Happy primary days to everybody in the affected states. If you can vote today, please do so. If you do vote, I urge you to let hope and not fear guide your choice.
I know it seems like the primary has gone on for a thousand years and people are casting the results as inevitably one thing or the other, but this is only the beginning.
In theme park terms, we've had the soft open and they're about to drop the rope.
In theme park terms, we've had the soft open and they're about to drop the rope.
The band that tuned up their instruments in Iowa is almost done warming up and is about to start playing for real.
The oven is preheated and it's time to put the casserole in.
The oven is preheated and it's time to put the casserole in.
Every single person still in the mix can beat Trump head-to-head, so vote for the person you want to see as president after. The system can't work as intended if we don't use it as intended. Trying to outsmart a metagame is just outsmarting ourselves.
I know it's easy to get dispirited but I woke up this morning thinking about all the people who were going to get up today and go vote for their choice and honestly I felt more hopeful than I have in a long time.
I started using "Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of civic participation." as a rallying cry around the same time the right-wing discovered that Shakespeare's Julius Caesar is a tragedy.
It fell out of currency with me sometime between the midterm and now, as my own hope waned.
It fell out of currency with me sometime between the midterm and now, as my own hope waned.
That had less to do with politics than with my own personal life - the rapid decline and then death of my mother, and stuff around that - but I found it harder to muster the zeal it really takes to pull off a line that unwieldy.
But, you know, if ever there was a day for it, it's a day like today... a day when people in places all across the country are going and participating in our most important public ritual, voting.
It can be hard to find hope and hold onto it, but remember that hope is the mother of anger and courage, and remember that courage doesn't mean you're not afraid, it means that you're aware of the danger and you choose to press on anyway.
By voting at all, you're making a choice to continue. You're refusing to accept that it's all pointless, that the battle is lost, that nothing will change and better things aren't possible.
When you vote, you choose hope. You choose to fight.
When you vote, you choose hope. You choose to fight.
So if you can vote, do vote. Vote for the person you want to win. Vote for the person you think would make the best president. You can't know what other people are doing. You can't control what other people are doing. All you have, at most, is your own one vote.
Hope is not just a feeling, but an action. We can perform hope even when we don't feel it. If you spend your vote freely and without regret, if you voice your intention and put it out into the world, then no matter what happens, you may feel a flicker of the hope you chose to do.
You've got to vote like no one's watching.
Hope like you've never been hurt.
And cry havoc and let slip the dogs of civic participation.
Hope like you've never been hurt.
And cry havoc and let slip the dogs of civic participation.
We can get through this together, because we are stronger together.
Your Weird Twitter Politics Mom Friend basically does this for a living, but funny story... no one's actually paying her. Not the DNC or MSNBC or the CDC or the Now I Know My ABCs. If you get something out of this, tips are appreciated.
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