Celebrating Our Wins

🤓 Bite-Sized Knurd: After a summer of dismay, progressives can finally point to a few wins. We must celebrate them loudly and clearly to help sustain our movement.

Read on for more…

Lately, I’ve been thinking about joy in activism.

I think we can all admit that this summer hasn’t been great. With the series of horrendous SCOTUS rulings, inflation woes, January 6 revelations, extreme heat, and other climate disasters, it’s not really been that relaxing time of year where we can all take a break and take life a little less seriously.

To put it lightly, the last few months have been a drag for progressive activists. The constant news is enough to throw a big weighted blanket over your head and blast Maggie Rogers’s new album on repeat.

The attacks on people’s rights, our democracy, and our planet have been relentless over the last few months. And while I’ll admit, I have definitely chosen the weighted blanket option a few times, we need to find joy in the progressive movement to make sure that we sustain ourselves and others.

That’s why I’ve cautiously begun to feel...dare I say it…hope?

Is That Hope I Feel?

After a tumultuous summer, August has been full of... positive surprises!

• Kansas voted overwhelmingly to protect women and pregnant people's bodily autonomy
• Recent polls show that Democrats' fortunes might be turning for the Midterms.
• Consequences to blatant attempts to break the law and overthrow our government is beginning to appear.
• The CHIPS Act will boost production of domestic semiconductor manufacturing to push down inflation in tech and compete with China.
• The Senate passed the BIGGEST climate legislation in history!
• The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) also allows Medicare to negotiate the cost of insulin and other prescription drugs.
• And we finally have a minimum tax for corporations so Mr. Bezos’ Amazon can’t pay $0 in taxes while teachers have to scrape by.

Is all of this news everything progressives wanted? Of course not. It would be great if we could have affordable childcare in the IRA bill. Abortion is still illegal in many states and many states are using private Facebook messages against children to send them to jail.

It’s not all peaches and roses.

It’s rare (but not impossible!) to change things overnight. I wish that there was less fossil fuel support in the IRA bill. I wish Roe was still the law of the land. I wish that working families could afford their groceries.

While we continue to reach for lofty goals to protect our planet, make sure people have their basic needs met, and strengthen our democracy, we still need to celebrate what we’ve achieved.

Let’s Celebrate

So 88 days out from the Midterms, it’s time for us to take a second to celebrate. Our activism worked. Kansas activists worked tirelessly to spread the message that banning abortion is taking away personal freedoms. Climate activists’ incessant push toward progress has allowed us to move closer to a zero-emission economy.

When you’re in the depths, it’s hard to see the progress that your work makes. But it’s out there. And we can and should shout it from the rooftops.

If you’re feeling hopeful, celebrate by spreading the word. Talk to your friends and family about what’s in the Inflation Reduction Act. Everyone’s living their daily lives and is often turned off by the news. Make sure people know what Democrats have done to support the people in the U.S.

While Republicans continue to push culture wars and vilify our neighbors, Democrats are working to reduce inflation and help ease people’s everyday lives.

Think what else we can do with an expanded majority in the Senate, the House, and in state and local races. These wins are just the beginning, but they are here and they are real. Congrats!!

Spread the Knurd! Help others feel empowered to enact change in their lives by subscribing.