A New Year’s resolution to stop doomscrolling and do something
As 2023 draws to a close, I want to remind everyone of the victories we saw this past year as Americans came together to protect our freedoms and defend the dignity of all members of our communities.
In Kentucky, incumbent Governor Andy Beshear, a champion for the rights of transgender Kentuckians, won his re-election by a resounding five points. Beshear’s opponent had made his anti-trans sentiments a cornerstone of his losing campaign.
In Virginia, after the governor endorsed a state abortion ban, candidates in support of abortion rights defied predictions by retaining and gaining enough seats in the state legislature to block the ban.
In Ohio, voters successfully adopted a state constitutional amendment guaranteeing individuals the right to an abortion, passing the measure by a large margin despite steep obstacles presented by anti-abortion groups. Ohio was the seventh state to vote on an abortion-related ballot measure since the overturning of Roe v. Wade; all seven states have voted to protect our reproductive freedom.
In Wisconsin, Judge Janet Protasiewicz won a seat on the State Supreme Court, making it likely that the court will finally address Wisconsin’s extremely gerrymandered legislative maps, which have been particularly discriminatory against the state’s Black voters.
In a nutshell, MAGA extremism lost big time in the 2023 elections.
The amazing victories of 2023 didn’t just happen; they succeeded thanks to people from every age group, race and political party who believed they could impact their future and who put in the time and effort to do just that.
Had all the polls and political pundits convinced Kentuckians that transgender rights was a losing battle in their red state, the anti-trans candidate might be sitting in the governor’s seat right now. Had the media convinced Virginians that fighting for abortion rights was pointless in their Southern state, being pregnant in Virginia now might be as dangerous as it is in Texas and Idaho.
With polls and speculations about the 2024 election now filling the media, we need to remember that nobody has a crystal ball to see the future, but there is one thing we know for certain: If we allow the political pundits to depress us to the point of feeling helpless about our future, a Trump victory will be much more likely.
As AFL-CIO’s former political director Michael Podhorzer stated, “(A)s long as we have more confidence in the media’s ability to see the outcome than in our own ability to affect it, we surrender before the battle for our freedoms begins.”
MAGA Republicans continuously spout “bah, humbug” statements about our government, elections, and even democracy because they know they have a better chance of winning when large portions of Americans become cynical and hopeless and check out of politics. Let’s not fall for it. Let’s not be fooled into believing we’re powerless to impact an election that’s almost a year away.
We absolutely need to keep ourselves informed and remember what is at stake in next year’s presidential election. Trump’s plans to “come after” people who disagree with him and use the US military against US citizens are terrifying.
At the same time, we can be more thoughtful about how much and which news we consume. There’s no point in spending so much time reading bad news that we feel too deflated to do anything about it.
We can also be more careful about the news we share and the conversations we have. Spreading panic about the prospect of a second Trump presidency can contribute to the false and dangerous notion that Trump represents strength. Americans love strong leaders. So rather than adding to Trump’s illusions of grandeur, let’s remind people of Trump’s weaknesses.
As Nobel Peace Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman wrote, “Trump’s performance in office was feeble.” His puffed up promises to repeal Obamacare completely flopped, his grand plans for “Infrastructure Week” became a running joke, and the authoritarian leaders that he bent over backwards to appease managed to “play Trump for a fool.”
“Like any bully,” Obama’s former advisor Dan Pfieffer noted, “Donald Trump pretends to be a dictator to hide his own weaknesses.”
For a New Year’s resolution this year, consider a commitment to dedicate more time working to impact the results of the 2024 election than worrying or spreading panic about it. Join an organization, talk with your neighbors, write letters to the editor, and help out a local candidate. From Garfield County to Washington, the issues are all connected and we can often be more impactful at the local level.
This New Year, I hope you’ll join me in resolving to keep in mind the hard-won victories of 2023 and do our part to ensure another victory for American families and our freedoms in 2024.
Debbie Bruell of Carbondale chairs the Garfield County Democrats and is a past member of the Roaring Fork Schools Board of Education.
