Take Heart.

In the wake of Rand Paul’s election, and the resulting gloating of conservatives, I discovered Tim Wise’s essay, An Open Letter to the White Right, On the Occasion of Your Recent, Successful Temper Tantrum. And it is beautiful.

Despite the numbers–that the Tea Party wasn’t as successful as they were predicting, that, as Tim points out, the birthrate points to racial minorities becoming the majority in a generation, and every other indicator that Americans just aren’t interested in Tea Party America, they just won’t shut up.

Reading this piece gives me heart, especially after so many bloggers and pundits repeating the assertion that Democrats are hopelessly spineless, that a progressive agenda will never come to fruition, and so on. We’ve lost before. We’ll lose again. But in the end, justice, equality, and freedom will come out on top. Americans are legendarily bull-headed, progressives as much as conservatives. Might doesn’t make Right. Right makes Might.

We survived Bush. I’ve no doubt we survive the cowardly Rand Paul. As we get another taste of the bitterness that was forced down our throats during the Bush years, we’ll regroup with a stronger resolve to end discrimination against our LGBT brethren, to end the enduring discrimination against women and racial minorities, and to repair the damage done in the Bush years.

I’m reminded as I struggle with personal loss and to make my own living in a world of economic struggle, not to lose sight of the larger picture. And I’m thankful for a fantastic support network of family and friends (liberal and conservative alike) that allows me to do so. Without them, I wouldn’t have the privilege of writing. And it is a privilege–the recent events spurred my absence served as a cold, hard reminder of that. The world is cold and hard–but I will struggle to be a warm, bleeding heart in the midst of it.