I’m sitting at the computer on this Monday post-election in a state of solemn euphoria. I’m feeling relief that the days of this administration are coming to a close and pondering what may come next.
After four years of working with immigrant communities, racial justice warriors, women and environmentalists to preserve some scraps of hope for a future, it fills up my heart to see how we pulled together to save this election. We drew a firm line that this president and his friends were not allowed to desecrate.
Today feels like a good day to reflect on a piece of my experience over the last few months. In retrospect it had more power than I recognized while we were engaged in the doing of it. I also want to pause and feel gratitude for some national leaders at @ChooseDemocracy, @ProtecttheResults, and the courageous and wise groups of @WageNonviolence, @TrainingforChange, @Indivisible, and many others that I don’t even know. In true progressive manner, they stepped forward to lead when progressive leadership was desperately needed.
Choose Democracy started the organizing, Protect the Results organized the post-election rallies, others provided training and support.
I need to tell the story from my small perspective, and ask for stories from you who are part of my network and beyond, to glean as much wisdom from this experience as we can. We all know we need each other. We know we’re in this together. This has given us a new taste of what “together” demands, and may have lessons for how “together” can work to lead us toward the world we really want to live in.
On October first, I admit I was in pretty deep despair. At the time I felt like I was handling things. Managing my day-to-day, keeping my peace group operational and all. But I felt all alone.
Today as I quietly bask in relief I see just how despairing I really felt. As a Quaker and the director of a community peace advocacy group, I’ve been following Wage Nonviolence for years and appreciate their work. But I didn’t get the message about the Choose Democracy Project until a friend sent me the post. Something about it caught fire for me and I signed up for the training because I was waiting and hoping for this.
Was I the only one who’d see the potential here though? The appeal for nonviolent strategy might not be what people wanted to talk about in such a polarized world. Several Facebook friends were posting about the need to “hit the streets” to protest manipulation of the election. Talk about a coup was rampant. The atmosphere was shimmering with anxiety, from every spot on the political spectrum.
But when I put out a tentative call. Fourteen people said yes and showed up for service. Wow. We started Choose Democracy NWA within the week.
This was national Choose Democracy’s strategy: “Count All the Votes”
And here’s their plan of action:
PRE-ELECTION
- Form small groups or teams
- Make contact with elected and election officials. Llet them know we wanted to see all the votes counted, and would be watching to see that they did their job.
- Outreach to our community to educate and engage them and support Get Out the Vote efforts
- Set up media and communication structures to prepare in case it became apparent that there would be a coup attempt.
What really constitutes a coup? The red line for Choose Democracy is if there were any attempt to stop the vote count before all votes were counted, and the president’s friends jumped in to try to help him force it through. We see now that this is exactly what happened. But the democratic process held in this case. Even when the president and his friends tried to call for their coup, the vote went on, and the vote counters kept up even with armed protesters outside the window acting badly, as there were in several contested counties.
There are many who see the race as flawed on the Democratic Party’s side. It’s a stunning reality that nearly half the country still voted for Trump even after all he did. But the process held. The votes were counted and the future will not include the kind of racist despot we saw in the current president. That’s a warm victory that’s part of my huge relief, and I won’t forget that when the future president does something I really hate.
POST-ELECTION
The broad coalition was SO READY! At least as much as they could imagine… which was quite a bit.
The trainings were incredible. Several of us in the CD NWA group took them. Training for Change and Wage Nonviolence started first. I took their training on Oct 14. They reserved Zoom slots for 1000 people so they could get everyone in, but it overflowed to the waiting room. At the next training they reserved 1500 slots, but that wasn’t enough either. They had to schedule two further trainings to get everyone onboard who wanted to know how to respond. Another training I took was by GreenPeace. Another was on media and several on security.
And the training was excellent. It was based on the nonviolence strategies of the late Gene Sharp, and at least party designed by the long-time nonviolence strategist George Lakey, who’s a Quaker (proud of that), and a Sociologist retired from Swarthmore University. He didn’t take credit for the plan, he only did the presentation, and other fine people had their names on the training. So there were lots of skilled hands on this. It was on point and good.
Furthermore, there were handbooks. Excellent handbooks. Media guides and tools with skilled people leading it! They were invaluable to making people like me feel as if we could be ready to tackle extreme problems if they arose. AND access to the resources they provided will be an ongoing bed of inspiration as we move into new phases of struggle for rights and wellbeing for people, planet and community in the future. Thank you to all those wise activists known and unknown for the gift you gave in creating these.
And finally the connections. On October first I felt alone. So alone! Even though I have a regional peace group behind me looking for nonviolent response to this, I had no idea how to mount the nationwide response that was really needed to take united action in a cohesive way. These national progressive groups came together and formed a front ready in a relative heartbeat to prepare willing people like us to respond nonviolently and appropriately. It was awesome! There needs to be a national monument to this effort that inscribes the names of every group, every leader, and every author for posterity to show what preserving democracy truly looks like.
As the election results came in it became clear to me just how important these connections really were. The win was so tenuous we could have given up hope. How many of us might have gone into that election confused about what was happening? There were lots of people feeling that way.
But the thousands trained by this project, and the groups they generated at lightening speed, were clear that 1) yes there could be a coup, 2) we knew we could recognize it, 3) we had a response ready, and 4) with many others we were committed to following through.
We didn’t have to (assuming there’s no November Surprise). But. We. Are. Ready. Ready Americans of many different backgrounds and skin tones and cultures and genders and languages. We got reminded of what democracy means to us, and what defending it really means. We forget sometimes. Especially when we’re fighting with each other.
What will we do with the learning we got? The prayer in my mind as the ordeal wore on was “if we’ve learned enough from this presidency please don’t make us endure it again.” The outcome makes me feel that maybe we did learn something. And is it enough? Can we move forward in a direction that that will help us find the world we truly want to live in? And to find it together?
The “together” part is still problematic since we’re embroiled in a polarized world of radically different values and carrying huge trauma from the history of oppression and exploitation we haven’t addressed. But “together” is the only good way forward. Anything else is forward over a cliff.
Some on both the right and the left will hold on to the pain and fury from this battle. I’d just like to say that pain and fury won’t help us uphold rights and wellbeing for people, planet and community. There’s a window here for healers. People ready to throw open the door to let In some healing light and air. Let the healers be unbound!
What’s your election 2020 story? What’s the learning bubbling up for you? What can you share that needs to be remembered about this time? Right now, while the feelings are raw and the wounds still unhealed, write them down and share the memory for a future when we’ll need this learning again. Seriously. We’re not done yet. We will need this learning again.
Please please comment here, or email omni@omnicenter.org
Gladys,
Thank you very much for your story. I like “Let the healers be unbound.” I am letting as much healing energy as I can flow into my community and through the energy waves.
Jane Purtle