Today is Super Tuesday, the day that voters in 14 states will cast their vote for their party's presidential nominee. My social media stream is a torrent of exhortations to vote, combined with various arguments for and against the candidates. Fear and despair abound.
It is these moments in which I turn to Valarie Kaur and her inspiring words about Revolutionary Love. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQ7QlKG70LE. If you are thirsty for #RadicalHope, take the sweet six minutes of this video to heart. Valarie asserts that politics is about love and oneness. Some may think that's too schmalzy and naive, but I know better.
In 2016, my kids accompanied me to the Election Night Watch Party that had become an annual tradition with my friends and colleagues. My oldest brought the iPad and followed the numbers all evening, figuring and refiguring the Electoral College count as the night unfolded. Then came the moment when he looked up at me from the other side of the room and gestured for me to come closer. When I leaned over, he whispered, "Mom, I'm scared. Are we gonna win?"
The "we" in that question referred to Democrats. As it turned out, we did not win. The next morning, there was an icy rock in the pit of my stomach. It was made of fear. That icy fear steadily increased as time passed, until it threatened to color everything I said and did.
I offer cynical commentary on the regular, but in truth, I am a not-so-closeted idealist and optimist. In spite of the ugliness in the world, I still believe that many people are fundamentally good. I still believe that we can use grassroots power to create change. I still believe that love is a powerful antidote to toxicity. I still believe that we can walk into the voting booth with warm, bright, radical hope in our hearts, even in the darkest times.
That's why Radical Hope will accompany me to my polling place. Not Radical Fear, not Revolutionary Whiteness, not Radical Electability, not Revolutionary Strategic Analysis, not Radical Misogyny, not Revolutionary Homophobia, not Radical Racism. No. Radical Hope and Revolutionary Love. . #RadicalHope #BreatheAndPush
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