Oh, dearest Community. It has been A. Week. I feel like it’s A Week every week, but this week was a horrible week. Iowa. That SOTU circus. The cowardice of every Senate Republican but one. The coronavirus. What. A. Week. 

Yet still we must fight. We must fight for those who come after us, and we must fight for ourselves. I’ll get to this week’s great writing in a moment, but first I want to talk about persistence.

I still remember the first time I became aware of politics. It was the 1988 election, I was 8 years old, and I remember seeing Jesse Jackson on the debate stage, and SNL’s brutal “Dukakis After Dark” parodies. I remember the Gary Hart scandal, though I was far too young to understand it. We had family over for a Democratic debate watch party, and I remember my mother telling me that I could make history in 2016 if I wanted to ... by becoming the first black, Catholic woman president. The men in the room laughed. 2016 seemed so far away at the time, but we did get our first black president after all.

I digress. 2000 was the first presidential cycle where I was eligible to vote; I was devastated by the “hanging chad” debacle and genuinely worried for our country under Dubya’s leadership, even before 9/11. By 2004, I was almost old enough to rent a car and definitely ready to help defeat Bush II; I joined Sean “Puffy” Combs’ “Vote or Die” movement, and learned how to leverage both my blackness and my youth to engage first-time voters who looked like me. 

On Election Day 2004, I took off work and drove elderly people to their polling places all morning. In the afternoon, it became my job to protect voters in line at an understaffed polling center on the east side of Cleveland. I paced the long line for hours, giving people free umbrellas to help them stay dry, and as it got colder, I handed out paper cups of hot cocoa and coffee, all in an effort to encourage people to stay in line, and make it worth the wait to exercise their right to vote. Eventually, I dropped my car at home and cabbed downtown to watch returns at the Democratic Party’s official watch party. I switched hats yet again, and interviewed politicians like Dennis Kucinich and Sherrod Brown for our local NBC affiliate. I binged on hors d’oeuvres and free booze.  Then … John Kerry was not elected president. The ballroom filled with despair, then cleared out long before all the returns came in. I lingered waiting for a surprise that didn’t come until 2008.  By then, I lived in California, and I was in grad school, so burdened by academic obligations that I barely had time to vote, much less donate my time to the Obama campaign. My polling place was at the bottom of the Hollywood hill where I lived, and it took two hours to cast my ballot. But oh, what a delightful two hours it was. People were so excited to vote for Barack Obama. People passed out water and sweets, much like I passed out cocoa and umbrellas four years earlier. We sang songs and played goofy games with our neighbors. Suddenly, in a city where nobody makes eye contact, we were a community! 2016 was brutal. My polling place in Berkeley, where I lived at the time, was a ghost town. At the watch party at my office, the joyous “first woman president” vibes quickly turned dark as we realized the impossible had happened: Donald Trump won the Electoral College. It was then that “closeted” Trump supporters back in Ohio posted jubilant “coming out” treatises to their social media, suddenly spewing Trumpian rhetoric that they’d secretly embraced. “I voted for Trump! Deal with it,” they crowed. 

I still haven’t forgiven them.  But 2018 brought the Blue Wave. 2020 must be a Blue Tsunami. A Blue Deluge. A Blue Eagre, which is a word I just learned today. We must foster community in the party, and persist in getting out every vote we can. We must unite behind the nominee—blue no matter who—and come together as the inclusive party that we are. As Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren said time and time again during Friday’s debate, “We’re the Democrats.” We are the Democrats, dearest ones. Let’s do what we do.  Thanks for reading all of that. Let’s get to this week’s stellar stories for you, that show who we are and what we can do. Why is Taylor Swift the lead image? Because she’s using her platform to get out the youth vote, much like Puffy did when I myself was a young voter. You’ll see. Without further delay, here are this week’s Community Picks!  

Diary of a recovering Republican By WastedPotential

“The way our country looks now, I can’t imagine ever casting another R vote.”  There are people without a party out there. Let’s bring ‘em over to Team Blue.

Clemson University honors our white supremacy heritage

By Thoth777

This look at the well-documented racist vitriol of Ben "Pitchfork" Tillman will make you wonder how one of the nation’s top universities can continue to honor him. 

The Trump recession is already happening

By voidstuff

Trump is touting the supposedly great economy every chance he gets … but like almost everything else that comes out of his mouth, it’s a lie.

Silencing corporate bullies

By Tom Conway

Union-busting is alive and well in Ohio.

GOP admits climate plan is messaging to appease voters, not policy to reduce fossil fuel use

By ClimateDenierRoundup

True to form, Republicans have crafted “a plan that doesn’t actually address climate change by reducing fossil fuel use, but merely sounds like it would while in fact promoting fossil fuels.”

The urgency of remembering the Holocaust

By eclift

Ignorance of the Holocaust is rising right alongside acts of anti-Semitism. Both must be confronted.

Fifty years ago today as I stepped onto the balcony barefoot, something incredible happened

By FishOutofWater

This adorable story of love at first sight will warm your heart, even if you’re braving a winter storm. 

Let's remember the heroes of the Greensboro sit-ins on its 60th Anniversary

By AKALib 

They just wanted a cup of coffee, but they ended up making history.

Taylor Swift is working hard to get out the youth vote

By progressive2016

The Christian-country-pop superstar stopped singing about high school a long time ago … but now she’s using her talents to activate her huge and devoted fanbase of young people.

Broken jaw, Johnny Bright, football helmets, and this impeachment is just like the good ole days

By CA148 NEWS

This amazing and appalling story of Jim Crow bigotry in college football will blow your mind.

That’s it for this week, friends! How’d we do? As always feel free to share great writing we may have missed, and sound off on pretty much anything, really, in the comments. I say it every week, but it feels truer than ever this week: Thank you for being a part of the Daily Kos Community. We’re so glad you’re here.