It's all so... weird.

I’m feeling hopeful for the first time in this election cycle and it’s weirding me out.  Don’t get me wrong: I’m grateful to be feeling even a glimmer of something other than abject doom, but I definitely wasn’t expecting it.  It feels very strange that only a couple weeks ago I was fully resigned to plug my nose and vote for the not-fascist because I don’t want to live in a Project2025 world.  And now I get to vote for someone who might actually have a chance to build some cool things for the future.

I strongly suspect this is the only way a woman of color could have made it onto the ballot.  As a nation we’re probably still too racist and sexist for anyone other than an old white guy to have secured the party nomination, especially right now when people are scared and the future is so uncertain.  It was probably necessary for Biden to run all the way through the primaries before passing the torch.  It needed to be the only correct logistical option for the party to unite so soundly behind someone so completely different than all the prior presidents.

When the news first broke, I was hoping the prospect of getting to help elect the first woman president would be enough incentive for the I'm-just-going-to-sit-this-one-out folks to change their mind and show up on Election Day.  And it looks like it is.  Miraculously, Biden dropping out and Harris taking up the mantle flipped the blue side of the ticket from elect us to stop the other guy into elect us to move forward into a brighter future.  And we all might just pull it off.

There are a couple things about this moment that strike me.  One is the utter mundanity of being labeled as weird.  For those of us who grew up as “the weird kid” we know that small phrase can have enormous social consequences.  So I do not minimize in any way the suffering some folks have endured under that label.  But compared to all the other things the orange monstrosity has been called, weird is totally tame.

There appears to be some magic in that low-grade label.  If someone accuses you of a big something, it makes sense for your defensive reaction to also be big.  Even a ridiculous, overblown, stop-acting-like-an-infant sized reaction is proportionate to the charges.  Even if the accusation is true.  Maybe especially if it's true.  But when the accusation is so banal and your defensive reaction is still volcanic, all of a sudden it doesn’t make sense and your out-of-control, overblown, extraness is revealed to the casual observer.

Maybe that’s why it feels so much to me like an emperor’s new clothes moment.  I (and many many many others) have been keenly aware this whole time that a certain rich-guy-turned-politician is a dangerous, child-molesting, rapist who wants to be a dictator just like Vladimir Putin.  We have also known this idiot is completely unhinged and utterly detached from reality.  But those facts were not enough to maintain the energy in the fight against his efforts (and the efforts of those powerful people around him) to topple democracy in the US.  That baffled me right up until now when I am watching the shift happen in real time.

There are so many extreme realities right now at home and all over the world.  A lot of people became overwhelmed and had no mechanism or opportunity to recover from that burnout before the next wave of immediate-attention-requiring-disaster struck.  I see now that folks really just needed a break.  Fortunately for all of us, circumstance seems to have provided one in a completely unexpected way.

So if this is what it took for you to come back to the table, or to arrive for the first time, that’s great.  Welcome.  Welcome to the Save Democracy And A Lot of Peoples’ Lives Coalition.  We’re so glad you’re here.  I’m so glad you’re here.

And for my comrades who have been in it without stopping this whole time, I offer encouragement, affirmation, and a cautionary reminder.  Firstly, it’s okay to feel hopeful and also feel weird about feeling hopeful.  There are still so many important issue to continue fighting for and a whole system to fight against, that won’t change with a Harris presidency.  And I want to remind us all to make space for the disappointment you might feel in everyone else who couldn’t be bothered to show up before.  They may have had good reason for their absence, remember the system works diligently to keep our focus on other things.

I am definitely equal parts elated that everyone who is now energized and engaged is here, and also disappointed that defeating a deplorable human being running for the highest political office wasn’t enough incentive to show up earlier.  So if you also feel that bitterness, please take the time you need to process those feelings.  Give yourself space and grace, get a hug, punch a pillow, and talk to a fellow exhausted activist because it’s critical those feelings don’t leak out in the form of activist elitism.  It’s all too easy to turn-off a recently activated person by judging them for not already having been an activist.

And you know what?  It doesn’t actually matter.  Whatever gets you to the table, no matter how long it took.  As long as you’re here now (and at the polls in November), we can welcome you into the fold and show you what we've been working on so far.  Hopefully between now and election day you find camaraderie and community and stick around to continue the fight for care, dignity, and justice for all people that will continue long after November.

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Information and Inspiration

• ProPublica: Inside Project 2025’s Secret Training Videos
• TikTok: joyreidofficial - There's something happening...
• CNN: This Democratic governor started calling Trump, Vance 'weird.' Hear why
• NPR: Why 'weird' works for Tim Walz and Kamala Harris
• Politico: Young voters are looking for ‘fun.’ Democrats hope Walz can bring it.
• Al Jazeera: Harris tells pro-Palestine protesters ‘now is time for ceasefire’ in Gaza