thanks to kos and to my friend debbie for the reminder.

i was an election judge this year, and it was really empowering. i helped at least one person vote who might otherwise have been turned away, and i watched one of my fellow judges help someone else vote who i wouldn't have been able to help. ("i'm sure there's a rule to cover that, but heck if i know what it is", would have had to have been my response.)

i saw a lot of people voting for the first time yesterday, and that's amazing and fabulous.

and while the thought of the supreme court's likely upcoming makeup (and as a woman who is on medications that cause severe fetal malformation, you're damned right i care about the supreme court) makes me queasy, there's still some hope here. and there is still work to be done. don't lie down, don't let them flatten us. keep working. it's awful, it feels hopeless, but there are bright bits, and the only way out is through.

Daily Kos :: Political Analysis and other daily rants on the state of the nation.:

Not a few people have spoken in the past few hours about an Americanist authoritarianism emerging out of the country's current leadership. I think that's not far-fetched. Fighting this requires that we stick together, not bashing each other, not fleeing or hiding or yielding to the temptation of behaving as if "what's the use?"

It's tough on the psyche to be beaten.Throughout our country's history, abolitionists, suffragists, union organizers, anti-racists, antiwarriors, civil libertarians, feminists and gay rights activists have challenged the majority of Americans to take off their blinders. Each succeeded one way or another, but not overnight, and certainly not without serious setbacks.

After a decent interval of licking our wounds and pondering what might have been and where we went wrong, we need to spit out our despair and return - united - to battling those who have for the moment outmaneuvered us. Otherwise, we might just as well lie down in the street and let them flatten us with their schemes.