Register to Vote. Volunteer. Read and Speak Up.
There it is. The Republican Party has declared Donald J. Trump their nominee for President of the United States. I’m sure we’d all like to be snarky, and many on Twitter already are. Laughing this one off, talking about how there’s no way he can win in the general.
I’d love to joke that Ivanka Trump’s speech which promoted equal pay, familial leave and universal healthcare would have been at home at the DNC next week. But I then remember Melania Trump’s speech and read how "Two-thirds of men want an independent daughter, but only one in three wants an independent wife. Fourteen percent of men said they wanted a wife who was a homemaker; just 5 percent said the same about their daughters,” and I’m reminded that awareness of gender disparity often only hits men who have female children of their own.
I’d love to joke about how young-adult-novel-totalitarian-dystopia-chic Trump’s welcome looked, but then I listen to his angry xenophobic rhetoric and the crowd calls to “lock her up” and the laugh line falls flat.
And there’s a lot more I’d like to joke about, but logic is dead and facts are meaningless and rage the norm, so I’m adjusting my reactions accordingly.
This is our new reality, and it’s imperative that we all own it and discard any smugness we’ve acquired over the last few months. As Jon Stewart did last night, we need to call bullshit where we see it, and take action.
So have you registered to vote?
Can you spare a few hours to volunteer for Hillary?
Or to donate to the Southern Poverty Law Center?
Buckle in folks. It’s time to do your part.