Two steps up and one step back

 Yes, it's wonderful that Democrats won the presidency in 2020. (I voted for every name that had a [D] after it.) But I think it's rather sad that those who are are happy a stellar political candidate like Kamala Harris is the VP would be horrified if Harris was the President-elect. I just hope Biden gets out of her way and lets Harris work her reformative magick. (And the idea of Kamala Harris presiding over Congress gives me a warm feeling.)

VENNgance is mine...

 Not my doing, but I wish it was.

Wellsprings of Hope

1.  It may not seem like a Blue Tsunami. 
1. Perhaps without the GOP sabotage of the electoral process, 
1. combined with conservatives coordinating their sabotage with foreign state agents,
1. the votes would have been tallied much faster to create a huge wave of voter response.
2. Yet we have so much to be thankful for:
1. The use of paper ballots thwarted efforts both internal and external to hijack the electoral process.
2. The forces of white patriarchy in all their violence have been exposed; the warnings of Liberalism have been validated.
1. Everyone now sees what we are really fighting for: freedom and equality.
3. Rivers of dark money did not win the election.
1. The 1% coup has failed.
4. Marijuana legalization is trending across the country.
1. For-profit prisons will lose much of their revenue.
5. More senate seats will come into play in two years.
1. The benefits of liberalism will help elect more Democrats.
1. Mitch McConnell will face his reckoning.
6. Biden and Harris can still do much to improve the USA's international standing and relationships.
3. So dance and celebrate--carry this energy into the work that must be done to heal, repair, and restore.

Count all the votes!

 

The more things change...

1. We've been through this before.
1. It's the 1960's all over again.
1. The corrupt President Richard Nixon was in power.
2. The GOP fomented endless wars everywhere,
1. using Russia as their excuse;
1. rattling sabers to loot small nations.
3. Crony capitalism exploited the American people.
4. Vicious racism concealed beneath a veneer of "law and order."
2. But we know what to do this time.
1. Educate.
2. Resist.
3. Expose.
4. Envision a better world.
3. Just like then, facing the juggernaut of a crushing economy,
1. practice patience, one step at a time,
1. small victories here and there.

Autonomy versus liberty

1.  I am slowly coming to realize a minor but crucial distinction in the struggle for human rights, 
1. especially for civil rights in the United States. 
2. There are those who believe that all races are equal and 
1. must be free to live their lives where they will 
2. contribute to our nation how they will choose 
1. without obstacles or constraints. 
3. Then there those who believe it is immoral to subjugate other races for social, economic, or legal gain,
1. and so the white race must do a better job of governing our nation.
4. This (for me) explains so many of the weird discrepancies we find in the struggle for human rights,
1. where thousands and thousands of people take to the streets in support of Black Lives Matter,
1. and yet conservative politicians continue to be re-elected time after time
1. (and outside interference can't fully explain the disparity).
5. The sad conclusion to this chain of premises is
1. well-intentioned people will march side-by-side with fellow activists in public civil rights protests,
2. but will privately vote for conservatives so the white race remains in power.
6. Our decades-long fight for liberty and equality for all
1. was crippled from the beginning
1. not from greed nor lust,
1. but from fear;
1. fear of non-whites in control.
7. One lesson I learned from the struggle for women's rights,
1. is women must have autonomy, 
1. over and above rights and liberties of their own.
2. So now I will always ask, "Should non-whites have autonomy?"
1. For me, the answer is, "Damn straight they should."