All Is Not Lost

I wrote a post about some of my thoughts as I looked at the harsh reality we all now face in the aftermath of this election. I had many people write to me, both men and women, young and old, that expressed their fear and asked me, “What do we do? I feel so helpless.” Many of them begging for an answer; one that I could not give.

It hurt my heart to hear that so many Americans feel helpless and hopeless. And, why wouldn’t they? Our CIA has reported that Russia influenced our election, and not only that, launched an extensive effort to saturate the American public with fake news and propaganda. In addition to the CIA’s findings, we now have the FBI saying that they also believe that Russia was behind the hacks of the DNC and John Podesta.

And yet, there doesn’t seem to be much outrage or outcry coming from our leadership. In fact, in one poll, many Republicans changed their opinion on Vladimir Putin, who is most certainly not a friend of the United States, to be more favorable. This is not normal. This Russian hack was a direct attack on our democracy and our country.

If all of this had come out after the election it might not be as baffling. However, it didn’t. Secretary Clinton’s campaign and the Obama administration both addressed the public and informed them that Russia was compromising our security in an effort to influence our election long before November 8th. Instead of extensively reporting on this, the media spent an abnormal, obnoxious amount of time covering Secretary Clinton’s emails. And, sadly, many Americans did hear the warnings, ignored the alarm and voted for our President-elect anyway. These Americans included members of our own government; members of Republican leadership that decided to turn a blind eye and care more about winning than protecting our country and constitution. Yes, the very party that continually hides behind “patriotism” is the same one that knew of foreign influence in a presidential election and decided to remain silent.

So, when we know all of this to be true and we continually have emails popping up in our inbox asking us, the people, to fight and donate money, why would we be motivated to? Why should the people rise time and time again when our own leadership has shown us that they have no problem remaining seated? We, the people, showed up on November 8th and voted for Secretary Clinton. We voted for the candidate that was qualified and prepared with steady hands. We lost. We did rise in the days after the election by donating to organizations that will be under constant attack under a Trump presidency including Planned Parenthood, the ACLU, Sierra Club, The Trevor Project and more. Many took to the streets to express their disbelief and their horror. We did rise to help our fellow citizens that were being subjected to intimidation and hate throughout the country. However, many of those same Americans that always answer the call to rise feel like their government has been still.

Every American has the right to be angry and has the right to question their government. It doesn’t make you a sore loser, it doesn’t make you unpatriotic (in fact, questioning foreign influence and refusing to sit by and do nothing is patriotic and in alignment with our values), and it doesn’t make you a candidate for relentless harassment and abuse. However, the Americans that are standing up are being subjected to harsh ridicule and relentless harassment.

When we look at the full scope of Russian influence and combine it with the terrifying reality we have in a Trump administration, many people are disengaged, horrified, and overwhelmed by the injustice and corruption. We have a President-elect that doesn’t have time to attend or schedule intelligence briefings but has time to complain about Vanity Fair because they gave his restaurant a bad review, complain about Alec Baldwin on SNL, have a photo-op with Kanye West, discredit our intelligence agencies, continue to defend Russia, continue his victory tour where we still hear crowds screaming “lock her up”, and blatantly lie.

We’re also seeing a clear abuse of power in North Carolina, where Republicans have moved to strip newly elected, Democrat Roy Cooper of his power. How and why is this being allowed to happen?

It’s clear right now in our country that many in leadership are discrediting our voices and our votes. And to circle back around to the beginning of this post: what can we do about it? I can tell you what we cannot do. We cannot disengage, we cannot normalize this behavior, we cannot allow ourselves to lose sight of our morals and our values, and we cannot lose our voices. We, the American people, have always risen and we’ve always reached for progress even if the journey was long and tedious.

We need to reclaim our confidence, our power, and our right to vocalize our concern. If we want to move forward, we can’t put all of our hope in the Electoral College. We must put hope in ourselves and our party. The first step is dusting ourselves off. The second is seeing that dust for what it is, which is the aftermath of the mess that happened on November 8th. and not allowing it to circle and collect around us. We need to show up for the midterms in 2018. We need to mobilize, engage, and focus on state races so that we can strengthen and rebuild our party.

The future seems dark now but I firmly believe that the light will always find the smallest crack. We can move forward from this. We can continue to rise above the injustice. However, it must be done together and our energy must be directed toward the right efforts. Now, more than ever, we must fight for the Democratic Party. We need to stop buying what the media is selling. Secretary Clinton won the popular vote and the majority of Americans stood with her and her platform. Let’s use that powerful reminder as fuel as we work hard for the next few years to make sure we elect people that will fight for our progressive values.