SOME PERSONAL NEWS: I’ve hired myself to work for democracy
Like many white American dudes of an age that can only be measured by the dim rings under my eyes, I’ve been lucky. Probably too lucky.*
Now, I’m afraid, my luck requires me to try something new.
As I face the sixth decade of my life, we face an indefinite future of rule by MAGA. There’s at least a 50% chance Trump wins the electoral college even as he gets million fewer votes than his opponent, and another 50% chance he’ll try to steal the election if he doesn’t.
Even if he is defeated, Democrats could lose the Senate – and any ability to ever appoint anyone to the Supreme Court again. And the Court we have is about to do irreparable damage to our ability to govern ourselves and fight climate change, right when we need to be doing almost nothing else. Then there are the multiple other crises, nearly all the result of or resulting in the growing power of the authoritarian, racist right nearly everywhere that elections are held, especially red states like Texas, China, and Russia.
You know all this. You don’t need someone else to illuminate the bleakness around every horizon. It’s pretty inescapable at this point. In fact, you need me to shut about it.
So let me be clear. I’m still hopeful.
This may be because I have a daughter who is about turn four and grows more amazing every day, even though she has fewer rights now than when she was born. Maybe it’s because my brain chemistry is good this week. Maybe therapy works.
Because I have all that going for me, I think hope is an obligation. And I am obligated by my luck to do more.
So that leads to an obvious question, “What am I good for?”
At one time, around 2012, it seemed like the only thing I was good at in life was tweeting bitchy quips about politics. Then came 2015 when the worst person in the country became president by pretty much doing that.
Since then, I’ve figured out the only decent way to combine my obsession for democracy with my small following on a few social media platforms: Retweeting. Or reposting. Pressing the button that shares a smart, funny or important thing to my followers. Whatever you call that now.
And the most satisfying stories I could share were those that helped support good candidates and causes.
Frankly, the purposeful perversion of Twitter in a right-wing Super PAC/Nazi bar by a child of Apartheid looking to reclaim his youth has made following the news far harder. And so much more painful.
And this is happening as journalism is being assaulted at every angle by the forces of capital, who either don’t care that they’re enabling fascism when we need journalism most or are enjoying that they’re enabling fascism when we need journalism most.
So, unfortunately, this is a time where we need those who can to step up for freedom. That’s why I need to do the job where I can put my not-so superpowers to the best use for democracy. Unfortunately, that job does not exist.
So I’m creating it.
I’m now running earlyworm with my pal Nick Marquez, who a brilliant designer and idea guy.
It’s a news website – a lefty Drudge that trades Matt’s reactionary oddness for daily actions people can take to support democracy. It’s also a monthly giving guide. It will probably be a podcast. It should be an app.
It’s not for everyone. It’s for earlyworms, and we have a whole theory about who they are and why they matter so much for democracy. You join here, free or paid it all matters.
(I’m also launching this blog/newsletter/thing for people who just want my writing, which will mostly be about politics but will also delve into technology, writing about writing, and culture in general. It will remain free to view, with an option to subscribe. And it will also be duplicated on Substack, which I don’t think I’m leaving but with whom I have no interest in sharing any money unless they do something about their Nazi problem.)
To make this sustainable, I need to become much better at something I suck at: selling myself. This may be a skill problem. It’s probably a product problem. Either way, I’ve never really tried. So my apologies for blasting out a lot of earlyworm content. Be assured that it will be mostly about the news and actions that we think matter.
A special word to journalists, organizers and political machers in general: Please push me anything you want to get out. The site traffic isn’t significant yet but I will get your message out on the social channels. And this, to repeat myself, is what I should be doing with my time.
*Even though my parents divorced when I was five, I got a solid public education within miles of my home in the northern corner of the San Fernando Valley, up near where the Manson family hung out. That fed me into an excellent, and then affordable, UC school. I was able to teach high school right out of college, thanks to an intern program that no longer exists. Then, thanks to the genius husband of a lovely friend I taught with, I lucked into a job as a copywriter at the boring (legal) version of Napster. Then I bumbled into an expensive yet nourishing grad school and then into steady freelancing gigs doing what can only be described as “Internet.” And while I worked full-time for other people, I began what can embarrassingly can only be called “side hustle.” Around 2009, I joined Twitter as @LOLGOP and began posting about politics. Because I had been in the right place at the right time, this turned into some lucky opportunities. I was able to write, edit, and talk to people who actually know things. And this helped me pay off my student loans, avoid debt, and stay married, the best decision I’ve ever made in my life. Along the way, we had a daughter with our last IVF embryo, which had been sitting in a lab frozen since Obama’s last term and emerged into the world screaming during what I hope will be the last year of Trump’s last term.