The future is calling. Will we answer the call?
The enemy is within. Time to get focused...and tough.
To my loyal readers: The Resistant Grandmother has returned from the west coast visiting family I haven’t seen in two years and welcoming my new grandson. The tiny, healthy baby joins his three-year-old sister, my granddaughter, in rounding out my son’s family of four.
So, it’s back to the laptop for The Resistant Grandmother whose concern about preserving democracy has only expanded with the birth of my second grandchild. As I hold his little hand I wonder what kind of America lies ahead for him and his sister. Will it be one where the right to vote remains a bedrock of our democracy? Will election winners be determined by the number of votes cast, or rural state legislatures? Or, must we succumb to a future where Republicans always win, regardless of their ideas or lack thereof—one that remains firmly in the iron grip of the GOP? In essence, will our democratic form of government continue to exist?
No country for women…
I also wonder at the fate of women in this country. If women are forced by the state to carry unwanted pregnancies to term, even in the event of rape or incest, we will have become much like the Gilead of Margaret Atwood’s dystopian imagining, where white male-dominated governments determine what women must do with their bodies and, thus, also their educational, psychological, and economic futures. If women are forced by the state to remain pregnant and give birth against their will, American life will have been changed forever in profound and immeasurable ways.
Tribe’s warning…
And if the Supreme Court can so casually allow Roe v. Wade's precedence to be overturned and handed over to the states, what’s next? State interpretations of the application and scope of the First and 14th Amendments? A loosening of hard-won freedoms from Brown v. Board of Education, which secured equal education to black children, to Obergefell v. Hodges, which guaranteed gay and lesbian marriages? As Harvard Law professor emeritus Lawrence Tribe warned recently on MSNBC, for the first time in American history, conservative judges (are willing) to reverse the trend of expanding rights, thus creating a brutally constricted new model in American legal decision-making that may become the rule.
The GOP’s vice grip on our election process would also doom any efforts at thwarting gun violence in this country. The tragic carnage at Oxford High School in Michigan reminds us of the clear and present danger to American students every day they walk into their elementary, middle, or high schools and college classrooms.
The hope is that if Democrats could retain their hold over both houses of Congress and expand it by a two or three margin in the Senate, some sane gun legislation could find its way to becoming the law of the land. But Republican dominance of state and federal government would assure the kind of reasonable gun legislation supported by the vast majority of Americans will never see the light of day.
Future shock
As I write, the image of such a country still seems unfathomable to this aging Baby Boomer who had somehow assumed America would always continue its upward trajectory of becoming a better version of itself. And yet here we are, seemingly waiting for the opposite to happen. Our country is living on a knife’s edge, afraid for a locked and loaded tribe of fallen angels to move in, take charge, and destroy everything made better over the last 245 years.
As Donald Trump and his criminal cohort work to make that vision a reality, The Resistant Grandmother will use the next three weeks to research and write a series of articles to appear at the beginning of the new year that exposes the dystopian dangers awaiting this country, who’s responsible, and what we can do to thwart them.
Taking heart
We face the toughest battle against our democracy since the Civil War. But I take heart in the reality that the majority of Americans do not support the Trump agenda and will not vote in favor of it if given factual information and fair access to the voting booth and fairly counted votes.
Fair voting rests in the hands of two Democratic senators who possess a misguided fealty to the filibuster. They must be dissuaded to give up their devotion and vote at least for an “carve-out” exception for the purpose of passing federal laws to make Republican efforts to steal elections illegal. Those senators’ names, phone numbers, and tailored talking points are listed below to support your ongoing spate of phone calls to their offices to urge a change of mind.
With 2022 just around the corner, it’s time all of us got to work, uphill battle or not. First, we must renew and replenish ourselves over the winter holidays. Close family gatherings and the happiness they bring reminds us of what’s at stake in next year’s elections in the belief that happiness and freedom go hand in hand.
Back to the sewing machine
For my part, The Resistant Grandmother will work to hit the ground running at the dawn of the new year. Barring unforeseen circumstances, the first posting out ot the gate will deal with Texas, which has become ground zero for the new fascist America and where current Governor Greg Abbott next year faces re-election.
Just as Texas has run amok in 2021, it’s time to clean its clock, big time, in 2022. And The Resistant Grandmother is getting out her shop rags and Windex to do just that.
Two Democratic Senators key to passing voting protections, and some
talking points.
Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona
Phone: 202-224-4521
Phone call talking points:
Sinema’s stubbornness on the filibuster and other issues has resulted in dramatically falling poll numbers. As of late November, 72% of Arizona Democrats want a challenger to Sinema in the 2024 primary.
As for all Arizona voters, only 26% of general Arizona voters would vote for her. Such low numbers from her own and general voters virtually doom Sinema’s re-election chances at this point in time.
Polled Democrats cited Sinema’s intransigence over the filibuster as their number one reason for wanting her out of office. Logically, therefore, if Sinema were to change her mind on the filibuster, her poll numbers could rise
between now and her 2024 re-election bid.Sinema’s place in history would be forever destroyed as one of two senators who chose fealty to an antiquated Senate tradition, originally adopted early in this country’s history to thwart the dissolution of slavery and its aftermath, over preserving democratic freedoms. At the age of 45, Sinema could face a long, shame-filled lifetime as a traitor to democracy. That’s a hard moniker to overcome, even as a lobbyist–-unless it’s for the NRA.
Joe Manchin of West Virginia
Phone: 202-224-3954
Phone call talking points:
This call is harder, as voters in Manchin’s deep red state seem to support his stubborn stances on the Biden agenda and filibuster. Therefore, I might suggest you stress his place in history, as Manchin at the age of 74 has not indicated whether or not he’ll run again. Manchin will go down as one of two Senators who could have chosen to save democracy, but opted not to if he doesn’t change his mind on carving out the filibuster. So what’s more important-–current poll numbers or lifelong legacy, especially if his Senate term ends
in 2024?Should he choose to run again in 2024, as a Democrat Manchin could look forward to lackluster support from his own party. That’s not a good place to be in flame red West Virginia where Republicans are planning to beat Manchin with their own candidate. So without a strong base behind him, Manchin’s chance for a re-elect will be tougher the next time around.