Rainbow Wave, and a little bit of sun...

 

I saw a young patient for a depression follow-up this week. "How's it going?" I asked him.
"Things are better. Maybe 25% better. I used to feel it was gloomy all the time. Now I can see a little bit of sun."

This sums up how I currently feel after the 2018 Midterms.  It's been a dark two years. I ugly-cried on election night (and for days afterwards) in 2016.  One thing that 45 has given me is a level of political engagement that I never expected/planned to have, as never again in my lifetime do I want to experience that level of hopelessness and despair. I read. I listen.  I talk politics with people instead of sweeping things under the rug and assuming the best. I donate money. I (continue to) vote. I pray a lot.  From most of the news and political battles over the last two years, I've been scared to hope that things will head in a better direction in our country sometime in the near future, when it just seems that there are so many evil people with destructive agendas and immoral frameworks that continue to accumulate power. I want to be able to help Make America Not Horrifying Again.

"Taking back the House" (a Blue Wave) has, since the devastating night in 2016, been a dream for progressives all across our country, while we realize that other (i.e. Senate, Governorship) battles in former Confederate and rural midwestern states are (if not a lost cause) not likely to be as winnable in the near future, although the campaign for Beto for Texas was pretty darn inspiring, Stacey Abrams should be Georgia's next (and the country's first female African-American) governor, and Florida continues to piss me off. Before and on Tuesday, I was very nervously and cautiously hopeful, as I feel that I never again want to get my hopes up ever again because of the potential for crushing disappointment.  The party which continues to tolerate (embrace) rapists, racists, domestic shooters/right-wing terrorists, and cheaters (think gerrymandering, voter suppression/disenfranchisement, and a stolen Supreme Court seat) held some ground. And when the majority of the country prefers different leadership because of our messed-up Electoral College system, which gives disproportionate voting power to people in less populated, homogenous (white) interior states, it's hard to feel like one's vote really matters (although we are all living in the aftermath of what happens when people don't show up to vote, like in 2016). But this year, the voting majority produced/elected:

- a record >100 women elected to the House of Representatives, more than in any election in American history and most of them Democrats (even though they still only make up about a quarter of the House), including:
- The first Muslim-American women in Congress (Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota)
- The first two Native American congresswomen (Sharice Davids, from Kansas, also a lesbian, and Deb Haaland from NM)
- Latinas and African-Americans (Veronica Escobar of El Paso and Sylvia Garcia in Texas, young phenom Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in NY, Jahana Hayes in CT, and Ayanna Pressley in MA) 
- Eight female governors (including Democrats Laura Kelly of Kansas, Janet Mills in Maine, and Grethcn Whitmer in Michigan), with aforementioned Stacey Abrams as an asterisk.
- Two new female senators in flipped seats (Kyrsten Sinema becoming Arizona's first female senator, and Jacky Rosen defeating Dean Heller in NV)
 - The first openly gay male governor  (Jared Polis of Colorado. I find it to be sweet Karma that a state in which a bigoted baker refused to make a cake for a same-sex couple now has a gay governor).
-  flipping 30 seats in the House and in many other (even red) state legislatures
-  restoring voting rights to ex-felons in Florida after completing their time
- making voter registration automatic (NV) or easier (MI)

2020 is a long way off. There is a lot of work to do. However, seeing people of color and women elected at historic numbers this year (as well as some positive ballot measures) feels like a small step forward.  Maybe we didn't have a blue wave but rather a pink or rainbow wave and maybe, someday, our government will actually be representative of our country's diversity and values in majoritarian rule. On Tuesday, I saw a small ray of run shining through a gloomy cloud.  I hope to see more.