PANXIETY

I made up a new word to describe our pre-election purgatory

I made up a new word today. That’s right, our current political situation is so bizarre, so unprecedented that the English language is coming up short to describe it, so I had to invent a new word instead: PANXIETY. A combination of panic + anxiety which is all encompassing and inescapable, seemingly free-floating through the air, as contagious as a new covid variant, for which the only cure is the end of this election cycle. Come to think of it, this word probably already exists in German, just with way more syllables.  

What is your antidote to election panxiety? Mine is running for office. For real. The feeling of watching this all play out starting in 2016 was way too much for me to just sit idly by on the sidelines, gnashing my teeth. So, I jumped into the fray to do my little part in my little corner of the country and got myself elected to the DuPage County Board, and now I’m currently running for my third term. I’m not too worried about my race for this cycle (I’ve done all that I can, my work speaks for itself, I’ve put in the hours), I am deeply concerned about our Presidential election.

I’m not worried about the popular vote. I’m worried about the Electoral College and about the stacked Supreme Court. I’m worried about the tricks about to be attempted. I’m worried about the post-election ugliness and the divide growing bigger in our country. There is a collective zeitgeist of PTSD in our country over the 2016 election results, January 6^th, and everything else. I don’t have to explain any of this to anyone.

What I do want to explain, however, is how I think each and every one of us has to look in the mirror and take accountability for how we are even here in the first place.

“Wait, what?? I didn’t storm the damn Capitol,” I can hear you saying. No, you didn’t, but perhaps you sat out an election that voted in politicians that enabled it, believing your vote didn’t count.

Maybe you didn’t sit out an election, but you voted for bad candidates because of party loyalty. I do not mean only Republicans when I say this! In fact, I really want us to take a good, long, and hard look at ourselves as Democrats and ask the question: how the hell did we get here? How is our country careening towards a cliff, death knolls tolling in the background?

It didn’t happen in a vacuum, I’ll tell you that. My wish for when this election is over and <knock wood> President Harris is in the White House, is for us to dismantle our party, hose it down, clean it up, and put it back together anew.

“But wait,” I can hear you ask, “how on earth could this be the Democrats fault, when the Republicans are the ones shamelessly flirting with fascism??”

Because we underestimated the threat to our Democracy. It’s because we didn’t push back hard enough right from the start. It’s because we gave them an inch and they took a mile. It’s because we thought everyone would come to their senses and do the right thing, all the while ignoring millenniums of history that show we’ve been through this over and over before. We have seen this movie. We have starred in this movie! We know how this movie ends.

I am sick and tired of this movie. I have PANXIETY from watching this movie. Plus, the soundtrack sucks.

Plan out the next seven days: firstly, go vote. Vote your ass off. Make sure everyone you know votes. Make sure people you don’t even know vote—go canvass and knock on their doors. All hands on deck, people. Don’t forget to take deep breaths and take your dog on extra walks. Bake and eat too many cookies. Read really good fiction. Watch really bad TV. Laugh at inappropriate memes. Gallows humor is your friend. See your therapist and ask if she has any extra openings next week, because you’ll take that too. Get through this week, this election, the aftermath.

And then, join me as we look inward to make changes that ensure we never, ever find ourselves in this situation ever again.