We Cannot Change the Way the World Is
Every cell in my body wants to time travel and go back to Monday, November 4, 2024. I want the election that happened to have never happened. I want what didn’t happen to have happened. But no matter how terrified, angry, sad, or overwhelmed we feel, we cannot change the way our country is.
My personal feelings of despair reminded me of something I learned several years ago from the writings of Chögyma Trungpa, a Tibetan Buddhist.
The title of this post is the last sentence of a longer precept from his teachings. He says:
We cannot change the way the world is, but by opening to the world as it is, we may discover gentleness, decency, and bravery are available, not only to us, but to all human beings.
Our Team at H4D is working to re-ground, regroup, and recalculate where we find ourselves and what it is that we are being called to do. We know we are still working to grow a pro-democracy movement which was the genesis of the founding of Hoosiers for Democracy. This movement will now have elements of resistance—a resistance of the authoritarianism that has been democratically elected into our form of government.
Some of you reading this may not understand what it means to be ruled by an authoritarian regime. The paradox of electing a dictator may be foreign to you. Soon, we will all begin to understand these things.
Stay with us as the next several months unfold and together we will make meaning of what is happening and together we resist what is unjust, undemocratic, corrupt and cruel. H4D will fight to preserve the tattered shreds of democratic norms and the democratic institutions that are guided by those norms. We invite you to join us and together we will stand against what is unjust, undemocratic and corrupt. We will do this together with gentleness, decency and bravery. We will do this even though we are unsure of the impact or the difference it will make. We will do this together because we have no other choice. It is our duty.
A supporter reacts to election results during an event for U.S. Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris at Howard University in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 5, 2024. Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images
What We Know For Now:
Many of us could see the warning signs, others did not. The amount of Russia inspired propaganda and misinformation that flooded into the body politic had a huge impact on the outcome of the elections. Our legacy media failed to adequately inform about what was at stake, failed to provide context, failed to provide meaning. However, legacy media is no longer the way that most voters learn about the candidates or what is at stake in elections. Social media is the medium of choice.
Democrats and pro-democracy groups do not have strong alternative information and influencing platforms when it comes to connecting with certain voting blocs of people. There seems to be a dearth of ‘center right’ influencers on social media that connect with the younger generation across the cultural spectrum. Meaning making, creating a broader context for current events, and listening to the concerns of the public must be a long-term strategy, not a GOTV campaign. Communication about what is happening within this next administration must occur consistently in ways in which everyone can understand and in venues in which citizens are plugged in. This must be the work of the minority party and pro-democracy/pro-decency advocates over the next several months if we are to create a robust and broad-based resistance movement.
Legacy non-partisan organizations must reimagine their role when one political party and their elected officials are anti-democratic and pro-fascist. They were reluctant to admit what was happening and veiled in their response to the threats that they did see. We hope they will become strong allies in the pro-democracy movement and support the broad coalition building. We need them.
Pro-democracy activists have yet to figure out how to respond to the trad movement that has taken hold in some sectors of the Catholic Church and other evangelical denominations. White Christian Nationalism and the trad Catholic movement significantly influenced this election. This white supremacy movement is regressive and steeped in patriarchy. And let’s see the world as it is, racism and misogyny are the drivers of these movements. Faith leaders who are steeped in the traditions of love, inclusion, equity, compassion and justice must step up and give witness to a different theology. Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the Confessing Church are historical precedents.
We have now elected even more of these movement leaders into positions of power. Indiana already had a good start with Jim Banks, Todd Rokita and Diego Morales. With Micah Beckwith in office, our state legislators will become even more emboldened to write into law and public policy the precepts of their radical religious ideology at the state level and support whatever rolls down from the federal level. Many of our neighbors and fellow citizens will be targets. We have already seen this in the anti-trans laws, abortion bans, attacks on immigrants, stripping away environmental protections, anti-science bias, book bans, attacks on public education and academic freedom in state colleges and universities. We have yet to see how mass deportation will be implemented and the human suffering that will cause. However, our newly elected officials are eager to begin.
What it Matters:
An uninformed, misinformed, disinformed electorate is deadly for a democracy.
To the degree in which the foundations of Project 2025 will be implemented, everything is at stake. This governing plan for the next GOP administration was developed in cooperation and the guidance of Viktor Orbán, the Hungarian authoritarian leader who has successfully dismantled Hungary’s democracy and done away with fair elections. We have elected our own Viktor Orbán. Trump frequently praises Orbán as a great leader.
This is not a drill. Every citizen that loves the foundation of this country and the belief in democracy needs to sit up and pay attention.
If you are devastated and saw this coming, do not fall into despair. Stay connected with others. Find respite in family, friends and nature. Get sleep and consume the news in moderation.
If you know people in your family or sphere of influence who voted for Trump and his acolytes because of being mostly uninformed or disengaged from the political process, share with them your concerns in an authentic and non-judgmental way. Invite them to learn about Project 2025 and the GOP’s infatuation with illiberal democracies and strongmen. Relational advocacy is still the best way to change hearts and minds. If you are connected to others who are solidly within the MAGA cult, don’t waste your time. First things first.
Our focus will become more national considering the election results, but we will continue to draw attention to what is happening in our state.
It's worth repeating, consume the news and information in moderation and do not rush to action. Avoid the echo chamber of social media. We have work to do, but it must be steeped in reflection, contemplation and rest. This interregnum time gives us a chance to recenter, regroup and plan.
Our top recommendations for staying informed for this moment include:
Heather Cox Richardson—has a free and paid option of her newsletter and several books. The paid version gets you access to Zoom sessions with her that include Q & A sessions. She is a national treasure.
Ruth Ben Ghiat—has a free and paid subscription to her newsletter. Her paid subscription gets you access to video sessions that include Q & A sessions. They are wonderful.
David Corn—has a newsletter that is associated with Mother Jones. His newsletter is free, Mother Jones requires a subscription. (very inexpensive and well worth the money)
Timothy Snyder is an expert on forms of tyranny and authoritarianism. He has a free and paid version of his newsletter, Thinking About.
MeidasTouch Network is an independent, pro-democracy platform that includes a Substack newsletter, podcasts and YouTube channel. Most of their content is free.
Our own and beloved Sheila Kennedy is a daily source of indispensable clarity sprinkled with a bit of snark. That’s her brand!
Share our newsletter and help us grow this movement!
We are all in this together. Stay connected. Stay informed. Stay brave.
Yours in democracy,
Hoosiers for Democracy Team
Notes:
Alternative news sources have been emerging over the past few years. Substack is becoming the new ‘social media platform’ without algorithms and may be part of the solution of reaching broader sectors of citizens. The fastest growing independent news network is MeidasTouch Network. Its founder, Ben Meiselas has received numerous death threats from MAGA followers since the election. He is not backing down.
Black students across the country, including many young person’s here at our IU Bloomington campus began receiving racist text messages on Wednesday warning them that they would be brought to plantations to work as enslaved people and pick cotton. Of serious concern is how the phone numbers of POC were identified for this hideous assault. And so, the cruelty begins. For more information see https://www.cnn.com/2024/11/09/us/racist-texts-black-people-investigation-what-we-know/index.html or Google to get a source that isn’t behind a pay wall. We have to ‘see the world as it is’ and not hide from what is unfolding.