Friday, April 8, 2022

On the Ballot in November: Hate vs Hope

Every morning, after making coffee and taking my dog for a walk, I check in on the news and read my Twitter feed. The latter is always filled with stories like the ones Dana Milbank collected to demonstrate that DNC Chair Jamie Harrison was right, the GOP is built on fraud, fear and fascism. I'm not going to repeat all of the examples Milbank documented because the hate emanating from the right is one of the major contributors to the depression I've been feeling lately. It is so incredibly ugly that I, for one, become increasingly immobilized if I dwell on it.

On the other hand, we have news like the most recent report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics that the #BidenBoom is still soaring and this week, unemployment claims were the lowest we've seen in this country since 1968. I got a kick out of the way that White House Domestic Policy Advisor Susan Rice reacted to that news.

Then yesterday, this happened: 

As Sen. Cory Booker reminded us, no one could steal our joy at that moment. I was celebrating, but didn't get tearful until I saw the picture up above. At first, I didn't know why that one got to me. But then Maya Wiley helped me understand.

A couple more tweets took it to a deeper level. 

Joe Biden has served as vice president to this country's first African American president and hired the first Black and South Asian vice president. Now he's appointed the first African American woman to the Supreme Court. But that's not all.

To date, Pres­id­ent Biden has nomin­ated the most demo­graph­ic­ally diverse set of judi­cial candid­ates in history, includ­ing the first LGBTQ woman to serve on a court of appeals, the first Muslim Amer­ican to serve as a federal judge, and the first Black woman to ever serve on the Supreme Court. Twenty-six percent of all Black women currently serving as active judges were nomin­ated by Pres­id­ent Biden. Nearly 30 percent of Biden’s nomin­ees have served as public defend­ers.

Moving from his judicial nominations to his cabinet, we see the most diverse group in history:


Getting back to the picture up above, my reaction was all about wanting to be the kind of ally Joe Biden has become - the kind that is generous in spirit and always makes space for other people.

But that's not just what I want for myself. It's what I want for this country too. 

As Jon Favreau once said, "every election is a competition between two stories about America.” Never has that been more true than this November. On the one hand, we have the hate-filled agenda that has consumed the Republican Party. On the other, this is what's possible:

The hardest thing for me to grapple with these days isn't just the hate emanating from elected Republicans. It's that there is even a question about which direction this country wants to go. I desperately want to have faith in my fellow Americans. But it is being sorely tested right now.   

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1 comment:

  1. CeluiApril 9, 2022 at 10:40 AM

    "The hardest thing for me to grapple with these days isn't just the hate emanating from elected Republicans. It's that there is even a question about which direction this country wants to go. I desperately want to have faith in my fellow Americans. But it is being sorely tested right now." Well, Nancy, I have often had the same conflicting thoughts, and have had those internal and external arguments about the possibilities in them. I must say, though, your article's direction this morning is so much better than the crap that has appeared on my local newspaper and in the national media. I won't give 'airtime' to some of those airheads, but let me say that this article has overpowered the negatives that have weighed down on many of us at all levels of American society. Thanks for sharing your talents.

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