I am going to tell everyone a secret, especially people in rural areas.
You…can do a slow social progressive takeover of your local Democratic party, probably. You just need to carve out some time for it.
“Renay”, you say, exasperated, “that sounds fake, but okay.” But I’m here to tell you that if you’re in a rural/red state (or even blue states), you have an excellent chance of infecting the Democratic Party in your area with some straight up radical empathy. And you can do it in sneaky ways. It’s a long game. Here is a list:
1. Find your county Democrats. You may have to start at state level, but eventually you should be able to track down the chair of the county party and find out where and when they meet. Start attending meetings. If they’re not having meetings, hoooooboy. That’s a totally different thing. I spent two years fighting that battle, but if you want help, ping me.
2. At the very first meeting, if the group isn’t using a microphone, bring it up. Ask if the committee can invest in a portable PA system to bring to meetings to help people who have trouble hearing. If they balk (ables often will), don’t worry. Make the request once, and then make the request at every subsequent meeting, kindly, until they get so sick of you they cave and/or start empathizing with you. My position here: who cares why it gets done. Just get it done.
3. Keep going to meetings. Generally county parties meet every month.
4. If there are nametags at meetings, always use them and put your pronouns on them. Yes, even you, cis people. ESPECIALLY YOU.
5. At your third meeting, if the group is using sign in sheets, ask the secretary, or meeting chair if the former is unclear, if the sign in sheets could have a field for pronouns. It’s not about getting people to use it yet—that’s later—we just want it on the template so YOU can use it and set an example. Yes, you can make this request even as a cis person. In fact, it’s probably better that you do because it will cost you less. You can do the emotional labor instead of making trans and enby friends do the labor. This goes back to nametags: if you do it, you create a safe bubble for others to do it, or a social pressure situation for people to do it. Social pressure is sometimes toxic, but we can use it for positive things!
These are Very Simple things you can do to Increase Inclusion in local Democratic spaces and shove them left. This is just the start, too. There’s language scrubbing (kind of advanced because you need to have relationships with the people), requesting the committee invite guest speakers from marginalized communities, and becoming a delegate to the state party annual convention. This is Very Advanced because it generally means travel, but I plan to do it myself because in two years I’m going to make the Arkansas DPA adopt gender neutral language in their platform instead of this “he or she” business.
I mean, maybe you think of going to county meetings and go, “ugh I would rather eat glass” but you can always take an ebook on your phone or something (I do this…soon I will have time to knit again and I’ll be doing that). Take 3-4 hours out of your month and invest it.
What shoves the Democratic Party left? We do. A bunch of people taking small steps in their local communities. And then the candidates coming out of those committees get more progressive and thoughtful, too.
The world doesn’t change just because we want it to. We make it change.
a lot of my friends have been noting that none of the “get out there and vote!” posts actually have any resources attached to them, so they’re great for motivation but if you don’t know how to vote they can really stress you out. so i compiled a list of resources that hopefully can help!
Here’s the most confusing bit! Figuring out who you’re voting for. Don’t know who’s running? Ballotpedia is a godsend. The page in the link looks very confusing, but all you have to do is click your state in each of the right-hand boxes. Those will take you to a page that will explain who from each party is running for the Senate and the House. Ballotpedia will also tell you if your state has same-day voter registration. If you’ve missed the cutoff to register, you might still be able to do it on election day, so check that on your state’s voting page!
Polling places can be crowded and the wait can be long to vote. Don’t freak out! Bring a book or some music/podcasts to listen to while you wait.
If you can’t make it on the day, you still have options! Find your state on this Ballotpedia page and click to learn more. The page it takes you to will have links and information on how to get an absentee ballot in your state. If you plan on absentee voting, hurry! The deadlines to apply and vote are usually sooner than the actual election day.
Most of all, remember: this election could swing the house and the senate, giving Democrats more control over new laws and legislation for years to come. You’re not a bad person if you can’t vote, but it’s a lot easier than you might think!
If
you want to get super fancy, do a second ring on the outside of 4’ tall
sunflowers then a third outer ring of the 1’ tall teddy bear
sunflowers. If there are any gaps you can interplant with cosmos,
amaranth and nasturtiums or (if there are huge gaps) gourds.
My mom used to do this for me in the backyard as a kid- it really works and I always loved it! Spent so many summer days having tea parties with teddy bears in my sunflower house.
The elementary school I went to had a similar setup except with lilac bushes – it had an open space in the middle and little enclaves here and there that were the right size for a group of three or four kids (a lot of the girls liked to play with My Little Ponies in there). It was beautiful and smelled amazing.
i want to do this for me so i can depression nap in it
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