Musings of a marginally sane feline-appreciating female.

Where the fuck have y’all been the past 5 years? Maybe if you had done this from the start, we wouldn’t have a huge swath of the population taking his word as gospel while he says it’s “illegal votes” making him lose.

And I am done with every 5 minute update on the margins in Georgia. Nothing is a given there, Philly, Arizona, or Nevada. We need to be ready for this to not end well for us – and I don’t think we are. (OK, marginalized folks have probably been very ready for this. White middle class D’s are not.)

If Biden wins, I don’t think I’ll feel OK about it until Dec 14 when the electoral college does its thing.

Over 3.8 million delta in the vote count and it’s still a nail biter. Such a fucking terrible system we have here.

The work Stacey Abrams has done in Georgia with Fair Fight is amazing – but she shouldn’t have had to do it in the first place – the systematic voter suppression is something that white folks should have fixed long ago cause we put it in place. It’s not right that we’ve put it on her and other non-white organizers to save us from ourselves.

The good news is that I think I’m too exhausted to be anxious about my dental appointment this afternoon, so hopefully I won’t have to bail before it even starts again.

We must be the fucking laughingstock of the world. Again.

Nothing like electing a national leader when you have 50 different sets of voting/counting rules & procedures.

45 is filing lawsuits everywhere. Stop counting! Keep counting! Count it again! We don’t care if what you’re doing is legal, we don’t like it!

In 2015-6, I recall thinking that 45 was courting the white nationalist vote, and I remember thinking, “Huh, kinda niche, cause I think that will turn off other voters and are there really that many of them?”

OH HOW FUCKING WRONG I WAS. I knew we still had white supremacists and white nationalists in the country – I wasn’t *totally* stupid. I legit had no idea how many of them were here. (To non-white folks: I know, I know, I know – you knew this from the day you were born and have experienced it every day – they’re fucking everywhere.)

Somehow, even with near a quarter of a million folks dead from Covid, he managed to corral another 5 million voters over last time. That is horrific, and let’s be real here – it’s white people. It’s not the slice of Cuban Americans he picked up in Florida, it’s not the sliver of African American men, it’s not that the Democrats didn’t turn folks out.

The problem is racist white people. Racist white people who continue to build and support systems that benefit them and continue to disenfranchise and suppress non-whites and every other marginalized group in this country. Racist folks who find 45’s terrible attitude towards non-white folks a feature, not a bug.

I don’t know how to make a racist person not be racist – I really don’t. I can’t wrap my head around what makes a person that way.

But, I can keep electing and supporting folks who *can* dismantle some of these systems to improve things. My winter project is going to be doing research as to eligible vs actual voters – not nationwide, probably start hyper locally – who isn’t voting? Who isn’t *able* to vote? What can *I* do to fix that or push for fixes to it?

And of course, continue to annoy the fuck out of all my elected officials.

We’re fucked to be sure, but I’m not giving up. I know there are way more people who believe in better things than what we’ve got now – we just need to make the damn process accessible to them so we can drown out the right wing.

Can a candidate be over three million votes ahead and still have it very much in the realm of possibility that they lose.

Not going to flip the Senate it seems, so no meaningful legislation can be passed in the next two years. And who knows if we’ll be able to get any judges confirmed. And in 4 years, the R’s will go “Look, they did nothing.”

If Biden wins, he’s going to have to go to town with the Executive Orders. And at least we can clean up the cabinet agencies, which isn’t nothing.

Someone has pointed out that McConnell is old, infirm, and in a state with a Democratic governor. Harsh, but also, well, true.

45 is “claiming” shit left and right – well, if we’re doing that, I’m claiming an Ocean View suite at the Renaissance Aruba in Oranjestad.

And if another Democratic operative tells me to “be optimistic” – I’ll be happy if we win. Until then, everything is just kinda shit and I am preparing myself to see a THIRD election in my lifetime where the winner of the popular vote doesn’t make it to the White House.

And polling…what a waste that has been. The “shy Trump voter” apparently exists – they’re ashamed to admit it. OK…you’re so close there. You recognize shame, and maybe…you could have taken an action that did not cause you shame?

I would have thought near a quarter million dead from the pandemic would have changed a few more minds – but that requires caring about others, and I wasn’t thinking about how that is just a bridge too far these days.

And every candidate I supported outside my district lost. Most of them just shellacked. Might as well have just set my money on fire. New rule I think – no more candidate contributions, but instead get that money to mutual aid groups and groups dismantling voter suppression. (Oh look, an email from Georgia asking for money for the runoff. I shit you not.)

I’m trying to be positive, but I remember 2016. And I remember 2000.

It’s election day and I’m not going to the polls. I *know* that my early vote counted, but it just…feels like not going on election day = not voting. (This is a me problem – I am a huge fan of early voting and I’m still mad we didn’t have Sunday voting, and I do not consider anyone else’s early vote to not count.)

I just get a weird charge out of going to the polls on election day, and I feel a little at loose ends not doing it.

But, I am helping a friend on Facebook get voting information this morning, and that feels REALLY GOOD. I’ve given them links to our voter info portal and the number for the Virginia Voter Hotline at 844-4VA-VOTE, and hopefully that will get them pointed in the right direction. (And I hope they feel OK asking me any other questions.)

If I’d been thinking straight, I would have taken *tomorrow* off…

My big plans for the rest of the day are to hit the liquor store when it opens at noon (we are out of Baileys,) run into the CVS next door because I have lost my nail clippers AGAIN, and then maybe treat myself to a leisurely-but-less-than-15-minute stroll through the Hallmark store to get a candle or notebook or something. (I should get stationery for writing my reps with the list of all the shit they need to do. A real letter should get some attention, LOL.)

If you haven’t already – GET OUT THERE AND VOTE TODAY!!!!!!

Just a few more days to go. You got this. Eat all the comfort food you need.

Also, to every volunteer out there phone and text banking – you’re doing great and important work! Also, for the love of all that’s good and holy, stop calling and texting me!

Also, whoever is in charge of all the emails – get your shit figured out, it feels like someone is on a coke binge sending these. No campaign should be sending me more than 1 email a day.

If you still have a mail in ballot – GET IT DROPPED OFF! If you’re voting tomorrow – dress for the weather, wear your mask, and take some snacks in case the lines are long.

And remember, we’ll probably know very little by bedtime tomorrow, and that’s OK. Between the high levels of mail in votes and high turnout in general – it’s going to take a bit to get everything counted. That’s OK, and it’s normal, and I think we’ll see networks holding off on calling races because of it – again, it’s OK.

Don’t get me wrong – it’s frustrating as hell that we won’t know right away, CAUSE I WANT TO KNOW – but it’s OK.

God, I hope we can show that ass the door and we can ignore him for the rest of his natural life. (Note to media: Please, if he loses, ignore him forever. Also, Twitter – you should ban him.)