For most of my life I was politically speaking, a non-entity. I was vaguely liberal in a cultural sort of way - didn’t like racist stuff, no problem with gay marriage, thought the Gulf War was foolish, etc. None of this translated into any kind of political action.
My general attitude was that I could show up and vote every two years, and the Republic would take care of itself.
In 2016, for me and many others, that changed. I’m not going to rehash the details. If you’re reading a blog like this, you know the details.
After that sad day, I actually got involved. I don’t want to overstate this, I wasn’t (and still ain’t) a full time activist, but I actually started doing things. Some of the stuff I did:
- Re-registered as an actual Democrat. I was an independent up until then.
- Got involved with a local Swing Left group.
- Started a local #Resist Meetup. No one showed up, but still…
- Did some voter registration and door knocking in a Republican-held congressional district. We actually flipped that seat in 2018.
After the Democrats took Congress in 2018, and Biden took the White House in 2020, a lot of newly minted activists faded away, back to their lives. I’d like to say I wasn’t one of them, but I’d be lying.
My assumption, like many, was that the Republic had been tested, and had prevailed. Complacency was our undoing.
So things have gotten bad again, and it’s time to get active again. I don’t want to just “stay informed”, and just doomscroll all day - I want to actually do something. Practical acts, in the real world.
The purpose of this blog, for me, is basically motivational. I want to record the things I’m doing and seeing, online, and in the real world.