WE WON. This is truth.
Greetings Fellow Conformists,
WE WON.
We won, despite the odds stacked against us:
- removal of the Voting Rights Act,
- attacks on the validity of vote-by-mail,
- blatant attempts to slow the mail when mostly Democrats were voting my mail due to the politicization of the pandemic,
- last-minute court cases trying to block valid ballots from counting,
- grievously biased gerrymandering,
- closure of polling places and removal of voting machines in Democratic areas causing hours-long waits to vote and limited access to ballot drops,
- stringent requirements on voting by mail, forcing many to choose between their safety and their right to vote,
- the racist, stacked Electoral College, and more.
And we still won.
But now, the Republican party, refusing to believe that they lost despite how much they cheated, is attempting a pathetic, treasonous coup to subvert the will of the American people and install a fascist government to keep themselves in power.
And 70 million Americans raised their hands for authoritarianism.
My first instinct for this email was to start prescribing solutions. Nearly half our nation no longer believes in democracy. Nearly half our nation has forgotten that in America, we have no king. Nearly half our nation wants a president who refuses to serve states that did not vote for him. We have a long battle ahead to break through the brainwashing and tribal hatred at the core of the modern Republican party. To find unity as a nation, even if just enough to remember that all Americans are Americans, not only Republicans.
But there is time enough ahead for solutions. Right now, we are still in the fight.
Right now, the most important thing we can do is speak up for reality.
There is no evidence of widespread voter fraud.
The majority of voters wanted change.
Democrats are not running a global child sex trafficking scheme.
Conservatives are not discriminated against on social media platforms (it's likely the opposite).
Right-wing, white supremacist terrorists pose the greatest terror threat to our nation.
No matter what happens, we can remember that WE WON. Both the popular vote - seven million more Americans supported Biden than Trump -- AND the Electoral College (the only way Republicans can win the presidency anymore with their current platform).
And we voted for things we want, for a vision of the future where all Americans receive basic human rights, where all people are able to earn a decent living for fair work, where Americans of color are not afraid of being killed by their own government, where young Americans are not burdened by a lifetime of servitude to pay off college debt, where sickness does not bankrupt families.
We voted to tackle the greatest existential threat of our times, climate change. We voted to confront our society's racist foundations. We voted to take the coronavirus pandemic seriously and protect lives. We voted to take on the hardest challenges facing our society today, because we know that what we are doing now is not working. We voted for the America we believe our nation can be.
We did not vote out of fear. Fear of the Other. Fear of losing our positions of privilege, if we have them. Fear of changing power structures.
We cannot allow fear and lies to defeat hope and truth.
Remember what is real.
Remember how bad the Trump years were. Remember how quickly Republicans threw democracy away when they realized they could not win with it anymore. Remember that we won.
Yours in Conformity,
Drake Starling
Director, Bureau of Conformity