When George W. Bush lost the popular vote but still became President, because the US Supreme Court prevented the vote recount in Florida, the outcry was barely a blip on the media radar. Millions were furious, but the press and even Al Gore said we needed to not protest, to, instead, just "come together" accept that a man the majority of voters did not vote for would be the leader of the USA. Anyone who continued to protest how the election was decided was branded a crank or un-American by the press and both parties. When the attacks on September 11, 2001 happened, criticizing the President became almost treasonous. When millions took to the streets to protest the second invasion of Iraq, the media downplayed the numbers and the fury, in order to not upset the President and lose their access. In 2004, when Bush won Ohio and Florida, again under mysterious circumstances and despite exit polls that said otherwise, any voiced opposition was, again, quickly dismissed as sore losers and unPatriotic.
What Republicans and the press didn't realize then is there was a great deal of resentment simmering under the perceived public quiet. We took that simmering resentment to the polls in 2008 in huge numbers and put Barack Obama in the White House for eight years, despite the gerrymandering, despite the voter suppression efforts.
In 2016, when Donald Trump lost the popular vote but still became President, and when a majority of Americans voted for Democrats in Congress but, because of gerrymandering, Republicans took both houses, something very different happened than in 2000: the majority didn't stay silent. Government and the media were taken aback when millions of women protested across the USA on or near January 21, 2017 to protest Donald Trump, the GOP and their attitudes and actions against women - in Portland, Oregon, there was a record-breaking number of people who took to the streets, and in protest-loving Portland, that's saying something. Government and media were shocked again when thousands of people spontaneously descended on airports across the USA to help Muslim visitors and Muslim green card holders who were suddenly in security limbo because of Trump's ban on Muslims.
The GOP and the mainstream media had anticipated and planned a different narrative. That's why NBC gave a morning TV show in 2017 to Fox News personality Megan Kelly, and ABC tried to revive the TV show Roseanne soon after - the media wanted to try to appeal to Trump supporters and expected the opposition to be silent. Networks were surprised when Kelly and Roseanne Barr's racism quickly surfaced, bias neither had ever tried to hide, and that the backlash was so very loud and swift that both shows were canceled.
All of this is a long-winded way of saying: your voice has made a difference. From individuals refusing to be silent at the Thanksgiving table as Uncle Racist spews his hate to attending public meetings with their elected officials in record numbers and being vocal about their demands to emailing and tweeting news outlets when they see attempts to sugar coat fascism to taking to the streets, you have kept the media on their toes and the Democratic Party leadership from compromising.
The resistance is real, it's made a difference, and individuals have fueled it - not George Soros, not the Democratic Party leadership, not official political groups and certainly not the media.
And you are exhausted. I know I am. I've been attending city council meetings and public meetings with state and local legislators, mostly just observing, listening to questions and comments, making sure extreme right-wingers aren't making any in-roads, making sure their rhetoric gets checked, and ready to throw a spotlight on anything that needs to be brought to everyone's attention, via social media - without an active, robust local press, we can't count on media coverage to keep an eye out. I've been registering voters, passing out League of Women Voters Oregon voter guides and trying to educate friends and neighbors about ballot measures. I've been attending debates by candidates for city and county offices. I've been trying to amplify media stories that my friends might have missed on social media. And I am so tired. And the thought of having to continue at this level, at 11, for another two years makes me want to give up.
So take a break on election day. And maybe the day of the election itself. Think about all that has been accomplished by individuals all across the USA who have refused to stay silent, who have protested in ways big and small. The media wouldn't be talking about the President lying if it wasn't for us. Late night talk show hosts wouldn't be talking about it either if it wasn't for us. The Democratic Party and Democrats in the Senate, the House and state legislatures all across the country wouldn't be resisting if it wasn't for us. We did this. Be proud of that, no matter what happens on November 6.
But also remember that this is a marathon, not a sprint. This is going to take more than one election to solve. The first public meeting of the Nazi party was in February 1920, when Adolf Hitler issued a "25 Point Program" outlining the party's political agenda - an agenda that embodied racism. Hitler was appointed German Chancellor in January 1933. It took less than 13 years for Nazism, the most well-known form of fascism, to take over German society completely. The end of the war ended Nazi control of Germany in 1945. That means it took 10 years to defeat Hitler. It took many more years to bring Nazi war criminals to justice. Are you ready for the long haul?
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