emily mitnick // one millennial’s musings and meditations on a big life move