HOPE
Yes, we have fallen, but I swear to God, we will rise up ...
This has been a punishing week, my friends.
And, yes, yes, it was to be expected … but as I typed earlier this week, just because a meteorologist can predict the catastrophic Category 5 hurricane it doesn’t make it any easier to deal with its terrible aftermath …
This has been a lot to process, and it is only going to get worse for now.
A vengeful, soulless, old man, who cares for nothing but himself, or silly little things like the rule of law, is on the loose and is careening around the country freely spreading his bile without any guardrails.
So now you are reading these words, cursing my confirmation of your worst instincts, and wondering just what in the hell we are going to do about all this hell.
It’s a fair question — the only question that really matters right now.
Before I take just a minute of your time to answer it, let me tell you something that I know for sure: You are not alone.
There are thousands of people in the Enough Already community alone who stand for what is good and right. You have gotten to know many of them here. There are the Suzannes, the Susans, the Lynns, the Bobs, the Stevens, the Veronicas, the Johns. There are the Garys, the Pams, the Marys and the Alices … Seriously, there are too many to count.
Just in this place alone …
Think of all the other Substacks with their millions of intelligent rough-and-readies, who are hurting, sure, but aren’t going away.
You (they) give me hope. There are activists, politicians, plumbers, landscapers, artists and just plain salt-of-the-Earth Americans who are tuned in and ready to fight for a country that has made uneven progress across a host of fronts over the decades, but has always pushed toward hope and inclusion.
None of that stops because one of our two major political parties has shown just how weak they are by pathetically surrendering to a lewd, America-attacking felon.
We still have the power, because we haven’t relinquished it. We are smarter, tougher and better than that. We demand more of ourselves and those who will lead us.
We are the ones who truly understand what America is meant to be, and what it was founded on.
This morning I had a five-minute talk that turned into a half-hour think-tank with a political friend here in Wisconsin who is in a position to know many things — one of them is that she has to be very careful how she proceeds with the resistance because there are people who literally want her, and people like her, dead.
This is where we are in America right now. There are people who wake up and decide whose life they will threaten today. And they do this with the endorsement of the orange thug.
Nevertheless, these Democratic leaders persist, and this one will be known as “Joanne” for now to protect her safety.
Joanne is an amazing person who is fighting and leading on so many fronts, and for so many good causes, it would take ten of me to make one of her.
I’m serious about this.
Anyway, she’s in regular touch with all the likely political leadership here in this battleground state, and they, too, are watching closely, and working around the clock to formulate a robust response to this assault on our democracy and our souls.
How we answer this blast will be key, but make no mistake about it, a response is coming. For now, we MUST win hearts and minds, because like it or not, we were on the losing end of the most important elections of our lifetimes in November.
We faired better than many of the battleground states here in Wisconsin. We held the Senate with Tammy Baldwin, and Kamala Harris actually garnered more votes than Joe Biden in 2020, but sadly it wasn’t enough.
We’re taking this hard.
In April we’ve got a crucial, crucial Supreme Court race here that will determine the balance of power on our state’s highest court. We-must-win, and as I’ve been typing this, I got two messages from the stellar, persistent folks at Team Gold, a Democratic activist group here in Madison urging me to sign up for shifts to help get Susan Crawford elected. Maybe if I can urge you to go hit her website and commit to volunteer or lay out a few bucks, I can be off the hook for a minute.
Probably not, though!
Point is, there are plenty of people who are living where you are right now. There are plenty of people like Joanne who are literally on the frontlines. We are all worried, but we aren’t beaten.
Fact is, to borrow from a fellow Navy man, John Paul Jones: “We have not yet begun to fight!”
Look, I am not a patient man. I gather many of you know that by now. You hit me, I’ll hit you back harder. I damn sure won’t be backing up. Not ever.
That’s big talk, sure, but I know the crowd I run with has my back.
There is a helluva lot of power in that.
(D. Earl Stephens is the author of “Toxic Tales: A Caustic Collection of Donald J. Trump’s Very Important Letters” and finished up a 30-year career in journalism as the Managing Editor of Stars and Stripes. You can find all his work here, and follow him on Bluesky here.)
I'm turning 74, and I ain't nearly done.
Don't count out us grayhairs, a lot of us didn't get this old without learning how to fight. We helped make a difference during Nam and haven't stopped.