The rally's just the start

March, demonstrate, and post, but then organize and vote

I’ve written this before, and I will again for those who can’t believe things like the elections of Trumps and Youngkins keep happening.

Rallies and social media posts are our secular political church. You don’t go to church to fight sin. You go to remind yourself why you’re against it. And you don’t post on social media to change the minds of Trump followers. You may think you do, but those who oppose Trumps, regular or lite – Democrats, liberals, pragmatists, patriots, et al – aren’t as good at social media as they are. Does your post have hate, anger, vitriol, sarcasm, name-calling, and at least one provable lie? That’s the minimum. It’s worked for them.

Likewise the rallies don’t change any minds. They give the like-minded community, comfort, and solidarity, but the unity has to remain after the rally, march, or demonstration. One person can make a difference, but 4,500 can, just for instance, elect a Rockingham County School Board member. When you leave church you have to remember to go and sin no more. When you leave the rally, you have to remember there’s still work to do.

The first thing you learn in the most common church in our country is Matthew and its principles. You’ll be judged by what you do for the least among us. Count on it. Treat everybody the way you’d want to be treated if you were hungry, thirsty, or naked and cold. Behave the way you’d want people to if you were the stranger or the prisoner.

If you dig deep enough into the theology, you’ll also learn about Sola Fide. Faith alone. Are we saved by our faith alone, or must we have faith accompanied by good works? Put another way, are you doing anything when you leave the rally? Are you knocking doors, registering voters, making phone calls, turning out voters, calling legislators? We may have faith in our democratic institutions, but faith alone won’t stop the nightmare. Go to church, go to the rallies, but don’t think that’s enough.

The ballot is the eucharist in this metaphor. But the eucharist only works if you believe in it. Yes, that means voting, but that’s the bare minimum. It also means encouraging the best among us to run for office, which sometimes entails discouraging those who think they’re the best. It means working for those who can win a two-sided race in a polarized political landscape, and not necessarily those who can check every box on a policy questionnaire. A legislator some years back cited the Democratic candidate in a rural district who disagreed with the party on guns and abortion. Other Dems helped him get elected and then put him on committees that didn’t handle those topics.

It’s called compromise. It means finding the sweet spot between pragmatism and cynicism. It means supporting candidates who offer decency instead of purity. That includes decency toward those who disagree with them.

But not until after the election.