playing defense

We were four years in power. Two, for the cynical. A few months, if the shambling coalition can't agree on things like raising the minimum wage. I live in one of the only states that voted further to the left than they did in 2020. Democrats have held all three chambers in Washington for 18 of the last 32 years. That's not everything, of course not, but isn't it something?

Power is at the heart of many of the essays I write. What would you do with power? What could you do without it? When we are in power, we must be the serious, sober ones. We make the choices we say are reasonable. When we're out of power, we play defense. We try to staunch the deepest cuts. When do we go on offense? How can we do more? How can we act like the world is business as usual when it's clear to so many that it's not? People are hurting around the world. Who will stand up for them?

I'm tired of politics as a game. I'm tired of political parties as sports teams. I've voted "blue no matter who" most of my adult life. That hasn't stopped the gradual slide towards authoritarianism. I have some ideas about how to put my energy into something else.

Don't give up early. Since the election, I've seen a lot of references to Timothy Snyder's On Tyranny. He lists 20 lessons from history that people must use if they want to limit the thrall of fascism. The first lesson has been getting the most press: 1. Do not obey in advance. Snyder writes that most people give authoritarians their power without hesitation. "In times like these, individuals think ahead about what a more repressive government will want, and then offer themselves without being asked." Vu Le expands on this thinking and applies it to the white moderating space of nonprofits. Moving away from "progressive" values and towards the center is going to feel easy for some people. They may think of it as preserving their own survival or even prolonging the lives of their own family.

I'd add to this complicity the idea of giving up before it even begins. It's in the face of strong challenges to our values that we have to hold them even closer. If we support reproductive freedom, why should we temper that? We align ourselves with our enemies at our expense. I think we can agree that the Harris campaign's decisions to court republicans didn't work. How many votes did they earn by acting "strong" on immigration and staying silent on anti-trans hysteria? Voters' choice between the two parties was one of personality more than anything else.

Invest in something real. Amy McGrath raised more than $80 million to unseat Mitch McConnell (didn't work). Beto O'Rourke raised more money in a single quarter than any candidate for Texas governor (he is not governor). The Harris campaign raised more than a billion dollars (welp). Where did it go? Think about if that money had gone into community-level investments. Or if the money bankrolling a genocide in Palestine had gone to anti-poverty efforts instead?

One of the major forms of protest these days is voting with one's dollars. What do our dollars, at every level of government, say about us? Instead of donating money to politicians who may betray me, I'm going to put it to tangible use. Mutual aid groups share food, create meals, refill propane tanks for folks living in RVs, and more. They set up cash bail funds and support people who need abortions. These groups could do so much more with the money we send political campaigns. And if you find yourself on hard times one day, it won't be a national politician sending you gas money.

Speak up to people who are willing to listen. Things won't get better on their own. They also won't get better if decision-makers limited choices. On a call this week, I talked about what it would look like to go on the offense for food access. I recommended expanding SNAP and supporting guaranteed basic income programs. Another person on the call spoke up about a push to recognize a universal human right to food. Everyone should have the right to free access to the food they need. I was grateful that she chimed in. I learned exactly where she stood and I could give my enthusiastic support to it. It's also a much clearer way to describe my own position--that food doesn't belong behind a paywall.

It's time to act. I've been reading a lot more since the pandemic. I'm part of a couple book clubs. I talk about the values I have to friends and colleagues. But I often wonder, what am I doing with all this learning? How have I used what I've already learned? I've gained knowledge on a lot of different topics. But my personal enrichment isn't going to change the world by itself. I have to do something with it.

The coming years will challenge us in ways we can't even imagine. It'll try to peel us away from each other. It'll offer the occasional gesture in our direction and ask of us only that we look away the rest of the time. If we pursue this fight alone, we won't have time for the rest and alliances that will help us move forward. There are days when it feels like the air is shifting. It feels like people are willing to chip away at the the inalienable truths that hold up an unjust society. We need to offer alternatives to those lies. The world won't be the way it is unless we let it.

I don't want to be on the defense anymore. I can't spend my life trying to claw my way back to where I was before. When my opponent lunges right, I'm going to go around them. I'm going to move beyond their reach.