Back in 1976, when I was 12 years old, the nation celebrated its 200th anniversary in so many amazing ways.
I remember my parents telling me, early in the year, that it would be a “year long party” and that this was a pretty big deal.
And it was. Bigger parades. Celebrations in communities across the country felt a little bit bigger. Happy birthday, America, indeed.
I’ve got to be honest; I haven’t felt that same sense of celebration this year, when we should be truly celebrating the 250 year experiment of democracy in action.
There are many days when I don’t feel like I live in an actual “democracy” anymore.
The founding fathers very clearly established the three branches of government – the executive (president); the legislative (Congress); and the judicial (the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS)).
Those three branches of government were designed to provide a set of checks and balances and, honestly, for the first 240 years, they served us pretty well.
Over the past decade, during the two terms of Donald Trump serving as our president, I’m not gonna lie. It feels like one loose thread is unraveling oh-so-much.
And I know a lot of my fellow Democrats are feeling pretty discouraged. Today doesn’t feel like much of a celebration in many ways.
It certainly doesn’t feel like 1976.
Think about it: in 1976, our nation was finally healing from the disaster that was the end of the Nixon presidency and the biggest presidential corruption scandal on record.
There was plenty to celebrate. Though it was sad and discouraging, our nation’s three branches of government stood the test of time, those 200 years later, and they ushered a president out the door because he was caught with his hand in the cookie jar (totally a metaphor).
By 1976, the Statue of Liberty was dusting herself off and standing tall and proud once again.
And here we are today, 50 years later.
Is our nation still standing tall? Is Ms. Liberty still proudly welcoming the tired, the poor, the huddled masses?
I wasn’t that surprised when I woke up this morning and it was cloudy outside and I learned the weather forecast calls for rain and thunderstorms.
Maybe God, or Budda, or whatever deity you worship is trying to tell us something, eh?
But here’s the thing: I totally understand how awful it can be to sit and watch all that is falling apart and feel beyond discouraged.
But.
The Big Grumpy Patti Samar BUT here is this: Sticking your head in the sand and wishing that Donald Trump is not president and that he is not signing executive orders that bring great harm to our friends in the LGBTQIA+ community, and that also harm our friends from any number of cultures and racial backgrounds by banning diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs in the government, among a whole slew of other disgusting and dangerous executive orders, is definitely NOT helpful.
NOW is the time we need to get really pissed off and fight. And protest. And, at the very least, let our targeted friends know we are a safe space and we have their backs.
I attended the Women’s March in Washington, DC in January 2017. It took place the day after Trump’s first inauguration. It still stands, on record, as the largest protest in our nation’s history. More than half a million people — mostly women, as I can personally attest — from all across the country attended to let their voices be heard.
On a daily basis, both traditional and non-traditional news outlets are filled with stories of Trump’s presidency that are flabbergasting, appalling and sometimes downright comical.
There are days when you can’t tell if you are watching the real Donald Trump in the Oval Office or if you are watching James Austin Johnson play him in a Saturday Night Live skit.
But oh no. It is real.
But during Trump’s first term, do you know what happened when 2018 hit?
Democrats took back their power across the country up and down the ticket from county commission seats to gubernatorial seats and they even took back control of the U.S. House.
In 2018, our nation didn’t continue on the crazy train and elect more MAGA; we swerved and elected a whole bunch of Democrats.
“Traditional” conservatives began attending their county Democratic party meetings across the nation. They understood that Trump’s version of politics and policy was not the version of America that they wanted to see.
(Side note: We all know Trump’s base cannot be broken; they are lost-cause loyalists to him. But all of us also know more “traditional” conservatives who are not Make America Great Again (MAGA) Republicans who despise Trump.)
So my point here, in all of the sadness and wallowing that many Dems are feeling today instead of celebrating our 250th anniversary, is this: If you must take today to feel sad and wallow, so be it. But tomorrow, my dear friends, tomorrow you must get out of bed with a new resolve.
Look for opportunities to support those marginalized communities that will be needing more support than you can ever imagine over the course of the next two years.
And most of all, this: Speak up. Loudly.
What Donald Trump did in 2016 was open doors that had been closed for many years. Those doors had signs on them that said:
“Racism is bad. You are not allowed to speak ill of those from other cultures and whose skin color is different from your own. Period.”
“We accept members of the LGBTQ community because people are born that way. There is no such thing as making gender or sexual identity “choices.” People are who they are. Science says so. Period.”
“Science, fer crying out loud, is real. We listen to scientists and we follow their guidance regarding our personal and environmental health. Period.”
And so much more.
We must, we absolutely MUST, speak up on those and so many other important issues (there are too many to list here). We must continue to put pressure on our elected officials.
We will definitely NOT get our way, especially where I live in St. Clair County, Michigan, much of the time, but we can definitely become a pain in the behinds of our elected officials so they know there are constituents who see the world differently.
We must focus on making them feel uncomfortable. Very uncomfortable.
And then this fall, and again in two years, we work hard to elect people who have a view of reality that is keen and clear.
I know this is discouraging and I know it is hard, but dang it.
We cannot sit by and watch those we love be told to stuff themselves back in closets. Or that they are not allowed a seat on a bus.
We MUST speak up.
So happy 250, America. The shine might need some waxing, but it is still there beneath a murky, rotten coat of dirt and silt that is muddying the waters right now.
It will take many hands to rub that shine back out. So grab your rags, roll up your sleeves and get ready to work hard.
My adopted mom, the great Donna Schwartz of Port Huron, always told me: “If not you, then who?”
Who, indeed. Who, indeed.
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