One Hundred and Ten Million

"We have met the enemy. And he is us." - Walt Kelly

Photo by sydney Rae on Unsplash

One hundred and ten million.

That’s the approximate number of registered voters—registered—voters who—for whatever reason—did not participate in our democracy during the 2020 elections.

Elections, as you may recall, which included voting for who would be our president and what kind of people would populate every branch of government for another four years.

Our options in 2020?

Obama’s Sancho Panza or the idiot who stared into an eclipse.

Public servants or jackasses who can’t wait to defund the Affordable Care Act, Social Security and Medicare.

Those who believe in democracy or those who prefer autocracy.

Those who believe in the rule of law or those who believe in the rule of law as long as it cannot be applied to them.

One hundred and ten million Americans couldn’t be bothered on Election Day 2020.

But that was before women lost their right to choose.

That was before a Supreme Court justice wrote about her concern over the “domestic supply of infants”.

That was before one political party called the siege of our Capitol Building, the killing and maiming of law enforcement officers and the desecration by feces, Nazi swastikas and Confederate battle flags, “legitimate political discourse”.

That was before state after state created laws criminalizing ANY medical procedure surrounding pregnancies. Even criminalizing contraceptives.

That was before millions of white women all across America had their “Aha!” moment and realized The HandMaid’s Tale was not just a novel and a cautionary tale, but a playbook.

That was before the religious zealots started really, truly and unabashedly showing their hand. Why wouldn’t they? The highest court in the land was now theirs.

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My screed-writing is an effort to keep y’all fired up.

I don’t have many readers but my most fervent hope is that something I say will ring true with y’all and—maybe, just maybe—like the ripples on a pond those thoughts will extend beyond my small coterie of loyal readers and help push the greater impact. All of us know people ambivalent about politics, convinced nothing will change or their vote will mean little and my most fervent wish is that something I impart will help you penetrate their veil of indifference.

As we wended our way toward Santa Fe this past June for a historic occasion and a rendezvous with dozens of family members for the first time in a long time, my wife read to me from Rebecca Solnit’s book Hope in the Dark. A passage about history resonated.

Solnit wrote:

Cause-and-effect assumes history marches forward, but history is not an army. It is a crab scuttling sideways, a drip of soft water wearing away stone, an earthquake breaking centuries of tension. Sometimes one person inspires a movement, or her words do decades later, sometimes a few passionate people change the world; sometimes they start a mass movement and millions do; sometimes those millions are stirred by the same outrage or the same ideal, and change comes upon us like a change of weather. All that these transformations have in common is that they begin in the imagination, in hope.

It was the image in my mind of “a crab scuttling sideways” I loved the most.

History is not linear. And as many like to quote these days, “History does not repeat. It rhymes.”

Over the past century what you could take to the bank in off-year elections (the mid-terms, as in…the elections this coming fall) was that the party ‘not in the White House’ would gain seats in the House and Senate. Political pundits of all stripes have been prognosticating prolifically about the impending progressive implosion ever since Biden took possession of the Oval Office. They assumed those 110 million registered voters and tens of millions more—who typically ignore midterm elections—would remain oblivious, preoccupied and indifferent. It’s the easy prognostication to make after all with the Senate being split 50/50 and the Treasonous Weasel Party only four seats shy of parity in the House.

But there’s a change in the air.

The Alaska electorate just booted Sarah Palin to the curb, despite her incessant shrill folksiness, and voted in their first Democrat in 50 years. On top of that Mary Peltola will be the U.S. House of Representatives’ first Native Alaskan - a Yu'pik Eskimo. She’s also pro-choice and, to my wife’s delight, pro-fish. In her own words she’s: "pro-jobs, pro-fish, pro-family, and pro-choice."

In other words, Mary Peltola is the antithesis of Sarah Palin. Sarah Palin being the canary in the coal mine for the Republican descent into full-on looniness and no shame in showing it.

History just burped.

Maybe we won’t slide into a dystopian authoritarian nightmare. Maybe we won’t wind up with the American equivalent of Saddam Hussein. Maybe we will survive this dalliance with fascism.

Earlier this summer, the good people of Kansas voted down one of the more draconian anti-abortion bills in the nation. It was a total shocker, even though polls indicate a vast majority of Americans believe in bodily autonomy.

History just did a back flip.

The other day, the FBI was granted a search warrant for the home of the former president. Upon searching the property, they found 67 documents marked as CONFIDENTIAL, 92 documents marked as SECRET, and 25 documents marked as TOP SECRET. These acronyms were stamped on their covers:

HCS, FISA, ORCON, NOFORN, and SI—according to the FBI affidavit.

“HCS” indicates that the material is about human sources, or spies, that often work with the CIA.

“FISA” relates to court-ordered surveillance collecting foreign intelligence, including wiretaps.

“ORCON” means the document is so sensitive that its originator must approve any request to share it.

“NOFORN” means the material can’t be shared with any foreign entities, even allies, without permission.

“SI,” short for Special Intelligence, relates to signals intercepts, which are typically handled by the National Security Agency.

When that little unprecedented event happened, history zigged when most of us were expecting it to zag.

This morning I listened to a commentator succinctly dissect the midterm elections. He pointed out, for these historic midterms, white women are our wild cards. As I’ve mentioned previously, something like 70% of white women predictably vote Republican. Other voter categories can be reliably predicted. He stated, if white women vote with their daughters in mind, the outcome will be positive for democracy but, if white women vote only with their sons in mind (though it shouldn’t really matter), the outcome may not be favorable toward democracy.

If that happens, we may find ourselves living in Lauren Boebert’s America where there is no separation between church and state.

I’m counting on some small percentage of those 110 million fat and happy, complacent registered voters who did not vote in the last election, a bunch of angry white women who are finally smelling the coffee and an image of an unpredictable scuttling crab to save American democracy from ourselves.

Sharing two of my favorite, recent memes. After all, sometimes the end justifies the memes. (I stole that.)

Also, should you know someone in denial about you-know-who…

Thanks for reading and sharing. More apologies for my writing drought. I’m planning on ramping it up but skewing toward politics due to the—hopefully crabby—historic upcoming elections. My love to all! - JLM