We, The Voters

Well whodathunkit? The Midterm elections weren’t as hideous as I had feared. Granted, they’re not as much as I’d hoped – at least not yet. (Please, let the retaining House control not be hopeium. Please.) As we wait for the long final count (and whatever post non-Red Tsunami depression spin the GOP/Fox News finally comes up with), let us at least celebrate the good news.

• First, of course, we kept the Senate and can grow the lead with the Warnock runoff (of course this means I have a whole additional month of The Rev texting me for money multiple times a day… But still I’ll take it.)
• The first two out lesbian governors are elected (joining first out bisexual female governor Kate Brown and first out gay male governor Jared Polis) in new Oregon Governor Tina Kotek and Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey
• The first out trans man elected to a U.S. state legislature in James Roesener of New Hampshire.
• The first Black governors of Black governor of Maryland in Wes Moore, who is just the third Black person ever elected governor in U.S. history (which is pretty embarrassing to say in 2022, but still a win.)
• Statehouses in Michigan and Minnesota flip to Democratic, and Pennsylvania is close to following while several Democratic governors were elected or reelected including badass Gov. Big Gretch(en) Whitmer.
• Every election-denying Republican secretary of state candidate running in a swing state LOST, and several election-denying GOP governor candidates (buh-bye, Kari “Vaseline Filter” Lake, Doug “Confederate Soldier” Mastriano) lost too.

And those are just a few of the progressive firsts and big wins. All were a long time comings. But all well worth celebrating.

The pandemic has not exactly been great for anyone with a working sense of empathy. If you’re like me, it’s made me less hopeful about the world. And it definitely hasn’t made me like people more. I’ve always been misanthropic, but in a nice way. But now I simply cannot feel nice about people who are unabashedly selfish and unashamedly uninformed. The pandemic revealed there will always be a certain percentage of people who are just, well, assholes. And while the assholes may be the loudest, ugliest, more loathsome among us, these election results make me at least feel like we’ve held back the tide of shitheads a bit. And these days, a bit feels like a damn win.

p.s. My goal is to get back to everyone who commented, donated, wrote today. Please know my slowness is in no way relative to my level of appreciation and thanks. The exact opposite, truly.

How to Donate To My Little Life Implosion Fund:

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