I wanted to make a friend of mine feel better, so sent him these messages via text:

Dude. I know you’re down right now.

For the majority of my life, things were pretty terrible. I didn’t really have anyone to depend on.

But, for some unknown reason, I could never give up and surrender to despair. There was something in me that’s always told me that even if things are bad, they have to get better. There’s no other way.

The only term I have for it is grim optimism. I don’t feel like I have any choice but to hope that things will get better. It’s not a joyous thing. It’s just an inner determination that I will outlast the terrible people.

I’ve done it before and I’ll do it again.

I always got your back, but I won’t tell you a lie. This is now a 3rd world country, 100%. But we can make it better.

It’s OK to feel bad, but don’t stop trying to do the little things that make your days better right now.

The arc of history will bend towards us. We’re on the right side.

All the people who went MAGA will be remembered like the Nazi sympathizers. Trump and his cronies think they can rewrite history, but they can’t. We know what they did, and we will never forget.

I’ve been writing postcards to voters. It’s a small thing, but it helps me feel like I’m doing something.

Same with how I send an email every single day to Davids, Roger Marshall and Jerry Moran. I use Resistbot. Again, it may not make a difference, but it’s been a huge help mentally. I can say I did something.

You know, I used Resistbot to send messages to my reps and senators during Trump 1 for a short time.

Then, I was talking to Usama one day, and he said something dismissive about it, like, “I like pissing in the wind once a day”. I realize I let that discourage me and I stopped.

The current administration is full of people like him. They don’t believe in anything, claim to be Christian while worshipping Trump. These are not people you should take seriously. They want people to be nihilistic because they have no inner life. Don’t give in.