hexagons / where do we go from here?

a word about an impending tour with caroline shaw & some initial thoughts about the election

First, a bit of housekeeping. Tomorrow I head to Denver for a two-night stand at the Newman Center for the Arts. The first show is with Roomful of Teeth; I’ll sing a set of songs; they’ll do Caroline Shaw’s numinous The Isle, and then on the second half, we’ll do my piece Elevator Songs. Then, on Saturday, Caroline and I premiere our new duo project, Hexagons, very loosely inspired by the Borges short story “The Library of Babel.” Complete tour dates and ticket information can be found here.

And now, some thoughts about the state of the union. My children—two daughters who may come of age without bodily autonomy—are playing in the next room, happily unaware of what’s transpired in the last twenty-four hours. Somehow, the result seems at once unimaginable and yet inevitable. Unimaginable in the sense that the rotting mendacity and ugliness that’s been on display for eight years would seem to have been disqualifying. Inevitable in the sense that 1) the Democratic Party has been on a thirty-year rightward economic drift, leaving working people in the lurch, thus ceding space for right-wing populism to take root (never mind that there’s nothing populist about it); 2) it is virtually impossible to combat the maelstrom of mis- and dis-information that proliferates in 2024, particularly at a time when our social fabric has come undone; in such an environment, it’s unsurprising that millions would perceive the narrative of creeping authoritarianism as just another made-up tale; and 3) it’s hard to overstate what an unimaginable climb it is to launch and execute a presidential campaign in 100 days.

I am—as I suspect many of you are—terrified of what’s to come. But I also believe that we cannot despair. So here’s a provocation: is this the moment to bury the Democratic Party and start fresh? If the Democrats could not defeat a candidate as weak, unstable, and vile as the one who’s just been re-elected, how can they possibly hope to win an election against a future candidate who performs the basic outlines of decency? It’s not only that the Democratic Party has become the party of elites—it’s that they don’t see this as a problem. Indeed, the Harris campaign’s overtures to establishment Republicans signaled a tone-deafness to the logic that undergirds our political moment: that the Dems fealty to white-collar knowledge workers over the concerns of the working class, in policy and rhetoric, is a significant part of what fuels right-wing populism.

This country needs a true workers’ party. It needs a party of solidarity—one that views intersectionality as an invitation to come together, not as a bludgeon or exclusionary device. I believe this party already exists: the Working Families Party, under the leadership of Maurice Mitchell—one of the most inspiring activists and organizers in contemporary Left politics—has been running fusion candidates for the last several cycles, endorsing Democrats who reflect their values while running candidates of their own when necessary. Learn more about WFP here.

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Now will be a time to lean into local and state politics; we might, for example, enshrine climate laws at the state level that work as a counterweight to the inevitable weakening of the EPA that will occur under the next administration. There will also be much work to do outside of the electoral realm. Mutual aid—material, spiritual, social—will be crucial as the incoming administration targets and endangers marginalized groups.

And as I’ve written in the past, we mustn’t fall into the trap of viewing our country as two warring monoliths. If we want to achieve our goals for an ethical society, one in which everyone’s needs are met, we will need to retake power with more than a razor-thin majority. To do so requires recognizing, hackneyed as it sounds, that our opponent is not the rank-and-file voter on the “other side,” but the craven leaders and media organizations that depend on our division for power and profit.

In the coming weeks and months, an onslaught of think pieces will purport to diagnose where the Dems went wrong. For my part, I hope that we do not fall prey to two related and misguided conclusions: 1) that America wasn’t ready to elect a woman of color, and 2) that America is a fundamentally sexist/racist country, and that there’s nothing to be done about it. As unimaginable as it may be for some of us to comprehend how millions chose to cast their ballots, it is necessary to keep in mind that, by and large, we do not live in the same timelines. Even setting aside mis- and disinformation, our public square has shattered into separate spaces that cater to different ideological factions. We don’t see the video clips that they see, and vice versa. The only way that we can combat this—and even then it may not be sufficient—is through rededicating ourselves to encounters with others in the real world. This is why I take some small solace in getting to play music in public over the next few weeks; it’s an opportunity to awaken community in a room, if only for an hour or two.

Again, the only thing that will move us through the next several years is a politics of solidarity: one devoted to the pursuit of universal health care, living wages, housing and climate justice, reproductive freedom, LGBTQ+ rights, and an end to rapacious capitalism. To do this means refocusing our attention toward the material needs of our neighbors, and to the ways in which their needs and concerns intersect with our own. For now: take care of yourself as you attend to the needs of others. Feel the weight of what’s ahead, but do not despair. And consider donating to the ACLU, which has been preparing for years to combat Project 2025.

Forgot to mention Feb 16 in Laguna Beach, CA!

P.S. If you are a regular reader, please consider upgrading to a paid subscription! This is largely a labor of love, but your support enables me to devote more attention to the work I do here and elsewhere. Thank you, as always, for reading. And hope to see you somewhere on tour in the next few weeks!