Hey everyone. I know a lot of you feel overwhelmed about everything that is going on, many of you are angry, sad, anxious and honestly, that’s part of the plan. A lot of us are angry at the electorate for not coming out or at MAGA for supporting the current guy in the White House, but factionalism is part of the plan, it’s always been part of the plan, part of the system.
And the best way to fight the system is sidestep it. And a major part of this system is the corruption of values. The best way to help fight that component of the system is displaying leadership in those values regardless of your faith. That means acts of charity, forgiveness, grace, visibly welcoming people into your community who are disenfranchised including recent MAGA defections and non MAGA Republicans. Instead of kicking anyone affected by recent events down, hold out a hand to help them up, because in the pre MAGA dystopian world, that’s what we did. That was the character of the Democratic Party and our Nation. And in the face of all the vitrol and anger and the insults not to mention flat out attempts at oppression, that can be hard. Part of MAGA’s strength revolves around gatekeeping. If you’re not MAGA enough, you are not part of the fold. So leaving MAGA, particularly in deeply red communities can mean losing your community and network.
Another way to fight, particularly in areas where you feel like a blue dot in a red sea, is to get together wit like-minded folks, live your best lives and help one another heal. Speak vocally about values without judgment and animosity. Say I believe in human rights, dignity for all, I believe in justice, liberty. Part of the animosity cycle is to cause us out of anger to show contradictory values. Be inclusive of people, but not all ideas. Men across the nation feel disenfranchised – and regardless of the truth of that, the reality is that can be manipulated. And honestly, I could probably make a solid argument that they are at least socially disenfranchised, that the bad apples often spoil the reputation of the whole batch. And if you don’t have a lot on your plate for your family, hearing someone tell you when you’re barely scraping by you have privilege rings hollow.
And do not treat people who disagree with you as intellectual inferiors or assume they are in line with what’s going on. I understand the economy is bad, times are tight and you feel like your place in the world is threatened are valid, empathetic responses to other people’s concerns. The worst piece of messaging I saw during the Harris/Waltz campaign was commercials encouraging women to secretly vote behind their husband’s back. I live in the South. That smacks of impropriety and infidelity and I live in FL-CD1 home to multiple military bases and veteran communities where infidelity is not taken lightly. Plus one of my friends, a Republican pointed out that the commercial was demeaning to the autonomy and self-determination of women in general. It was insulting, leaned into a stereotype of brainless southern women and didn’t answer real world questions like how do we keep people from going homeless or put food on our plates. She is a military officer, leadership trained and did not vote for the current Vice President Donald Trump.
Many of us have special causes we are interested in, but the truth is we need to articulate how providing support and protections for these causes benefits everyone in the nation. We also have to show the civil and economic benefits, which there are many. Environmental Justice and economic stability in less affluent neighborhoods lowers the temperature in those communities and helps reduce crime for example. Training the police in sensitivity not only helps marginalized people but also helps every women who has ever been pulled over by a police officer and made to feel uncomfortable. That’s half our population. And de-escalation training benefits everyone in Law Enforcement and the community as well.
Now if you are looking to take action, check out https://www.mobilize.us/ and if there are volunteer events in your community, they will appear there. The Valimont and Weil Campaigns have digital phone banking opportunities as do the Florida Democrats and the Democratic Black Caucus of Florida. If you are a minority or have experience with minority outreach, this may the mission for you: https://www.mobilize.us/mobilize/event/753600/
And join organizations like the Women League of Voters (https://www.lwv.org/), ACLU, NAACP or community support orgs like food banks and benevolence organization. Particularly in red districts, be a visible Democratic leader. When people in MAGA see your community growing, showing strength and leadership, they will begin to see the fallacies of the MAGA movement. Don’t flaunt, don’t preach, stick to and apply your values consistently and invite people to events. You could be concerned, afraid, scared, sad, angry, but do not let them see you bleed. When you go through life, living, leading and being your best self, building community, it reduces the efficacy of MAGA’s messaging of owning the libs, and the power it has to give the impression of having dominion over your lives. When something happens, don’t react immediately – they want you to. Step back, assess, watch whatever else is going on. Be careful with social media. The GOP media machines like to bait people in fights that aren’t real fights. I’ve read that FoxNews may have been actual initial propogater of the Woke movement.
I’m kind of an older person, but the first time I actually heard the word woke was coming out of Tucker Carlson’s mouth on on a Late Show. Don’t take the bait. Sometimes the correct response to these things is publicly saying, “I don’t know what he’s talking about – this is news to me” and tagging your Republican friends. And watch out for provocative branding. You’ll notice FoxNews likes to brand and relabel. I don’t think people in any community actually wanted to Defund the Police. We wanted a reallocation of resources and innovations in community policing and an increase of support services to help community thrive.
And be careful of your own echo chambers, particularly if you’re an activist. I’m a minority and my wife’s Latino and I have a ton of Latino extended family. I brought up in a forum that I think labeling people LatinX is a bad idea. I was told by a white activist I didn’t understand minorities. I identified myself as one and she said, well you don’t understand Latinos. I told her my wife is a Latino, my sisters (my wife’s sisters) are Latino, my father-in-law, my nearly a dozen nieces, their boyfriends and spouses and I guarantee if I called any one of them up and I asked them what LatinX is they would have no clue. There was someone active with the local Dems who had a Latin husband who said, I just asked my husband what LatinX was and he has no idea, but this person held her ground.
My mother-in-law is a former educator, active Democrat, watches Maddow religiously and at the time, she didn’t know. You have to be careful how you group people, it can be dehumanizing. I have a half-black daughter, part Asian, half Mexican kids and grew up in the South. When I heard black and brown people come out of Kamala Harris’s mouth during the Presidential debates, I was livid and I ran for State House as a Democrat. I’ve been told before I should identify as Asian American, which I don’t because I understand that are real hostile culture divisions in Asia. There are regions in Korea and China that were brutally occupied by Japan during World War II. And I’ve worked with people from around the world for over a decade. Were not culturally the same. In India alone there are almost 20,000 dialects of 121 languages spoken on the continent. And to me, these attempts always felt like trying to force a political identity on different minority populations for political simplicity and expediency. Which party does that sound like?
But above all else, do not give up. This is the time for courage, for bravery and persistence. This is the time to keep getting up whenever we get knocked down, this is a time for raising our voices and creating conversations, not arguments in our local community. Say you stand with disenfranchised civil servants, recognize that Democrats work in government too. Look for opportunities to organize and lend your support to candidates. The truth is you cannot wait for your candidates and elected officials to step up. They need you to go to them, tell them what your community needs and ask – how do I help? And donate. Donate and donate and donate, particularly at the local level. When you donate directly to a Congressional campaign, you give them the autonomy to choose their own messaging. Some of you who’ve seen me here know this link is coming . . . You can donate to three active races here: (https://secure.actblue.com/donate/tripleplay)
You want to superpower your district and donate a large sum? Donate to your local Democrats. Right now we need word of mouth organization to get out the vote, get people to run for office.
And right now, get people you trust to run for Sherriff. You want good people with principals and values to be in control of local law enforcement during times like these, to set standard for leadership and community care. These races often go completely uncontested, particularly in red districts. Pay attention to state attorney general races. In Florida, Nikki Fried now Head of the Florida Democrats made strong use of state power as the Commissioner of Agriculture. We need people to run everywhere and contest all positions.
This does four things:
1) This spreads out the GOP’s resources if they want to contest fights
2) It shows that Democrats are a force to be reckoned with
3) It shows local Democrats that there are people willing to lead them and for them to rally with, find community and grow around
4) It spreads values
Don’t run on unprobable causes. Focus on the issues in your community and have people continually come forward with the ability to execute on, show and articulate values, it shows that the Democratic party is engaged locally, cares about everyone as a constituency and is effective. We can’t say we are the party of inclusion if we don’t run everywhere and show that we are interested in the health, success, safety and well-being of everyone in the areas we run. I held off running in 2022 because there was another candidate who decided to run on if I remember correctly abortion in a district containing Matt Gaetz’s hometown 1) because I was swamped and 2) I didn’t want to primary a candidate.
Well this candidate didn’t even make the ballot. I would have paid the registration and fees because I knew I could probably help get out the vote, am an active member of the community and known to multiple organizations. I found out two days past the due date.
And when I ran though, and I knew I was likely to lose – my opponent was a purple heart former Brigadier General and my district was literally next to the world’s largest Air Force Base – there is a road in Fort Walton Beach named after him – a Democratic councilwomen came up to me and admitted she donated to his campaign he was so well liked – I still found many valuable things. The county I ran in was the largest politically shifting county in Florida to Blue. Minorities in the county came out because they knew someone was advocating for them in the area. This was also during the Black Lives Matter movement. There are entire communities of people out there who resonate with leadership and then go on to take action on their own. And in non-Presidential seasons, bids for city hall, councils, county seats can be much more attainable, even in places like Matt Gaetz’s home county.
All this, everything that is being done right now boils down to a wanton willingness to promote a lack of certainty and agency within our population. If you are thinking of going to a mass protest at your state capital, what if you showed up to a campaign, organized a committee or volunteer group. What if you all spent some of that money by raising money and donating to the ACLU? Join the League of Women Voters. Donate to your local PFLAG or the national one because God knows LGBTQ+ folks including children need the support of our nation right now. Try to unionize in places that are disruptive. Organize donation drives for local food pantries, Democratic clubs, join local Democratic clubs.
If you don’t like the candidates coming out of Democratic clubs locally, join the club, consider a run. You can effect a lot of change as a losing candidate, but if you run, always go all in. This helps promote the Democrats as leaders and not people interested in what the other side considers niche concerns, particularly in the face of a looming economic crisis. And don’t give up hope. They worst thing for MAGA right now is we all project values and leadership in the middle of a crisis and with unity. There is so much power in simply saying to anyone who needs it, Hi I’m John, I’m a Democrat and I’m here to help – what do you need to make your life better? What do you need to make it more secure?