I had a completely different post planned for today, but in light of what happened in the Senate yesterday, I had to address it.
Longtime readers of Political Charge know that expanding voting rights is my top issue. At this point in our country today, I can think of few other issues that will help protect our democracy and the voice of the people than making sure everyone can vote and that their vote gets counted. And it’s so great when we get a win.
But we don’t always get the win. We suffer setbacks, as we did yesterday when Senator Sinema of Arizona declared unequivocally that she would not vote for a carve-out of the filibuster for voting rights. I won’t lie — it was hard to see that headline cross my page, much less when I saw the video of her speech, and then the crushing despair and outrage that followed on social media.
Yes, I am generally an optimist and am naturally drawn to amplifying good news but I’m not a robot. I was incredibly disheartened and fearful yesterday.
That is, until I saw two tweets that filled my heart back up with fire and the fight to keep tackling this critical issue.
The first came from one of my favorite editorial cartoonists, Marc Murphy of Kentucky:
Yes, the cartoon is a perfect encapsulation of what happened yesterday, but it was the caption — the caption!! — that fueled my fire once again.
The second came from one of my Twitter friends, activist Jamie Carter:
I’m so grateful to both of them for rekindling what I had temporarily lost.
And that is perhaps one thing I’d like to encourage you all to do, is to make sure you’re in a community, whether in your neighborhood or virtually, with people who are fighting for the same issues you care about. You can be there to pick them up when they get discouraged, and then they’ll be there for you when you’re in a slump.
Take care of yourself today. The fight for voting rights continues.
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Thanks for this. It’s good to be reminded that this is worth fighting for, and there WILL be fighting.
Grateful as ever for the bit of positivity – was feeling a bit sick – but will keep on