How have you been feeling since Inauguration Day?
As for me, the anticipation on Inauguration Eve, and then watching Kamala Harris and then Joe Biden being sworn in, the uplifting poem by Amanda Gorman, followed by Raphael Warnock, Jon Ossoff and Alex Padilla being sworn into the Senate by Vice President Harris, and then the great Inaugural Concert — I felt like I had my country back. I felt joy, and overwhelming relief.
When I expressed that feeling on social media, I got this wonderful reply:
Yes. This was exactly it. For four long years, we’ve been resisting and doing everything we could to stop Republicans and their allies from making things worse. And now, we’ve gotten folks elected who are empowered to help us make even more substantial changes for the better.
As you all know, I’ve been concerned that once we took back the White House, people who’ve been involved with politics might step away again. I was also curious how I might respond emotionally once Joe and Kamala got sworn in. You know what happened? I felt even MORE energized to stay in the game.
Yes, the last four years have been a long, tough ride. But with good people running our government, we have more help than we’ve had and boy, that has really put wind in my sails. I want to see some really strong guardrails put on our democracy.
We won this election, but the margin of victory was pretty close when you consider that over 150 million people voted. Here’s Ben Wikler, the organizer extraordinaire who also chairs the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, reminding us of what might have been had we not worked as hard as we did:
In the Georgia Senate runoffs, the margins were close there too, and that took a behemoth efforts from the incredible organizers like Stacy Abrams, LaTosha Brown, and so many others. Our work to keep winning elections is cut out for us.
Not to mention that we have a majority of Republican members of Congress who voted to overturn the election by objecting to the electoral votes (147 out of 261 total members) and have yet to take any accountability for that action, even after insurrectionists stormed the Capitol. It doesn’t just end with federal officials, either. The Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee put together a website to keep track of all of the state-level legislators who aided and abetted the insurrection by attending in person and/or taking some kind of action to stop the Constitutional process of counting the electoral vote. Check for seditionists in your state legislature HERE.
So, there’s work to do. But I’m feeling buoyed and as motivated as ever to make sure we never see a repeat of these last four years. I hope you feel the same. In fact, I’d love to hear from you about how you’d like to focus your political energies in the coming year. I’ll be sending out a survey on Monday to get your ideas and feedback. I’d like to make sure Political Charge is serving your desire to take action in the most effective ways possible!
Breathe deeply. It’s a new day!
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Tokyo, it is a new day. The best evidence is the first press conference with Jen Psaki. She was welcoming, civil, and answered questions truthfully. She did not admonish or scold anyone. Plus, she was there. The best thing the Biden administration can do is tell the truth, then do it again the next day and the day after. Keith
Couldn’t agree with you more, Keith. What a breath of fresh air.