We need to take a moment of silence to….? Mourn? Contemplate our next words and moves? Let the fascists spew more hate? Listen to ideas about how to proceed? Or just to keep ourselves sane? I totally agree about being hardline about hardliners on the other side. We have to speak up against them even when, or especially when, they are family and friends. The madman who is trump is responsible for tearing apart many families and friendships, and I’m not just talking about people who were trying to seek safety here in this country. 

I’m afraid to be silent down here surrounded, by fascists as I am, because I don’t want people to just sit back and feel like they’ve (the MTG MAGA types in rural Georgia and across the south) always won before, so there’s no hope or reason to fight on. 
Mick, I don’t know that trump will win and I won’t stop working to make sure he doesn’t. It’s hard to stay positive when you’re surrounded by cultists who truly believe in banning books and see no irony in that practice; in driving by houses that proudly fly the confederate flag still; or living in a county that just a few years ago had a huge klan rally with a huge cross burning and probably still have them. They have no problem rooting for the death of transgender neighbors or LGBTQIA+ relatives even, but still we knock on doors, write post cards, hold forums, have neighborhood pancake parties, and even wave signs on the busiest county street corners where “fuck you”s and birds are much more common than waves and friendly beeps. It’s important to stay positive if only for those people on the front lines who are working so hard to make sure that people who support democracy realize how important their vote is and are not intimidated into staying at home and not voting. In Georgia, republicans try to make it exceptionally hard to vote. We try to remind people that the cultists do that for a reason, so it’s extremely important to actually vote.