Four years ago, most of us woke up the day after the election in a state of shock. We were sad, angry, and terrified about what a Trump presidency would mean for America.
It turns out we weren’t wrong to worry. These years have been some of the most difficult we’ve gone through as a country. At times, it would’ve been easy, maybe even understandable, to tune out the shitshow entirely and decide that what was broken about politics just couldn’t be fixed.
At least, that’s what Donald Trump was counting on.
But that’s not what happened.
What happened was that people poured into airports to protest the Muslim ban. Women marched in the streets with their daughters and sons. Crowds rushed to the border to show the world that immigrant children were being ripped from the arms of their parents. Organizers filled the halls of Congress to protect millions from losing their health care. Students launched a movement to save their friends from gun violence, and another to save the planet from climate change. Americans of all ages joined Black and brown organizers in the largest demonstrations this country has ever seen to battle the forces of racism and injustice.
Some of you who’ve stepped up in the last few years have been in this fight for a long time. But for a lot of you, it might’ve been the first time. The first time you ever called Congress. The first time you knocked on doors. The first time you ever donated to a candidate, made calls, sent texts. The first time you joined a campaign, or even ran for office yourself.
And you didn’t just do this for yourself. You did it for a family member who might be sick, or a friend who might be worried about deportation. You did it for millions of people you haven’t even met. You did it because you believed that despite everything that’s bad and broken about our country, we could still beat back the greatest threat to America in our lifetimes.
In the end, it’s not going to be close. Donald Trump lost. We won. Joe Biden will be our next President, Kamala Harris will make history as our next Vice President, and democracy lives to fight another day.
As Wisconsin Dems’ chair Ben Wikler said the other day:
Nothing about political change is inevitable…When you win by just 20,535 votes out of 3,289,421 votes cast, you know things could have gone the other way...The work never ends. Our work never ends. But right now, it's worth savoring our win. Every piece of this added up, and it was enough. And it changed history.
All the work you did this year mattered. In Georgia, where Joe Biden may win by fewer than 10,000 votes, the 11,000 voters who made sure they could vote through votesaveamerica.com mattered. In Arizona, where Joe Biden's current lead is 20,000 votes, the $53,000 you helped raise for Northeast Arizona Native Democrats who turned out 74,000 votes for Biden mattered. In Michigan’s eighth congressional district, where Rep. Elissa Slotkin held her seat by a little over 15,000 votes while Donald Trump won by 1,600, the 55 Adopt a State volunteers who made over 40,000 calls in the final days of the election mattered. The list goes on.
Keep that in mind as we look ahead to the work we have left to do. We didn’t win everything we had hoped for, and there are some big battles left to come. We’ll soon be turning our attention to the runoffs in Georgia that will determine if Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will have a Senate that will work with them. In 2021, we need to be willing to fight every day for the issues that matter most to us.
But for now, take a breath. Take a nap. Get some fresh air. Be proud of what you did, celebrate what we accomplished together, and remember that a better world is always possible.
Vote Save America
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