10/04/2026
Democracy, it was nice while it lasted...
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1AqbMPB9jx/
Notes as I watch the potential fall of democracy (recorded for posterity and in no particular order):
1. I now realize during the Holocaust all those people against the N**i party and those hiding the Jews in their walls were also just making dinner and sending their kids to school and grocery shopping and going to church and that’s wild. I get now why it seems like no one did anything. Living in this tension isn’t doing nothing so much as it is being unable to do anything that fixes anything.
2. I’ve asked myself, “How can each day be more insane than the last?” everyday for more than a year. That’s a lot of days.
3. My 18-year-old just voted for the first time. The people working the polls stopped and acknowledged she was a first time voter and everyone there working and voting clapped and I think we got all just got it and I almost cried. Voting feels different now.
4. Also, these people working the polls are also somehow allowing and pulling off high level election fraud? Nope. Just nope.
5. My nervous system feels off 87% of the time, I look around and wonder if yours does too.
6. Nothing I ever read in my Weekly Reader or saw on School House Rock prepared me for the fact that a president could lose his mind in front of the country and no one would seemingly be able to do anything.
7. My ability to feel joy sitting in front of the ocean or eating a really good cookie and then horror as I look at what we are doing to our own citizens or another country is a capacity I didn’t know I had and I don’t know that I enjoy having.
8. I also ask myself, “How are we not all just constantly screaming on the streets?” on a loop.
9. I now know more about how our government works than I ever did while taking any government class simply because of the necessity there is for us to be informed. I will never again take for granted that things will just work out while I decide I “don’t do politics”.
10. Which brings me to this: our checks and balances need more checking and balancing.
11. The amount of people that seem to be living in an alternate reality blows my mind. The amount of people that connect MAGA to Jesus blows my mind even more.
12. The little things in our days still matter, sometimes even more than they did before. A smile, a kind word, holding a door open for somebody, all of these small acts of kindness make me want to cry. They remind me people are indeed good. We need these reminders desperately.
13. My own ability to trust my gut is solidified. I will never again let someone talk me out of listening to what my gut is telling me. If you sounded the alarm early you know what I’m talking about.
14. I cling to my cats in a way that has become possibly somewhat unhealthy. I also now own a stuffed emotional support chicken. You just can’t predict what will help when your country is off the rails.
15. We are all interconnected on this planet in a way that we cannot deny and when we try to the results are tragic.
16. Americans were living with a few piles of unearned pride and honestly we need to humbly learn from other places in the world how to do some things.
17. Our veterans deserve so much better than this to watch all they fought for be undermined in this way. Thank you for your service isn’t nearly enough to say.
18. Money is indeed the root of all evil and clearly very motivating to the point people will sell their souls. Or at very least ignore and participate in crimes that let them buy more cars and bigger boats.
19. Public education has never been more important. Community involvement in public education has never been more important.
20. I believe in us. For real.
Despite it all I just do. People are good at the core and if enough of us stick together love and sanity will win. I have to believe this.
So maybe if we get another chance we can try that good and sane person path for awhile and see? I mean it’s worth a shot right?
(Also yes I’m as tired as I look and also times are so stressful I keep forgetting my lipstick so there you have it folks.)
