Part of the reason the Republican party is swiveling away from their "states' rights" schtick (not that they ever believed in it—they just believe in power) is that it turns out you can get a LOT of stuff that is being blocked in the Federal government (by Dems & Republicans alike) done in state government instead.

You don't hear Republicans talking about how "the states should decide" nearly so much now that some states seem to be doing a lot more deciding. 🤔

Frankly, as a Wisconsinite, I look at Minnesota & things like their constitutional protection for abortion & think "why couldn't we have that?"

Maybe we could. Maybe we could make this state a little safer for people with uteruses & trans people & immigrants & more.

That would be something. That's not nothing. Maybe we could invest in public education & transit too.

It's not the solution. But based on what I see in neighboring states, it could be a little better & safer here in the meantime.

There are no guarantees. Don't hang your hopes on politicians. We must save ourselves. Only collective action can bring capitalism to its knees, BUT the state government decides things like how your taxes get spent, whether corporations are held accountable for the damage they do, etc.

So it seems good to me to push for that tax money to be spent on things that benefit our communities & protect vulnerable people.

Best of all would be if we had a governor who is committed to NOT hindering labor organizing & other collective action, & based on what little I know of her background, I think there is at least a *chance* Hong might be such a person.

So my personal recommendation to Wisconsinites: vote for Hong in the August 11 Democratic primary.

I'm not telling you with 100% confidence how this will work out, but in my personal calculation, I think it's worth a shot.

Elections are not where the hard work gets done. Do not be fooled into believing it, but that doesn't make them all pointless.

I think Hong is focused on things she may *actually* be able to do as Governor, not on solving all the problems in the world, & it actually makes me hopeful that she might do some good.

I'm coming to really adore Paris as an artist. One thing she is doing through her music is sharing her process of learning to love herself, & that is fucking amazing.

We all have to learn to love ourselves, & it helps to see other people live it out. It helps to see that loving yourself is NOT fucking selfish.

So many of us are terrified that loving ourselves will turn out not to be compatible with caring about others. It's good to see that loving yourself can be lifegiving to others.

Childhood is when we form our deep beliefs about "how things are" & how they "should" be.

So I think we should be working fucking hard as hell to make sure that as kids learn "how things are", they learn that we can collectively care for each other. It should feel normal & functional.

We need to be raising kids who are upset by the dangerous idea that there is nothing we can do to help each other, because they KNOW FROM EXPERIENCE it isn't true.

Kids shouldn't grow up struggling for survival & feeling they must fight tooth & claw to have a life.

Kids should grow up knowing what it is like to be held & supported by their communities. They should know that they are valued as people & that their well-being matters to more people than just themselves.

I think the more we can make that a reality, the bigger of a dent we can make in the societal belief that it's everyone for themselves.

My preferred candidate for Wisconsin Governor (Francesca Hong, Democratic Primary is August 11) is campaigning a lot on childcare, school lunches, better education, & other help for families, & I could not be more behind that emphasis.

Actually, one of our biggest hopes for creating a better world is raising kids to understand that everyone's needs can & should be met. I would like to see kids getting what they need, because we—culturally—need to get out of a scarcity mindset.

If I were to say "no, I don't want any of my labor to benefit 'someone else's kids', I'd be fighting against my own inclusion in networks of care.

In capitalism, we're supposed to be terrified of other people receiving anything that we don't. We're supposed to feel that anything anyone else has is a detriment to us.

It doesn't have to be that way. All of us need help & support at some point in our lives (we all were kids, after all).

We're meant to tear each other to shreds & I'm sick of it.

Yes, those are someone else's kids, but I as a human being have good reason to want other people's kids to do well & be cared for, because they are *people*, & I—as a person who will hopefully one day be old & frail & as a person who is already disabled in certain ways—have every reason to want to live in a culture that says everyone deserves what they need to live & thrive.