In Search of Victory This Election

But not just any kind of victory--a staggering victory for democracy.

This has been one of the hardest seasons of my life in terms of work. I’m trying to “leave it all on the field” before this election and make sure democracy has a fighting chance. Your support enables me to write articles about “prophetic imagination” like the one below. Will you become a paid subscriber today?

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Years ago in a counseling session, I was talking about my anxiety over a relational issue with someone at work.

After hearing me vent for a bit, the therapist asked me a simple question that I’ve come back to repeatedly in the decades since that session.

What is your desired outcome?

Such a concise question, eloquent in its profundity.

Now, in this moment of uncertainty leading up to the election, I asked myself that question again—What’s your desired outcome?

Photo Credit: Marija Zaric

What do I want to see happen that would bring me peace and joy?

In an exercise of “prophetic imagination” while journaling, I wrote the following.

Just to level-set: This is not a detailed political policy platform. It is not precise or ultra-specific. It’s not even universal. It’s what I came up with when I asked the question, “What is my desired outcome for this election.”

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I want Kamala Harris to win, but more than that I want democracy to win.

And I don’t want to just eek out a victory. I’m in search of a decisive, overwhelming, undeniable, breathtaking, hope-inspiring victory.

Not only am I ready for this nightmare of a political season to be over, I want to see historic support for Harris.

The kind of numbers that throw pollsters into an existential crisis about how they could have so woefully under-estimated support for the Democratic candidate.

The win has to be so staggering that it serves as a mandate for democracy by the people of this country.

I want this election to be such an immense defeat for the opposition that the oligarchs who gambled on Trump and a scorched-earth approach to politics will turn on each other in fury.

They will scream in each other’s purple-tinted faces and blame one another in apoplectic rage.

Their inconsolable frustration will send them back to their beach houses and billions in decadent, inconsolable shame.

I’m in search of a victory so irrefutable that people would not only be relieved but inspired.

As a nation we would say, “If we can overcome these demons haunting our democracy, what else might we be able to achieve?”

A wave of civic-minded and kind people would decide to run for elected office because they see service as a privilege of residing in this nation and also see a path to do so without losing their souls.

They are our friends, co-workers, neighbors, and fellows of our faith communities. We trust them and hold them accountable. They genuinely work for the people and lead for the common good.

A surge of “civic chaplains” emerge.

They consider it their sacred duty to comfort a populace fairly traumatized by the chaos and sense of threat that caused them to lose sleep, made their breathing shallow, put knots in their shoulders, and cost them once dear relationships.

There would also be some courageous, sensitive souls who would take it upon themselves to serve as “socio-political grief counselors” to the legions of fearful, angry, misinformed men and women who supported Trump only to see their champion, yet again and this time finally, defeated.

They would give them space to weep over the world they thought they wanted and would achieve. At the same time, they would offer a better vision—one of progress, belonging, and humility.

I’m in search of a victory where people realize that a Harris presidency is not an end but a beginning.

No single person or administration can heal the political ruptures that have rocked the nation.

We must have a populace that mobilizes to ensure the continuation of democracy no matter who is in office.

The people of the United States begin immediately aligning the people and resources necessary to elect the best candidates in the mid-term elections. This become another landslide election in favor of democracy.

A Congress mobilized to protect and defend democracy passes laws in such volume and of such strength that everyday people can detect the positive changes in their everyday lives.

Democracy finally has some breathing room and the people of this nation begin to truly believe that government can be a positive factor in local community uplift.

Yet government is not ultimate for us or our neighbors.

After a period of vigorous building, rebuilding, and shoring up, our government and politics reaches a state of stability where we no longer live in fear of tumult or disruption by bad actors.

With a basic quality of life assured, we do not see the diversity of this nation as a threat but an asset.

Our enemies become neighbors and we are each other’s keepers.

Yes. We have ongoing issues. This isn’t a utopia. But we collectively vow to work on those issues productively together.

Because whatever our disagreements, we all agree—we are never going back.

I’m in search of that kind of victory.

What kind of victory are you hoping for? What is different if your vision becomes a reality? Dream with us in the comments.

I talk about the role of “imagination” in the last chapter of The Spirit of Justice: True Stories of Faith, Race, and Resistance. Get your copy today.