Everyday Election Activism

An Insider's Guide (#11) - December 27, 2024

The World Is On Fire, But We Do Not Need to Be!

The year is winding down, although the incoming administration and much of the world have not gotten the memo. Where I live, nature has shut down and some animals hibernate, but humans are bad at both of these.

Whether I pay close attention to the news or not, I can not escape its vibrations. It is hard to fully rest, even as my meeting calendar goes blank. In American political news, each new plan hatched by the MAGA world and its corporate, nationalist, or billionaire allies comes as a shock. Every time a media outlet withers in the face of difficult truths, my neurons fire out of control. Every jolt is a blow to my spirits that triggers anger and anxiety. It spreads until unrelated frustrations and small annoyances erupt into grumpiness. Each internal storm may last a few hours, maybe longer. If fear wakes me up at three in the morning, it may take an hour to will myself back to sleep.

The thing is, that after I stew for a while, I find my calm again. It keeps happening, it’s a pattern I can rely on. The news settles in, and the emotions abate. I recover my good cheer. The scary news leaves my body and is tossed into the mental bucket I call ’THE PROJECT 2025 S**TSHOW.’ Once it is in the bucket, I stop feeling like the world is on fire, even though of course it is. The world is on fire.

I am getting used to this cycle - upset feelings and then the quiet. Once calmed down, I can contemplate my next moves, which sometimes means no moves at all. The cycle is even becoming bearable (except when it is not).

What calms me down? Some people calm themselves by evoking gratitude. That is a part of what I do. I am endlessly grateful for being alive and safe, for having family and friends, and for being a witness to the beauty of this planet. But that is not enough to distill worry into cheerfulness. What I rely on is my faith that even in the darkness of winter, the buds are already prepared for the inevitability of spring blossoms.

I suppose it is some combination of pragmatism and optimism, but I see plenty of opportunities for resisting Project 2025 and for developing a pro-democracy opposition that resonates with the majority of Americans. Despite our doubts, the Republicans need buy-in (or silence) from Americans to achieve their goals, and we can try our damnedest to keep that from happening, too.

I do not see how Americans can be broken by one election or by a handful of bullies. Are our spirits crushed? No, not by a long shot. Are there risks to resisting? Yes. Will that stop us? No, not as long as we gather in the wisdom from the past and present. These will be our last harvest of the year, and they will keep us going into 2025 and beyond.

Wisdom from the Past

We can gain insight into our struggles by studying previous activist movements, so many of which persisted for decades and even centuries. Read the history of the anti-slavery movement, the women’s suffrage movement, or the civil rights movement. Learn about the long road Native Americans have traveled to demand respect for their cultures and adherence to treaties that our government signed. Think about the decades of activism that led to marriage equality. Take note of how long it has taken for every large shift in the direction of our country.

The past teaches us that activists through the ages look for openings, work on small steps, bring in more people, hold to the vision, and never give up. Each victory is a stepping stone towards greater wins. Each victory builds momentum. Without activism, we would have no momentum at all.

The past shows us that it is always, and only the activists who have moved our country forward. Activists can force the hand of government, and convert hesitant leaders into bold innovators. The struggles of activists seem impossible until they aren’t.

Perhaps these statements seem cliché, but the 2024 election has deposited us into new territory, and we are gradually grasping that these clichés apply to us! Our political struggle to save democracy is just begun, and it will extend well beyond the next presidency. The activists who came before us help us understand where we stand in history, and teach us that we can make a difference, if we never give in or give up. They teach us that it is up to us. Only we can make change happen.

Wisdom from the Present

We are not without strength even now, although I do not think we feel it yet. Our power is not reflected back to us in the media. The news only reports what is being done to us and in our name. Activist organizations applaud us, point out the bright spots, and emphasize how much they have accomplished with our help. We understand their points, but it is hard to feel the juice when we are mostly on idle, fuming, and waiting with dread for the new year.

What about our current conditions can possibly give us strength? Believe me, there is much to encourage us if we zoom out and see the bigger picture.

• We are too many to quash. Our pro-democracy movement is too spread out geographically, too decentralized. There is a multitude of pro-democracy organizations and informal activist groups. We have too many new alternative media outlets, too many courageous reporters who aren’t going anywhere. We have too many leaders who are modeling the courage we need - long-time activists, progressive Democrats in Congress and state government (along with a few Republicans), experienced political operatives and civil rights attorneys, and a burgeoning number of writers flocking to Substack and other online platforms.

• We have organizations founded and led by Blacks, Native Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders who continue the traditions of resistance, movement-building, and the long history of self-advocacy. These organizations have much to teach about what resilience, the slow build-out of power, and the beauty of solidarity and community can look like today.

• We have opportunities to build support for the Democratic Party by making sure that President Biden and Democrats in Congress get credit where credit is due. For instance, new jobs continue to be created from funds in the Inflation Reduction Act, Chips and Science Act, and Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. The impact of this landmark legislation is not yet visible in our communities, but the benefits will be more obvious in the coming years. We can make sure voters know this.

There is a lot of power embedded in these four points, and none is dependent on the behavior of the Republicans. Compared to other countries that have fallen into authoritarianism, the United States has a strong history of democratic ideals and a substantial, not-going-anywhere set of democratic organizations inside and outside of government. Plus, for better or worse, Americans do not like being told what to do!

Our power is there, and we are poised to put it into action. We are clear and united about what we want. We are on the same page about how to get there: resist the destruction of our democratic institutions, win elections, protect vulnerable groups, and rebuild belief in the power of good government.

We also have numbers - all the people who have stepped into the fight since 2016 and new people ready to get involved. Close to where I live, two in-person groups have launched since the election, and local online groups are energized as new people join. Friends are inviting friends. Activists are building relationships and prioritizing community-building. The same is happening around the country. There are literally millions of us who care deeply, and many of those millions are called to take action. With the growing movement come new ideas and creative innovation.

The Wisdom of Non-Urgency

Wisdom of the past and the present will support us as we create our path forward, but there is one more lesson to learn. It is about urgency. Urgency has been the name of the game for me the past few years. Turning out voters for the 2024 election (and supporting others to do the same) became my mission. As months passed, it felt like a race against time to reach as many people as possible. Every day the need to do something pressed down on me. Do something, anything, figure out the best way to have impact, keep at it! By October I was exhausted. I couldn’t wait for the election to be over.

In hindsight, the exhaustion was telling. I was not worn out by the number of hours I put in. I was never a full-time activist, and I took breaks. Mostly I got enough sleep. The problem was that the election lived inside me, and I felt I could not fully relax until we won.

But we didn’t win. After November 5, I had to regroup. What now? Was I not allowed to relax ever again? Was it still okay to be happy? It took me a minute, but the answer was clear. I can not tie my state of mind to the outcome of an election, or even to the state of the country. I have known this for a long time, but now was the time to apply the lesson of non-urgency.

The topic of urgency brought me back to what I learned years ago from Stephen Covey. (You may know his book on time management, Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.) One point that has stuck with me is the distinction he makes between what is important and what is urgent.

• What is important: Something is important if I value it. When I am clear about my values, I set my goals to prioritize what is important. When I keep my values front and center, I feel good about myself and about my life, even when the goals are not immediately attainable. This seems like a good way to approach life, and activism.

• What is urgent: Urgency is different. Urgency says, ‘drop everything else and work on this!’ Not everything urgent is important, and not everything important is urgent. Stephen Covey recommends planning your life to limit the amount of time spent on urgent activities, and to maximize the amount of time spent on important, but non-urgent activities.

• The problem for us is that saving democracy, protecting our rights, creating safety for everyone, preserving our planet are all important, and it all feels urgent. Every day that passes without turning the tide is a day closer to disaster. Unfortunately there is no action we can take today or tomorrow that will take away the sense of urgency.

• Urgency is intrinsically stressful. Yes, it keeps us revved up and can motivate us to take action. But it breeds a litany of troubling emotions that persist until we have resolved whatever is urgent. If quick resolution is not possible, we have the tendency to feel overwhelmed, depressed, or hopeless.

It is not healthy to keep urgency in the driver’s seat for any length of time. Not only does it wear us down, but we also end up pushing aside all the rest of our values. We shut down parts of ourselves, and especially our creativity and our open-heartedness. No matter how much we value democracy, justice, abortion care, a healthy planet, etcetera, etcetera, there is more to us than that. We are complex beings, and we do not do well when we forget this.

There has to be a better way. We need to work from a place of non-urgency. It means getting clear about the role we want to play as activists. It means proactively figuring out how much time we have available and when, and then honoring those boundaries. It means not allowing every issue and every call to action pull too hard at us. It means keeping the ‘urgent’ bucket from filling up and spilling over, making a stressful mess of our lives.

Coming from a place of non-urgency also honors the wisdom of the past and the present. Constant urgency is of no use if the struggle is a long one - the lesson from the history of activism. Constant urgency is also not needed if you are embedded in a large and growing movement where we can have each other’s back - the lesson of the present.

I think I’ve got it (for now!). I am starting to understand at a visceral level that activism can be a way of life without its taking over my life. I can relax into my activism. I can enjoy it more, even delight in it. I can appreciate that whatever I do is enough, even when distressing news and calls to action keep arriving in my Inbox. I can have an activist to-do list without needing it to be a ‘ta-da!’ list. When it is time to set activism aside, I can feel good about that. I can turn my attention to all the other important things in life, and savor them.

I am planning to apply the wisdom of non-urgency in 2025. That’s as close to a New Year’s Resolution as I will come.