Democracy In (in)Action

My junior Senator was sworn in yesterday.  Standing by his side was his wife, my former Representative.  It was a happy moment, a deeply personal moment, a step in the right direction at a time when the whole thing seems to be going off the rails.

Plus there was my senior Senator's purple wig, worn in solidarity with those women who are staying home, away from salons, and are reluctant to show their un-dyed selves in public.  She's been wearing various colored wigs on the Senate floor since Pandemica began.  

Two Democratic Senators from Arizona.  One's a friend and one is delightfully weird.  Both have the best interests of our state at heart..  They may be a bit too conservative for my wish list, but I'm not letting perfect get in the way of what I have right here and now. 

That's being an adult.  That's democracy.  It's not exactly what I want it to be, but it's what we've got and what we have to work with.  I'll still be writing letters and calling and filling out the forms at senate.gov, but I know that there will be a receptive ear at the other end.

Unlike the current incumbent, who seems hell bent on destroying our democracy.  That's not a surprise.  The most democratic of functions, the election, broke his brain.  He is the living, breathing description of Cognitive Dissonance.  He absolutely cannot accept that he lost, and that everyone knows that he lost.  That's our reality; we are inured to it.

But the enablers in the Republican party are another matter entirely.  They are not all emotionally crippled.  Some of them must still believe in facts.  On the local level, Secretaries of State and county election officials understand that this attack is on more than our democracy; it is on our fellow citizens.  Have the Republican  members of Congress forgotten that it is those citizens who elected them?  

Greta Hutchinson ran the local elections for as long as I or anyone else could remember.  G'ma and she were fast friends; G'ma always a poll worker, keeping her ear to the ground.  Nothing went on that Greta didn't know about.  No one dared make a false move; Greta was fierce.  And everyone knew her.

That was true on mid-century Long Island and it's true in 21st century Tucson.  F. Ann Rodriguez and Katie Hobbs are visible presences, reassuring and informing and confirming and not being swayed by outlandish claims.  In Chicago, we knew the precinct captain as a presence all year long; when it came time to vote and his minions rang the bell to ask if I needed help getting to the polling place, it seemed like neighbor helping neighbor.

These are real people doing real jobs and doing them well.  That's anathema to the Trumps.  I get that.  But what about the rest of those calling themselves Republicans?

There is no excuse for allowing this insanity to continue.  Someone has to speak out, and speak loudly and clearly while doing so.