Despite Everything, We Shouldn’t Give up Hope That We Can Change This Country
Everything is awful right now, and the barriers to making things better are steep. But more and more people know that the status quo cannot continue — and more and more people are fighting, even winning, battles on behalf of a better world for everyone.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez during a campaign rally for Sen. Bernie Sanders on March 8, 2020 in Ann Arbor, Michigan. (Brittany Greeson / Getty Images)
This week was a long year, and now there are fewer than seven weeks until one of the most important elections in our country’s history.
Everyone is on edge from everything — climate disasters, a pandemic, an economic emergency, and Trump’s endless effort to sow anxiety. We should acknowledge that things will get more turbulent before they get better. But I fear that we are reaching a point where too many are starting to conclude that things can never get better — and ignoring signs that things can get better, and in some cases actually are getting better.
I see the despondence in my own email box every day: in the last month, readers have suggested that there is no reason for any hope, because even if Trump is defeated, there is no way to ever move our government to do anything good at all, ever.
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