This will be short.
Most of the damage that we might have tried to avert years ago — to the earth, to the poorest around the world, to the once-proud legacy of our nation— has already been done, or will be done soon. We can now only hope to slow global warming; we can now only hope to mitigate the impacts greed has had on the poorest and most vulnerable; we can now only hope to create subheadings of compassion and character amidst a legacy increasingly dominated by selfishness and cruelty.
Electing more and better democrats is not the answer, and not because elected democrats are bad; but because that is no longer enough. It is also not the answer to simply get rid of Trump, or Pence, or the Koch brothers, or whoever it is we’ve decided is the “enemy” who caused all these problems — because these problems existing long ago, and aren’t going anywhere.
There is no end-game here that can be reached by an election result. There is only a call. Each of us must find a way to do as much good as we can for as long as we can. This means we work for justice — in good times and bad. This means we speak out against tyranny in all it’s forms — no matter who perpetrates it. This means that we stand up for those who suffer — no matter what the color of their skin, or their state.
This means that we march, and that we never stop marching. If republicans or democrats, or socialists or libertarians gain the upper hand, We don’t stop marching. Hell, If Mother Theresa comes back from the dead with Jesus Christ as her running mate, and wins in a landslide, we don’t stop marching. There’s too much at stake, and too much that we already lost because we complacently sat down, content with how the end of the game was going to go when our friends and neighbors from South Chicago to Charleston, West Virginia, from Aleppo to Dhaka were suffering, and our planet died a little more each day.
So, do your thing, the way your heart leads you — for someone, or something, else. Keep marching. Keep working. Keep hoping and creating as much as you can. Tell your political leaders that they have to do the same thing, all the time, as much as they possibly can.
Because someday, in the future, in some place where we can’t see, we will have created life that otherwise would have not been there, and some part of us will be redeemed.