The Political Football of Freedom
The summer months are winding down and our children will soon be back in the classroom. What books they read, what history they learn, will now depend on what state you live in. White-washed versions of America’s beginnings will replace facts and parents will be left to sift through the fiction their children will absorb. Whether or not your daughters have bodily autonomy, or will be owned by the government will also depend on what state you call home. Women’s rights, as often is the case, are on the chopping block of Freedom, and per usual the rope of the guillotine is in the hand of men filled with fear.
Fear of strong women, educated and empathetic women, independent and fierce women. After all powerful women are the catalysts of their worst nightmares. They know the boys-will-be-boys mentality of blanket excuses will no longer be acceptable when women gain complete autonomy. They know the misogynistic caste system they have relied on will cease to exist.
You need only read Project 2025 to witness the depth of their fear.[1] The foundation upon which they intend to build a new world order, is filled with the trembling’s of weak men about to lose their grip. A manifest of a crumbling patriarch desperate to roll back equality to a time when white men had all of the power and the rest of the human race did their bidding.
Make no mistake, we must meet this moment where it is, not where we want it to be. We must firmly grab hold and take it forward with the intensity it will require. These last weeks have been a loud and joyful call to unity. The moderate citizens of America, seemingly lost in the dissonance of extremism, are silent no more. Several weeks ago, when President Biden withdrew from the Democratic nomination, ending his bid for re-election, he threw his hat to Vice President Harris, endorsing her for President.
Sending the news cycle into overdrive with what felt like a political Hail-Mary, Americans rallied in ways not seen before. Vice President Harris held her first campaign rally and a new movement was born as an exuberant crowd chanted ‘We are not going back.’ A long-ignored echo from around the country suddenly reverberated on a national stage, women’s rights advocates finally had someone in their corner with the willingness to fight. This wasn’t some superficial mantra turned sound-bite, it was a call to arms for every American to join together and fight the divisive fascism seeping in and threatening to send women and our country back in time.
The pandemic popular Zoom platform experienced a volume untested as faction groups of white women and white dudes followed the lead of Black Women for Harris, crashing servers and sparking a movement to keep democracy alive.[2] While pundits and talking heads speculated and pontificated over who she was, what she had done, the stagnant repetitive threats and sectarianism of a cult-minded dictator were joyously replaced. Fundraising records were broken over and over as national delegates, congressional leaders, unions, businesses, and average Americans from all demographics embraced Harris blissfully in a long sigh of welcomed reprieve.
A mere two weeks later, the momentum still high, Vice President Harris introduced Governor Walz to America from a podium in Philadelphia, and sent another shock wave through her opponent’s struggling crusade to upend democracy. While the opponent’s authoritarian regime falters, we must not sleep. We as women, as Americans, as human beings can not hesitate on the side-line of our own freedoms. We have an obligation to ourselves and our children to keep democracy alive and moving forward.
The Democratic National Convention is spreading the joy, fanning the flame of hope, and keeping the fire to fight going. No one brings the hope like former President Barack Obama, and last night he didn’t disappoint. One of our country’s best orators, Obama lifted the crowd and raised the bar, reminding us all what exactly is at stake. Democracy’s voice is only as strong as those holding it up. Fascism is knocking on our door and we must be vigilant. Our democracy is what makes America great, and we must not falter in our commitment to hold her truths above all else.
Governor Walz clearly has the experience and fortitude to see this all the way to the end zone, but a win will be up to whether Vice President Harris can continue to fill the stands. It is our duty to meet this moment where it is at and together take it to where we need it to be. In this Olympic year it is quite clear Harris and Walz are aiming for gold, and America deserves nothing less.
[1] https://static.project2025.org/2025_MandateForLeadership_FULL.pdf
[2] https://www.wwlp.com/news/national/white-women-for-harris-meeting-raised-millions-broke-zoom/
T.R. Mugler 2018
