What will you do with your agency? Will you let events shape you, or will you add your voice to shaping them?
Yesterday, the US stock market crashed more than 4.3% in response to the latest inflation report from August.
Yesterday, the last of this year’s round of state election primaries were held, crystallizing who will be on the ballot for this fall’s mid-terms.
Yesterday, the Biden Administration held a huge outdoor celebration on the White House lawn to mark the passing of the Inflation Reduction Act.
Yesterday, top Biden officials also worked feverishly to try to head off a national rail strike that could start as early as this Friday.
Also yesterday, Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) unveiled proposed legislation imposing a national ban on abortion past 15 weeks.
Less visible but equally portentous, in the last few days Russian and Ukrainian leaders pondered their next moves in the wake of Ukraine’s fast-moving defeat of the Russian forces around Kharkiv. Will it settle into stalemate or will one or both sides try for a knockout blow?
In the last few days, the members of the House Select Committee on the January 6th attack on the Capitol pondered what they will prioritize as they start a new round of hearings and work on a final report and recommendations. Having captured the public’s attention this summer, they now have an opportunity to shift the national conversation further.
And in the background, 1/3 of Pakistan remains flooded and there’s a quiet disaster unfolding in China as much of the country suffers from the worst heatwave and drought in many years.
When President Biden said in his September 1 Philadelphia speech warning about the dangers facing democracy in America that “America is at an inflection point,” he couldn’t have been more correct. What happens in the next seven weeks until Election Day here will affect us for years to come.
In one scenario, “the red wave” that has been building since Biden’s 2020 election leads to a Republican takeover of the House plus the election of MAGA Republicans to key positions in states like Arizona and Ohio. This is a recipe for two years of bitter gridlock in Washington and, potentially, the rejection of the popular vote in battleground states in 2024 and the installment of someone like Donald Trump in the White House.
In a different scenario, this fall becomes a “choice election” rather than a referendum on Biden’s first two years, and women voters — including Republican moderates — come out in force to tip not just the Senate further into Democratic hands, but maybe even holding losses in the House to a bare minimum. With a clear majority in the Senate, Democrats could do things like pass statehood for Washington, DC or strengthen voting rights, further blocking the authoritarian drive of the GOP.
The stakes of the election might be blurrier but for the decision by Democratic campaign strategists to pour millions of dollars into paid advertising aimed at boosting the chances of MAGA Republicans in many primaries, because they believe they will be easier to beat. That bet may pay off, though it could also backfire badly.
It’s scary to recognize how much of this is out of our hands. But it’s also important to remember what you can do.
If Russia chooses to escalate its war on Ukraine, for example, by using battlefield-grade nuclear weapons to shock and awe its adversaries into submission, in all likelihood the war wouldn’t end but the shock to global economies and psyches would be severe.
If rail-workers choose to fully flex their muscles and shut down the national transportation system for most freight, disrupting supply chains further, consumer confidence about the economy might take another dive.
And who knows how we will react to, horrors, another mass shooting or a big hurricane.
Fear and gloom may help Republicans more the Democrats, because the former are already angry and motivated to vote, while the latter are just beginning to feel more hopeful about the direction of the country.
Like many grassroots activists, over the next 41 days I plan to be out knocking doors in swing districts where the battle for Congress will be decided. At the end of the day, we all have our part to play in this titanic clash. Doing nothing is also a choice, one that effectively helps the other side. As Nadine Bloch of Beautiful Trouble says, “the most common way that people give up power is thinking they don’t have any.” We have a lot of power. We just don’t know if it will be enough.