What Next?

It’s always too soon to go home.

-Rebecca Solnit, Hope in the Dark

This piece is as much for myself as for anyone reading it, because the day after Election Day has been a hard day.

The election, in multiple ways, was not what I hoped it would be. Enough has been said about Donald Trump, and I don’t feel like adding more. But in South Carolina, we also saw a further expansion of power by the GOP, a party which has been in control of every branch of government for most of my lifetime.

A few weeks ago, I was driving out into Lexington County and saw a sign that read, “Fed up? Vote Republican”. And with all due respect to my Republican neighbors, I had to laugh at how inappropriate that messaging was— how much more Republican power could possibly be in effect? The GOP in South Carolina— as in the country at large, come January— controls all three branches of government, and both houses of the legislature. It has shaped the courts. It has drawn the electoral maps that keep it in power …