My Hopeful Approach to the Next 10 Days

We can't escape the stress of the election, but there are many ways we can channel that stress into action, and can set boundaries to keep ourselves sane.

I don't think I need to waste anyone's time here with an introduction about how this election has been stressful or high stakes. I don't think there are many undecided Pennsylvania voters subscribed to this newsletter, and most of the rest of us have a pretty good idea of what's at stake. I'll save you the shpiel.

Last week, I asked you all what you wanted to hear from me about this week and the results were a split between sources of hope and directions for action, so this week I'll be doing a little of both and talking about all the things I'm doing to keep myself sane and engaged between now and the fifth.

Feeling the urge to look away? I get it. But at the end of the day, the question will be this: On the morning of November 6th, will you wake up feeling like you've done everything you could? Lend me a few more minutes of your time. I'll try my best to leave you better for it.

I want to start off by giving you a quick overview of what my next 11 days are going to look like, and then I’ll share some of my major sources of hope this week.

Intentional, limited news and social media intake.

I can (and probably will, at some point) write a whole newsletter about my strategies for this, but for now, I'll just share with you all my personal rules for social media and news—especially during high-stress times.

1. No social media and news in bed at all, and significantly limited scrolling time from 8pm to 8am. If this is challenging, try deleting the apps from your devices to add a little friction. It takes 30 seconds to redownload them, but those 30 seconds can help stop mindless doomscrolling.

2. I don't spend a lot of time reading articles that tell me things I already know. Trump is a horrible person? Yes. This election is tight? I've heard. So much is at stake! I live in Missouri—I promise I know. I used to tell myself that I was just doing it to stay informed, but at some point, we're crossing the line into self harm (and I don't use those words lightly). I stay informed about actions I need to take, datapoints for conversations with voters and friends, and stories impacting my community. Right now, this is the best I can do.

3. Set times for checking the national news, and try to stick to them. For me, it's 11am and 3pm. I still get emergency news alerts for my city, but besides that, I catch up during those windows. As it turns out, if I don't find out about a headline for a few hours, nothing happens!

4. Don’t focus on polling data. Stressful, 50-50 polls create fear and angst in everyone, drive people to keep posting, scrolling, donating, and getting involved. To be honest, I have very little faith in the accuracy of polling data, and I focus my energy elsewhere.

I am making my voting plan, and checking in with my loved ones about their own plans!

With all the nonsense about mail in ballots, I am not taking any chances! I am voting early and in-person, and I am making sure to research my downballot races (especially judge confirmations!).

I’ll also be going to the polls with voter protection resources in hand, like the ones developed by A4TE, to defend myself and others from any shenanigans.

For my friends and social media connections that are still in college, I'm making sure to share resources around the unfortunate high occurrence of misinformation and voter intimidation tactics happening particularly on swing state college campuses.

Donating to local races for candidates I believe in.

While the race for president is critical, local races have immediate, far-reaching impacts on our lives. In Missouri, I'm donating to the campaign to legalize abortion, to a hopeful governor who will listen to the will of voters, and to the dream of a broken republican supermajority.

If there aren't many local races in your area you're concerned about, consider picking a few key smaller races in red states around the country. Erin Reed is currently compiling a list of all such races that you can pick a few favorites from!

Talking to people!

I'll be volunteering with my local LGBTQ+ advocacy organization to knock on doors and have meaningful conversations about their thoughts, questions, and fears about the upcoming elections. Rather than throwing out moral judgments or facts and statistics, I'm going to meet people where they are, listen to their stories, and engage with them human to human. Don't want to knock doors? Try your hand at phone banking! If these things make you nervous, know that you will be provided with plenty of resources for support, and you won’t just be knocking on random doors—individuals are selected based on research and past voting patterns. Talk to your friends and family (yes, even that guy). (The fact that you know who your that guy is tells us both that you especially need to speak to him.)

Okay, thank you for sticking with me so far. As a treat, here are the major hopeful stories bringing me joy this week!

I know this was probably totally buried under election news, but there was a groundbreaking new study published in JAMA Pediatrics about trans youth 6-10 years after receiving gender affirming care that found 97% of participants continued their access to care. The lack of data like this has been one of the main talking points of anti-trans politicians, so it's great to have further evidence to prove them wrong!

Speaking of anti trans politicians, elections this week in Canada’s more conservative New Brunswick Providence was a resounding victory over former Premier Blaine Higgs, who focused his leadership policy and re-election campaign on anti-trans policies. He called them “election winners”, but according to Erin Reed, “In 2020, the party won 27 seats compared to the Liberals' 17, but this year, the Liberals secured 31 seats to the PCs' 16. Not only did Blaine Higgs' party lose power, but the premier also lost his own “safe” seat in Quispamsis, the most conservative district in 2020.”

Around the world, people are signaling to their politicians that they have had enough of these radical, exclusionary agendas, and are getting involved in taking them down!

This shift is something that I’ve been seeing everywhere. Just yesterday, Data For Progress released a report on new polling they’d conducted around opinions on transgender people and issues. Voters on both sides of the aisle are clearly fed up with the overwhelming, tax-dollar-wasting focus on attacking trans people and poll after poll is showing that. Here's hoping that, just like we saw in 2022, anti-trans focuses will continue to be a losing issue.

Okay folks, that’s it from me! If you have things that are helping you stay sane in these last 10 days, please share in the comments so that we can lift each other up more, and I’ll see you next week. Hang in there, folks! We’re almost to the finish line now!