Facing the Midterms With Courage
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Voter rolls purged. International monitors banned. Over a billion in campaign cash spent. Registration drives canceled out of fear. Armed federal agents at the polls.
This is what the midterm elections in the United States will look like for many voters in November.
With the Trump administration, billionaire megadonors, and ICE threatening to imperil the U.S.’s long-fraught electoral system, the challenge of combating authoritarianism seems to grow more daunting as November 3 approaches.
According to Gallup polls, most adults believe elected officials are not held accountable. A record number also believe government corruption is widespread. Meanwhile, a Gallup poll showed that more Americans have a positive view of socialism than they have in 15 years.
But even when discontent is near-universal and the desire for change is palpable, the way forward is not always clear. Charting that path will require a lot from each of us. Writing for YES! in 2017, Frances Moore Lappé and Adam Eichen called on us to cultivate “a learned art on which all other civic virtues depend, and one that’s never been more needed”:
While capacity for cooperation and sensibility to fairness come fairly easily for most of us, another essential civic virtue requires more. In our current moment of extreme breakdown in common decency — brought on by a money-dominated political system and a brutal form of capitalism generating widespread distrust and fear — another essential virtue is calling out for attention: courage.
–Frances Moore Lappé & Adam Eichen
Read the full article: The Essential Ingredient of Democracy
From the Archives: Bringing Joy to Courageous Action
The possibly turbulent months ahead will be even more excruciating if we only bring dread to the work required to defend democracy. Masking our real fears from each other is no solution either. Organizers have called on us to recognize the joy that emerges in struggle, which may give us enough fuel to keep fighting in difficult times.
“Finding joy in the struggle requires us to look, hear, feel, and receive deeply — to notice those blue-sky moments that are hidden among the clouds,” wrote Kevin Kahakula’akea John Fong for YES! in 2021. “To hold onto them, and let them be a salve of comfort and respite as we struggle to fill the void left by the loss of loved ones, of work, school, our connections with family and friends, our daily routines, our communities, and even life as we once knew it.”
Read the full article: Finding Joy in the Struggle
From the Archives: Democracy Beyond the Ballot
We must absolutely defend our right to vote, but we should not fall into helplessness if setbacks befall us. Democracy can – and must – take many forms, from parties and assemblies, to participatory budgeting and land trusts.
Writing for YES! in 2024, Laura M. Quintero and Camille Padilla Dalmau reminded us that Puerto Ricans, who cannot vote in U.S. elections, did not allow their colonial status to prevent them from organizing to make their demands.
“[V]oting is far from the only way to participate in a democracy, and for those who choose not to vote or who are denied the right, communities are coming up with creative ways to have their voices heard,” Quintero and Dalmau wrote.
Read the full article: Voices Beyond Votes
New Work by YES! Contributors
- David Korten, co-founder of YES!, explains why reckoning with the existential threat of AI requires us to think beyond rules and regulations, requiring a global transformation toward an Ecological Civilization.
- Sonali Kolhatkar, the host of Rising Up With Sonali, discusses how fascism is unfolding in the U.S. with historian Robin D. G. Kelley.
- Marianne Dhenin reports on a campaign aimed at thwarting the purchase of Israel bonds by Palm Beach County, Florida, the world’s largest investor in bonds that help fund occupation and genocide.
New Solutions Journalism From Independent Media
?️ Activists Are Preparing to Defend Elections This November – Truthout
?️ Shut Out of Global Climate Forums, Puerto Ricans Bet on the Power of Community – Prism
? How to Combat Fear at the Polls This November – Waging Nonviolence
3️⃣ The Three True Pillars Of American Democracy – In These Times
?? Is Data Center Resistance a New Vehicle for Multiracial Democracy? – Convergence
❤️? These Organizers Are Challenging Family Policing With Collective Care – Hammer and Hope
Rising Up With Sonali
Rising Up With Sonali continues to bring solutions journalism coverage to television, radio and podcast platforms. A one-woman operation run by former YES! Senior Editor, Sonali Kolhatkar, the program is sustained entirely through low-cost subscriptions starting at only $4 a month.
CLICK HERE to subscribe now. Not yet ready to subscribe? Sign up to receive Sonali’s free newsletter instead.
Do Not Go Unjoyful Into That Good Fight
If courage is what brings us into the fight, joy is what keeps us fighting together. In all the spaces of grassroots work ahead we can embrace the whole panoply of democratic practice in defense of what we must save — and in struggle for the world we want to create. As the late Truthout columnist William River Pitts often reminded us, “stout hearts.”
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Truthout
hosts a monthly newsletter with relevant content from the YES! digital archives and new solutions journalism from a variety of publications. These curated resources can help us imagine – and build – movements for transformation.
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