Friends,
It feels like we’re living in a country song, with a chorus that might go “I can’t tell if things are fallin’ into place . . . or just fallin’ to pieces.”
On January 20th we welcomed President Biden and Vice President Harris to office: competent, honest, committed public servants. On January 5th we won two (!) Georgia Senate seats, adding control of the Senate to the House and White House. But in between was the sickening storming of the US Capitol and attempted coup on January 6th, not to mention the ongoing crazy disinformation being spread and the unfathomable beliefs of millions of Americans.
Are things falling into place? America elects a demagogue President in 2016, after foreign interference in the election and despite his losing the popular vote. But then the Democrats regain control of the House in 2018, and of the Senate and the Presidency in 2020. We focus on equity and climate and recovery and progress for the next generation, and the 2020s are viewed as a turning point to the new century of progress.
Or are things falling into pieces? America elects a demagogue President in 2016, who is impeached twice and loses re-election, but the movement lives on. A politics of resentment, of tax cuts for the rich, anti-immigration, anti-trade, anti-establishment, anti-government, anti-science, anti-working family, pro-American identity (i.e. white supremacy), and pro-strongman leadership sustains itself and keeps Americans at each other’s throats for years while other non-democratic actors and movements in the world gain strength through the 2020s and beyond.
I believe in that first version, and I work for it as I know you do. But things aren’t assured.
We have work to do here at home to do our part. We have conflict and challenges. We have poverty and racism. We have issues of geographic and generational equity. We have escalating climate change. We have housing pressures. We have jobs to regain. We have a future to claim.
I’ll be talking about all of this at the State of the City, coming up on Thursday, February 25th. I hope you can join in. And if you have suggestions to share, please drop me a line via the campaign email at john@johnhamiltonformayor.com.
In the meantime, I’m a very proud husband, as Dawn Johnsen, who has been deep in the Biden/Harris transition, is now again working full time (remotely) for the Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel. When you’ve seen President Biden signing all those dozens of executive orders in the first two weeks – and what great news all that brings! –let’s just say Dawn knew all those issues very well based on her work of the last three months. It’s great to have Dawn in the middle of the huge recovery effort underway in DC, making things fall into place, I’m sure hoping.
Let’s make the 2020s a decade of hope and progress, coming out of the pandemic with renewed energy and vision and mutual commitment!
Democratically yours,
John
P.S. Please enjoy and honor Black History Month, which starts today. Check out events HERE.
And mark your calendars for our upcoming State of the City address the evening of Thursday, February 25th!