Thread by @Cajsa

I feel uneasy at the state of the world. The rise in authoritarianism is not just an American phenomenon. It is global, thanks in large part to Putin's efforts to discredit democracy. He didn't just pull shit in the US, but around the world. In Poland, there was "Waitergate"

where the far-right party conspired with Russian operatives to defeat the pro-EU party and install the Law & Justice Party (shades of Richard Nixon's branding.) In Hungary, Orban has embraced Putin to shore up his power

Russia's intervened in Austrian, Czech, German, and French elections. Not always successfully, but they are building an anti-democracy base in all these countries. The march toward world fascism has willing allies in the US

We see this in the Republican Party working so hard to disenfranchise Black, Latino, and Indigenous voters. This is why they are making it harder for students to vote. Why they are opposing methods to make it easier for people with disabilities to vote.

They need to suppress the vote in order to establish total minority rule. They are almost there. Democrats have won the popular vote in all but one presidential election since 1992. The 48 D's plus 2 I's represent 41,549,808 more people than the 50 R's

The House is supposed to be democratic in its makeup but gerrymandering will give 80% of Ohio's seats to Republicans even though Biden got 45% of the vote. In PA, Dems won 5 of 18 seats but received more than half the vote.

But even in built-in constitutional thumb on the scale for Republicans is not enough, so they seek to invalidate elections they lose. It's enough to make a person despair....

Unless they remember the history of this country.

Yes, they want to take us back to the bad old days of Jim Crow. Some of them even want to end women's suffrage. Some want to end universal suffrage, restore the requirement to own land or a business, and build many impediments to voting.

But no matter how much damage they do, and they can do a lot, it is still better now than it was when the American experiment started and the American people worked their way bit by bit toward living up to our mighty words.

In the eyes of the right, we have already won the culture war. That's one reason they are so hateful. There are murdered Black, Latino, Asian, Latino, and LGBTIQA people who will tell you the culture war has not been won, if they were alive, but...they right think they have lost

And here's the thing, they can try to block the ballot to Black people and push gay people back in the closet, but politics and culture are about expectations - and the expectation is that Black people can vote and gay people can be proud.

They cannot take away expectations and expectations are dangerous things. If people's expectations are not realized, they rebel. We have set a bar, it's not high enough and it's not solid enough, but it's enough to trip up any wannabe despot.

It may be we will have our 2 steps forward, 1 step back. There will be pain. Pain for women who cannot get a legal abortion. Pain for those abused and murdered by police thugs and a racist justice system. I don't minimize the pain. I just know that we have 2 steps forward coming.

That is why, no matter the day-to-day losses, outrages, and desperate straits, we can't give up. And now I am talking to white liberals, particularly white feminists. Do not pack up your toys and go home. We do make progress over time. Look to the example of Black Americans

They vote even when they are disappointed. They have fought and struggled from enslavement to Jim Crow to real political power...by taking the long view. They began voting Democratic when the Klan were Democrats. They saw the activist ideology as more compatible with civil rights

And taking the long view, became loyal voters who could make or unmake a nomination in several states. Progressives who say there is no difference, I won't vote or will vote GOP, fail to see the GOP does not believe in activist government

So take the long view and accept that so long as we keep voting and organizing, we will get closer and closer to fulfilling our fancy words that have gone from only including propertied, adult white men to nearly everyone over 17.

I don't know if those words will ever be completely true. They cannot be true in a carceral state, but that's just one more reason to keep voting. Don't be the summer soldier and sunshine patriot who comes out 1 every 4 years if you're excited.

Vote, vote in every election. For school board, for county judge, county and city commissioners, for every single thing, vote.

A party that can RELY on its voters can take bigger chances. They don't have to chase the folks who lean toward the other side. That's why the performative protest voters who call themselves progressive are so irrelevant. IF you can't be relied on to vote Dem, why listen to you?

The party cannot take risks for you as you won't be there to support them if there is blowback. You will be off chasing the next grifter promising a pot of gold they cannot deliver. If you don't vote and vote always, you cannot build power.