We finished watching The Diplomat Season 3, a fantasy series where the United States is run by competent, intelligent adults who have the best interests of the country and world at heart. It stars Keri Russell, Rufus Sewell and a whole lot of fabulous wallpaper. 🍿
I’m still reading “Lord of the Rings.” Blorbo is getting ready to peace-out from Bag End. He’s got this souvenir ring that he means to leave behind for his nephew, whose name is Froyo I think. But Blorbo can’t stand to give up the ring and he’s being super-weird about it. I’m sure this will not be a problem for the rest of the book.
I hated "Lord of the Rings" but I'm giving it another try
Currently reading: The Lord of the Rings by John Ronald Reuel Tolkien 📚
I read Lord of the Rings when I was in my 20s and did not like it, but I’ve become a fan of The Rest Is History podcast and the hosts there love it. I’m intrigued by their comments that the book is, weirdly, a realistic portrait of medieval European history.
The podcast covered the life of JRR Tolkien, and how it likely influenced the Lord of the Rings, in particular his experience growing up in rural England, threatened by industrialization, and his later experience in World War I. Although, if I recall correctly, Tolkien himself denied the influences.
The podcast has talked a good deal about medieval European history, and British history in particular, and it is fascinating.
So I figured I’d give Lord of the Rings another go and see if I like it better.
I’ve barely started.
The books start with a long introduction or foreword about Hobbit history and major works of Hobbit scholarship, which is excruciatingly dry and is an odd creative choice by Tolkien. If I were picking up the book when it was first published in 1954, and knew nothing about it, I would have read no further.
Oddly, I’m reminded of the opening chapter of Snow Crash, which deals with the adventures of a cyberpunk pizza delivery driver. I found that childish when I first read the book. A couple of years later, I mentioned this opinion to a friend, and he said, yeah, the first chapter is dumb, but push through. You’ll be glad you did. And I did, and my friend was right — Snow Crash is brilliant. But the first chapter is dumb.
I pushed through with Lord of the Rings, and am now reading the first chapter, about Bilbo Baggins’s birthday party. When I first read the book, I found that section unbearably twee, but I took myself a lot more seriously then, and I’m enjoying this chapter now.
Overheard: “No, Chip Roy. Jesus is not my king. There is only one king in America and that’s Elvis.”
President Trump posted an AI video of himself spraying explosive diarrhea on peaceful protesters. I’ll point this out next time a Trump supporter tut-tuts and says the left loses elections because we’re not civil.
To fix a broken U.S., start locally
Help pass California Proposition 50, the Election Rigging Response Act (ERRA). You just need to walk around your neighborhood and talk to your neighbors. Sign up at mobilize.us
It’s easy to feel hopeless as the Trump government sends masked agents to invade our communities, uses government as a personal revenge apparatus, executes extrajudicial killings and creates economic chaos with tariffs. Even billionaires and the CEOs of the biggest companies in the world are bending the knee. It seems that surely the rest of us can’t do anything to stop the U.S.’s downward spiral.
But you can make a difference if you stop obsessing about national decline and turn your attention to local change. Join a community association, become active in your church, synagogue or mosque, and reach out to your neighbors. Change doesn’t just come from the top down; it also spreads from the bottom up. Down here at the bottom is where regular people like you and me can help bring about positive change, or at least slow the decay.
One such opportunity for positive change is available now: You can help pass California Proposition 50, which redraws state Congressional maps to create five additional Democratic Party-leaning seats in Congress. Prop 50 is a reaction to a naked power grab by Republicans in Texas who gerrymandered five Democratic-leaning districts to Republican.
What the Republicans did in Texas is corrupt and against the principles that our Founders held dear. To be clear, Prop. 50 is also gerrymandering. But it’s necessary to counter Republican cheating. The California measure will help Democrats retain a voice in national decision-making. As California State Assembly Member Chris Ward explains, Democrats need a five-point majority in the popular vote to gain majority control of the U.S. House of Representatives, because of decades of prior Republican gerrymandering. Texas’s gerrymandering will make that situation worse.
Terrible, but necessary
In Texas, the legislature decided the measure, after Republicans threatened to arrest Democrats, required Democratic representatives to submit to state police escorts and confined one representative to the state capitol overnight. But California’s Prop 50 won’t be decided by the governor or the legislature; it will be decided by the people, in a special election Nov. 4. Moreover, the California redistricting is temporary; California will revert to the independent redistricting commission, of which we are justifiably proud, after 2030.
Republicans are using their control of Congress and the White House to cheat California, threatening to withhold funding to fight wildfires, opening floodgates in the California Central Valley to waste water, driving ICE into our communities with no accountability, and threatening to withhold housing, education and healthcare funding, Ward notes.
Proposition 50 is a terrible measure — but it’s necessary. Republicans have stopped playing by the rules. Democrats need to stop bringing pencils to the knife fight.
You can help pass Proposition 50. You don’t need to donate money. You just need to canvass — walk around your neighborhood and talk to your neighbors. To sign up, go to San Diego Mobilize and look for the Prop 50 activities. Or sign up for any of the other great causes at San Diego Mobilize. If you can’t walk, you can make phone calls or text.
Even today, in the era of TikTok and AI, door-to-door canvassing is a highly effective means of getting out the vote. That’s been true for more than a century, and it’s still true.
Getting ahead
I’ve been active in the local Democratic Party and walking door-to-door to get out the vote since 2017. At first, I hated the idea — it seemed like an unnatural act. I hate being on the receiving end of door-to-door solicitation, and I did not relish the idea of doing that to my neighbors.
But I soon learned canvassing is different. We’re not asking for money or trying to get you to change your religion. We just want you to vote and suggest which candidates and issues to vote for.
Every time I canvass, I’m pleasantly surprised by how friendly and grateful people are to hear from me. Sometimes I get into lovely conversations. Though, to be honest, any kind of interaction is rare — mostly, when we ring a doorbell, nobody’s home, and we leave a door-hanger and move on. Still, it’s nice to get out and walk — and to feel like we’re doing something. Because we are.
After you’ve canvassed a few times in your neighborhood, people know who you are. One time, a neighbor chased me down — I wasn’t canvassing that day, I was just walking the dog — because she knew I canvassed, and she was upset because she thought she missed the deadline to vote in a previous special election. I reassured her that no, she had not; the ballot just needed to be postmarked by Election Day. I got out my phone and showed her where she could drop the ballot off in a dropbox if she didn’t want to mail it in. Another time, while canvassing, I rang the doorbell of a woman in her 90s who lived alone, and her caregiver let me in. The woman was unable to walk more than a couple of steps and breathed with an oxygen tank, but we sat a while and had a lovely conversation. She had been an activist herself when she was younger and more mobile.
A few weeks ago, a neighbor in his 80s greeted me with a big grin — and a fake severed head. He had been decorating for Halloween and thought that answering the door with a fake severed head was a splendid idea. He was 100% right about that, and we had an excellent conversation.
Two separate goats
That’s another great thing about canvassing: You’re a volunteer. You’re not on a clock. If you want to stop and have a nice conversation with someone, do it. That’s what we’re out there for.
Negative interactions are extremely rare; I’ve knocked on hundreds of doors and can only think of two or three times when people were rude. And sometimes even the negative interactions can be entertaining; goats chased State Sen. Akilah Weber Pierson. Twice. In one day. Two separate goats, at two separate houses.
Local action is your best bet for breaking the MAGA wave sweeping the country. Canvassing to support Prop 50 is a great way to make a difference; sign up at mobilize.us, or sign up for any of the other great causes there. Or just get active in your community — your church, synagogue, mosque, school or any other club or activity. If you choose to canvass, you’ll almost certainly find it a rewarding experience, and you’re highly unlikely to be chased by goats.
Mitch Wagner is a board member at large for the La Mesa-Foothills Democratic Club, serving La Mesa and surrounding communities — but all are welcome. We meet the first Wednesday of the month at 6:30 pm for a social half-hour, with programming starting 7 pm, at the La Mesa Community Center, 4975 Community Drive, La Mesa.
More often than meeting people who were strongly in favor or against redistricting, I met people who either had not heard of Proposition 50 or didn’t understand it. Others simply felt disillusioned by politics. They didn’t believe that politicians, no matter from what party, would have a positive impact on their lives, and they didn’t expect help from them.