Vote, vote, vote, vote, vote, vote, vote, vote. Don’t just think about it! Make a plan. Do it now. Put it on your calendar. Don’t forget.
As we get closer to the Nov. 3 election day, numbers of Americans who have voted early are beginning to approach those of a presidential election year. And there is no question that such a huge turnout is needed to send a crystal clear message to the world: Donald Trump is not what we want. No. Not now. Not ever … again.
Sometimes these things take time, but the death knell of the MAGA movement has been sounded.
It is important to recognize that, at the local level, particularly in this region, government policies have remained largely unchanged despite the political shifts of the Trump era. There has been no widespread effort by local governments to reverse progressive policies or return to earlier approaches to governance. Across Northern Virginia, the impact of the past decade of Trumpism on local government policies has been relatively limited.
Even a lot of the sound and fury from reactionary quarters have died down. Every month the children’s story hour at Freddie’s Beach Bar, Northern Virginia’s premiere gay bar in Crystal City, draws sell out crowds now, but the angry demonstrations of loud straight protesters opposing them have died out. Not died down, but died out completely. As much as some sources may want to make gender issues a matter for great distress, it’s become clear that it is such a minor issue that few folks even pay attention now, if they ever did.
Now there are far more people showing up every month to block the lines of sight of potential protesters by opening their rainbow umbrellas than there are protesters themselves. Meanwhile, inside Freddie’s, which brags in loud signage out front that it is a “straight-friendly gay bar,” scores of kids every month are being delighted by the stories and songs of the beloved Tara Hoot, the former elementary school teacher from Terre Haute, Indiana, who is on a trajectory to achieve superstar status as the region’s premiere drag queen. She’s truly very talented and great at communicating with young kids.
Not that there aren’t problems occasionally, but the attempt by the dying MAGA movement to generate a mass movement of Tara Hoot haters has not happened, and won’t.
The biggest issue for our times involves data, the phenomenal gains made by it and the need to regulate it. We are now in a “wild west” period akin to the early days of the Internet. But in the meantime, we face two imperatives: don’t be afraid to sing along with Tara, and vote, vote, vote, vote, vote!
See you on the other side of Election Day.
