Benediction after an election

Pursue a practice that will strengthen your heart

“Monhegan (Hope)” by Nicholas Roerich, 1922

I swore I wouldn’t get my hopes up. I cast my ballot knowing the major partisan races in South Carolina were all but decided in advance.

Republicans knew they had it in the bag here. They were so comfortable in their projected margins of victory, they went down to Georgia to stump for Herschel Walker.

Progressive-minded people across the country woke up this morning to find the much-hyped “red wave” hadn’t happened, and that Democrats might hold on to one or both chambers of Congress after all. But here in South Carolina, there was little cause for relief.

In the governor’s race, major news outlets called the race a few minutes after polls closed for incumbent Gov. Henry McMaster, a man who said in a televised debate two weeks ago that he wants to make gay marriage illegal.

brutal south @Paul_Bowers

I don't have anything smart to say about it but the governor of South Carolina said in a debate last night that he wants to ban gay marriage again.

Republican Rep. Nancy Mace, who ran a vile transphobic campaign, won re-election easily in her suburban Charleston district. She did so after accusing her opponent, pediatrician Dr. Annie Andrews, of “child abuse,” leading her to take unpaid leave from the Medical University of South Carolina children’s hospital.

Republican Ellen Weaver, a school privatization hack and anti-”critical race theory” zealot with a sketchy diploma from a fundamentalist Bible college, declared victory over Democratic challenger and teacher Lisa Ellis before midnight.

These outcomes weren’t surprising. Still, some part of me had wanted to believe times were changing.

Pursue a practice that will strengthen your heart

In November 2016 after the U.S. elected celebrity racist Donald Trump to the White House, I wrote a letter to the Canadian songwriter John K. Samson. In his old band the Weakerthans and in his latter-day solo work, he was (and is) one of my favorite living lyricists.

I think I told John how a few of his songs, including “The Reasons” and “Select All Delete,” had helped me process my anger and despair. I probably told him how I admired his stalwart political activism and his work for environmental justice. I definitely told him how much I loved the closing lines from “Postdoc Blues,” off of his 2016 album Winter Wheat, which paraphrased a mantra from Joanna Macy’s book Active Hope:

So take that laminate

out of your wallet 

and read it,

and recommit yourself

to the healing

of the world,

and to the welfare of 

all creatures

upon it.

Pursue a practice that 

will strengthen

your heart.

I looked up the rates on international postage and sent my letter to his P.O. box in Winnipeg. He sent me a thoughtful response that took up the backs of two postcards. I hope he doesn’t mind my repeating part of what he wrote:

I really like your question about how we might find a way to “live a life of protest … while keeping an inner peace.” That certainly feels impossible some days, especially lately, but I think it is exactly the right thing to be asking.

For me, I feel like I’m looking for more places where we can show up, in person, and pay attention to others. Maybe that’s the first step?

When I think about taking political action beyond election season, sometimes I think about John K. Samson’s model: local, communitarian, kind but fierce in defense of public goods. He wrote a song and petitioned to induct First Nations athlete Reggie Leach into the Hockey Hall of Fame. He wrote “Vampire Alberta Blues” to rage against the oil industry and the hellish spectacle of the Alberta Tar Sands. He wrote a song called “Millennium for All” to support full funding and public access to Winnipeg’s Millennium Library. 

He kept showing up in his own community. I committed to keep showing up in mine. 

Now for some local business

I try to take the long view. I try to hope for everything and expect nothing, like good old Eugene Debs.

Still, it’s hard to stomach the news on a day like today.

For Charleston locals who read this newsletter, I think the most depressing result from last night is that candidates endorsed by the right-wing activist group Moms for Liberty appear to have won 5 of the 9 seats on the Charleston County School Board, according to reporting from the Post & Courier’s Devna Bose. I’ve updated my running list of candidate details and red flags in this election by highlighting the projected winners in bold type.

As a parent with 3 kids in Charleston County public schools, and as a friend of teachers who are already quitting the profession in droves, I find this to be an incredibly dark development. Moms for Liberty is known nationwide for waging anti-vax, anti-mask, and anti-”CRT” battles in schools under the slogan “parental rights.” One of their chosen candidates here, projected winner Ed Kelley, participated in the right-wing smear campaign that culminated in Gov. Henry McMaster censoring an essay by a trans teenager in a Charleston County middle school this fall. 

‘We are not a threat, we’re just people’

One way I stay involved in politics beyond elections is through the Charleston chapter of Democratic Socialists of America, where I serve as the volunteer communications secretary. You should join your local chapter! We need you.

After our first successful Brake Light Clinic in May, our chapter will be back for another clinic on Saturday, Nov. 19 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Fresh Future Farm ahead of Thanksgiving travel. This mutual aid event aims to prevent unnecessary police stops, expensive tickets and fines, and possible court appearances while sharing the skills necessary to service our own vehicles. 

It’s also a chance to talk with neighbors about our rights in police encounters, particularly as the North Charleston Police Department rolls out its real-time mass surveillance system that we protested in the spring. I wrote about that here if you’re interested:

This is how we keep us safe

If you’re in town, come say hey and we’ll check your brake lights. I’ll bring some Eye of Summey stickers to hand out. We aren’t done fighting back. Look for more information and a push for public accountability in the coming months.

It’s grim out there. All we have is each other. Let’s get to work.

***

Brutal South is a free weekly newsletter about class struggle and education in the American South. If you would like to support my work and get access to the complete archive of subscriber-only content, paid subscriptions are $5 a month.

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