Summary
The switch on the top of the ticket has launched supporters into the outer stratosphere of what can only be described as giddiness. The big #Resistance energy that seemed to have fizzled out after 2017’s marches and demonstrations is back in force.
Experts on authoritarianism have been warning for years that fostering hopelessness, powerlessness, and political depression is a deliberate tactic of most totalitarian leaders. Sowing hopelessness and fear is the fastest way to corrode trust. The thing we may be learning this week is that despair and hopelessness are effective political tactics.
In the midst of political and emotional despair, it feels infinite and endless. That sensibility extinguishes your ability to imagine anything else. Hope is less a feeling than a muscular, organizing political force. The total absence of hope is a powerful political demotivator.
After Dobbs, I wrote about hope, but I’m not entirely sure I believed it. For me, hope has long been more ritual than faith. The crucial thing is the individual decision to act, along with others, a little something each day. We may still suffer from a sugar crash in the weeks ahead.
The bloom may slide off the rose in a campaign with the highest stakes of our lifetime. The cynics are already counting on it, and the cat-haters will almost certainly capitalize on it. But what you’re seeing flare up in your friends and neighbors is enduring.
