Many of us ended 2024 in a gloomy, discouraged or hopeless state of mind, thanks to an election result that privileged lies, hate, racism and misogyny over positive policy ideas. Some of us have been here before, if not on this extreme level.
The first election I got involved in was in 2004: John Kerry’s campaign to oust George Bush who had mired the country in an unprovoked, expensive and deadly war in Iraq — remember how angry we were about that?
After Bush got narrowly reelected, we were deflated and discouraged. Some were talking about abandoning activism while others were running around insisting we had to do fix everything NOW. There was a lot of burnout.
History is repeating itself — with a lot more at stake. We need to learn the lessons of 2004 over again.
What I realized after that election is that the first thing you need to do is step back, take a break and disengage — temporarily. Many are at that stage now, as suggested by the radical drop in subscriptions and viewers for the mainstream media, which openly advantaged Trump and is now working to normalize him. That disengagement should be permanent. But don’t disengage from activism forever.
I found in 2004 that the best way to re-engage and restock your energy and enthusiasm is to start small. Find something local, hands-on and winnable to focus your energy on.
In 2005, it was a Cleveland Heights city council race.
A couple of years earlier, Cleveland Heights city council passed a civil partner registry (this was prior to the 2015 Obergefell Supreme Court decision that made same sex marriages legal). The vote was 6-1. “Pastor” Jimmie Hicks Jr was the “1.” He insisted that he represented the true feelings of Cleveland Heights residents and the other six didn’t. So he sued the city — and lost. He cost us more than $100,000 in legal fees.
But he didn’t give up. He insisted the court also misunderstood public opinion, so he worked successfully to put it on the ballot. He lost again. Voters made it clear he was the one out of step.
In 2005, he was up for reelection. In Cleveland Heights, all council candidates run as a group. If there are four seats open, the top four vote getters win. There were five candidates — four incumbents and a new candidate, Mark Tumeo, a gay man.
Now, there was no guarantee that even if Mark won that Hicks would be the odd person out. But he was. Many of us spent a lot of time and effort making people aware of what Hicks had done and how Tumeo better represented Cleveland Heights. We didn’t end the war in Iraq, but we won SOMETHING, ten years before Obergefell. That type of winnable effort revitalizes one’s energy for engagement. Tilting at windmills doesn’t.
As I was reflecting on this, I got a fundraising email from David Hogg for his organization Leaders We Deserve, which works to elect more young people to office. If his name isn’t familiar to you, he is a 24-year-old survivor of the 2018 shootings at Florida’s Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School. After that he became a gun safety activist, one of the co-founders of March for Our Lives. Then, in 2023, he founded Leaders We Deserve.
He writes, “It’s taken me a few days for me to figure out what to say about the election without feeling cliche or resorting to platitudes. Now, we’re left to figure out what’s next. After Parkland, if we had given up and listened to the same talking heads who got us into this situation — the same talking heads who said nothing could be done about guns in Florida — nothing would have changed. Instead, we had the audacity to believe that change was possible, which resulted in Florida raising the age to buy a gun to 21 and passing a Red Flag law that has been used over 19,000 times.
He then outlines several of his group’s 2024 victories: helping to elect the first transgender member to Congress, flipping a seat in the North Carolina legislature to break the GOP’s supermajority, electing the youngest person and first active public school teacher to George’s legislature, among other things. Not massive, earthshaking changes, but victories nonetheless.
Instead of joining the gloating chorus of “Democrats” like Dean Phillips who thought he had a better chance of winning the presidency than Kamala Harris (remember when he was in the Democratic primary? No, of course you don’t) and has decided she lost because Democrats didn’t pander enough to white men, look for something you can do that will refuel you. Perhaps you could work to elect a quality candidate to your city council as we did in Cleveland Heights 20 years ago, or an outstanding judge to Cleveland Municipal Court — those seats are up for reelection this year too. Or get involved with an organization that makes visible, measurable change, such as Habitat for Humanity, which builds homes for low-income families. Jimmy Carter made that one of his post-presidency activities and was still actively hammering nails well into his 80s. Do it in his honor.
Sure, everyone will be demanding your attention and money — and dozens of those demands will be worthy. When people come at you and ask for your time and money and you know it’s a good cause but you just don’t have the bandwidth, remind yourself “I can’t make everything my cause” and choose that thing that matters to you most. And then go for it.