The Work Must Go On
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Four years ago, when Tumblr still allowed porn, I published a post in the wake of the 2016 election: “The Work Has Just Begun”. That phrase was meant not just as a message, but as a mantra — a reminder that, yes, the work people were doing to protect civil rights and fight for justice and all that good stuff had to begin again in earnest after Election Day.
Four years later, I return now to the realm of politics after another election, this time to present a new mantra. As of the moment I am writing this, the sociopolitical scene in the United States is…not good, in a lot of ways. The cultural and political divides in this country have only grown in the past four years; leaders in the federal government have done more to further such division than to quell it. The 2020 election looks (as of the moment of this writing) poised to deliver Americans into another four years of hell. With the Supreme Court stacked in favor of conservative ideals, certain rights and aspects in this country — e.g., same-sex marriage, abortion rights, and the separation of church and state — will come under assault for a generation to come.
But whatever the result (and the consequences) of the election, the one thing we must all remember is this: The work must go on. Whoever holds the White House, the Senate, and the Supreme Court doesn’t matter to “the work”. It must go on regardless of the results. People will still need to have their civil rights defended; they will still need to fight for justice, for themselves or others. We will all need to continue holding our leaders accountable for their actions — regardless of whether, but especially if, we voted for them.
Americans who have opposed the current presidential administration have been through four years of hell. They have persisted in the face of politicians (and their supporters) who care more about power and dominance than about coöperation and governance. They have persisted in the wake of a president who cares more about himself and his own ego than about the people he was elected to serve. And they will persist in the face of another four years of this assault on the norms and ideals of this nation.
Decent Americans with a sense of social justice that focuses on the marginalized will continue to fight for justice, to demand their rights be upheld, to keep this country from being completely destroyed by the whims of bastards. They will do this because they must do this. They must do this because no one else will. We cannot rely on our elected leaders to save us; we can only save ourselves.
The work must go on.