Sunday comments
December 15, 2024
This note opens the Comment section for Sunday, December 15, 2024. Please be respectful—extra credit for comments that offer opportunities for engagement or strategies for coping.
The image below is of NGC 281, which is 9,500 light-years from Earth.
The question I have at this point, and perhaps it’s too early to know, is what “movement” if any is being engaged at this point? In 1933 the strategy of the opposition was to let him bury himself with ill advised action, which I guess did occur, but not until 12 years and a lot of destruction later. I think the clear consensus is that There’s no cavalry here, and an eerie silence from Dems, so is this all wait and see? The dominos seem to be falling and show little sign of abating.
But that said my objective here isn’t doom and gloom porn but actually asking the question…is there any particularly unified movement that people can support without feeling futile? Navalny said don’t be afraid, and so does Rebecca Solnit, but to me what we’re dealing with is more of a strategic issue - more like a prisoner’s dilemma, in which the lack of/ difficulty of coordination against descent to autocracy is our greatest (and pervasive) weakness. Again, I’m asking about practical direction, not against what’s “certain” or pre-ordained to happen, but what could hopefully be arrested at the front end rather than the back end. I’m concerned that Optimism is good as a disposition, but not a tactic or strategy.
Heather Cox Richardson often says, "Do what you do best." Well, I make Christmas cookies, and in response to the trauma of the election, I started baking. Someone in the comments here asked that people support Democrats in rural counties in Pennsylvania that could really use some donations. Somewhere I wrote down her name, but I asked who she recommended, and she responded "Beaver County."
Living in the blue mail-in-voting state of Oregon, it seems pointless to do anything here. I also want to support small organizations working in rural communities. So that is how Cookies for Beaver County came about. People who donate $10 to Beaver County Democrats get a box of my cookies. We've raised $600 so far.
I wanted to share this in appreciation of the community that Robert Hubbell has brought together, but also to inspire people. Be creative, and reach out to your community. My friends, and their friends, were eager to have a way to do something as we all try to figure out how to respond to this crisis, and who doesn't like cookies. In the big picture, what I am doing is not going to have a big impact, but it feels empowering to say, "I can do this." Maybe there is something you can do too.