Jimmy Patronis re: Gay Valimont on Saturday's Fox and Friends Weekend

[pat_k]

8. I didn't mean to put it on party apparatus alone.

I think people across the country are trying to figure out how the hell we find a way out of the shocking culmination of the horror show we are witnessing -- an horror show that has been unfolding before us for decades. As the destructionists move forward at warp speed, people are experimenting. Looking for what others are doing. Creativity in civic action and party politics seems to work best when there is energy from both the bottom up and the top down. More often than not, it is connections and idea generating among people within a community that kicks things off. Seeing so many things happening in so many places gives me hope. Things are building in a way that is different from the bigger more organized protests seen after the 2016 election. I think it is a sign of something more powerful and sustainable brewing. And as people committed to values like the four freedoms connect and act in their own communities, it could move things along if the Democratic Party provided some top down material support for bottom up efforts. I hope we see more people in their communities connecting with each other to organize and fund raise to build community infrastructure, and more support for efforts that get off the ground from the state and national parties.

2016 was devastating. It's incredibly painful to revisit the events of that awful day. For me it was the same sort of kick in the gut that Bush v. Gore was, but somehow worse because the "enemy force" wasn't a traitorous court. It was large numbers of fellow citizens, whether victims of brainwashing or just plain evil didn't matter. Hanging unto a belief in the power of the good will of the American people in the face of such an outcome felt impossible. It's like the ground fell out from under us. Finding enough glimmers of hope to put one foot in front of the other and soldier on remains a full time job.