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I can't tell you the amount of people from administrators to nurses to doctors that I spoke to over the past week when we were in the hospital who were just terrified about what's coming for healthcare. One of them said to me, people don't understand. They don't understand what they're about to lose. So many people are going to die. And we, meaning the people in the healthcare industry, we don't know what to do about it. Hello and welcome to the Politics Girl podcast. I'm your host, Lee McGowan. Let's get into it. Well, this week we were supposed to have a conversation with American super lawyer and democracy's white knight, Mark Elias. We were going to talk about the case he just argued in front of the Supreme Court where the Republican Party wants to make campaign finance even more corrupt by dismantling federal limits on coordinated spending between political parties and political candidates. And we were going to talk about all the cases the Elias Law Group has on the go right now to protect our voting rights and our democracy. But that will now be next week because we had to postpone. It's not that he had to postpone, which would make sense because he was so busy trying to save our republic, but because I was unavailable and had to cancel. Here's the thing. I spent much of last week in the hospital. Not for me, the person with the very serious chronic disease, but for my husband, the incredibly healthy. Goes to the gym every day at 5:30, watches what he eats. Pinnacle of health. I had to call the Elias Law people from the ER to tell them that I couldn't make our conversation because my husband, who is also my producer, might be having a stroke. It was terrifying. My 48 year old, completely healthy husband was dizzy and unable to recall where we'd been the past weekend, or our son's girlfriend's name, or even what year it was. He was like, maybe I just need to eat something or lie down. And I was like, no, are going to the hospital. Well, we got there and the staff moved fast because as it turns out, the hospital closest to us has a stroke center. So we had neurologists and a CT scan and specialists on him right away. They took blood. They told him three words, then showed him a bunch of pictures and made him read some sentences. And then they asked him those three words again and he had no idea what they were. He could tell you everything in the pictures, no problem reading. He knew who, who he was, where he was, but those three words, they were just an absolute blank for him. And it Was totally scary. He takes such good care of his body, but his brain was failing him. So they admitted him. And we went to a neuro unit, and he had MRIs with contrast, and they did an EEG to scan his brain waves, and they did so many more blood tests. And he battled with a terrible migraine and then insane nausea as a reaction to the drug they gave him for the migraine. He was flustered and not being able to remember things. He was genuinely angry. And he kept saying things like, I don't have time for this. But mostly, I think, like me, he was scared. Scared that after everything he had done to keep his body as healthy as possible, his brain might fail him. And I felt the same way. What would we do if Shawn got early onset Alzheimer's or dementia? How would I handle it if his personality changed or his brain swelled to the point of damage or death? How could I do all of this by myself when I am already sick? How do I do life without my partner? I. Without my person? In the past four years, Shawn has been through an emergency appendectomy, a complete foot reconstruction, a blood clot in the leg that didn't have the reconstruction, and two spinal surgeries, One planned and one an emergency. I have been married for 20 years to an incredibly physical guy, A guy who climbs mountains and taught swing dancing, who couldn't do anything active for well over a year. So when he was finally able to, he was at that gym working out so hard to be the fittest, strongest version of himself. And he absolutely nailed it. I mean, I have been completely objectifying him for months. He is such a zaddy now. But we are more than our physical body. We really are our brains. And as we went through every test at the hospital, the doctors kept asking if he'd been stressed, how stressed had he been? Had something particularly stressful happened? I mean, look, of course he's stressed. Living in America is stressful. Doing our job is stressful. Being inundated with the horrible news of the day is stressful. Running your own business is stressful. Watching your healthcare premiums continue to go up when you have a family member with a really serious disease, stressful. Raising a teenager and trying to get him Into College in 2025, stressful. But had Shawn had more stress than usual? Yes, because two days after Thanksgiving, while we were in New York, Shawn's oldest friend died unexpectedly. Our friend Greg had been fighting cancer for two years, and Shawn had been doing all his appointments and medical crises, of which, for poor Greg, there were a lot the entire time. But last spring, Greg was declared cancer free, and we were all thrilled. He is our son's godfather. He was Shawn's college roommate. He didn't have a spouse or children of his own, so he really was our family. And he'd been with us through everything. Every Halloween, every Renaissance fair and every birthday, every kid's concert and play. But because he got cancer, and cancer is a cruel bitch. We only got the summer with him because by the early fall, he was re diagnosed with a different form of cancer. But I will say, this time he was doing so well with all the setbacks he'd been going through from the first time. The doctors had finally figured out his chemo cocktail and he was thriving. In fact, two weeks before he died, he'd been with us at Lachlan Senior musical Grease, and Locke was playing Danny, and he had such a good time. He had missed the last show because of the cancer, so we were all so happy to have him there. Then while we were away, he got a stomachache, which turned out to be a perforation that required emergency surgery, and he never regained consciousness. Shawn tried to get back in time to be with him when he died, but he passed when we were on the tarmac in Newark. And Shawn was devastated. So I do think it's entirely possible, although it could still be West Nile virus or some kind of brain seizure, that the stress of Greg's sudden death triggered something in Shaw. Transient global amnesia. Now, transient global amnesia is a real thing. It's a sudden onset of confusion where a person is unable to create new memories, so the memories of recent events just disappear. Sometimes you can't remember where you are or how you got there. You might keep repeating the same questions to people because you don't remember the answer. You might also draw a blank, as Shawn was doing when asked to remember things that happened a day, a month, or even a year ago. This happens to people who are otherwise healthy and alert. It's not epilepsy or a stroke or a brain tumor, despite the fact that it presents the same. You can remember who you are, you recognize your people, but you now struggle to form new memories. Episodes of TGA get better slowly over a few hours, and then the whole thing goes away. And apparently it's not that serious, but it's incredibly frightening. Apparently, TGA happens to people far more often than we think, when people's brains just sort of give up for a bit. Jeff Probst, the host from Survivor, he had it. My friend Hillary told me two friends of hers had it. There are some people who lose hours. There are some people who forget where they were or how they got there. It's like a soap opera, just amnesia out of nowhere. And while the underlying cause of TGA is unknown, it has been associated with triggers like sudden immersion in cold or hot water, strenuous physical activity, medical procedures, mild head trauma, and being emotionally upset, perhaps caused by bad news, conflict or overwork. I honestly think anyone could get this at this point, and I'm pretty sure our family's lifestyle in combination with Greg's death might have just pushed my incredibly healthy husband's brain to the edge of the the whole thing was awful. And we spent two days not knowing if we were dealing with a tumor or an aneurysm or a brain bleed or encephalitis, which would have completely changed my husband's personality. And I hated every second of it. And when you combine that experience with Congress's vote last Friday, with the Republicans choosing not to extend the ACA subsidies yet keep the healthcare exchange even remotely affordable for tens of millions of us, it got me thinking that the governing party of America, the party that calls themselves party of life, does not give a shit if we live or die. I think about my rage when I read that Senator Tommy Tuberville said, if you don't want medical debt, the answer is simple. Don't get sick. Live healthier and you won't need to see a doctor. Make better choices. Make better choices. Don't get sick. You bro, you and your whole party and the football you rode in on. I just spent three days in a medical hell with a man who couldn't, shouldn't spend more time taking care of himself. And he is particularly conscious of it because he already has a sick wife, so he knows he has to be in peak physical condition. So if something happens to me, our child still has a parent. And for the record, Tommy, when I got sick, I was a lifelong, chronically healthy, gym going, non smoking, competitive skier who was the captain of her high school swim team and a dancer. I was diagnosed with a one in a million lung disease and I never even smoked. What choices did I make that were wrong? Now my disease is idiopathic, but do you know that the most likely possibility, the doctors think how I got my disease was from carrying my baby to term? Yeah, it's possible that the high levels of estrogen that were in my body when I gave birth to my son kick started a terminal disease. And yet the Republican Party is the same party that doesn't want to give us health care and wants to force women to have babies, babies that can potentially ruin the health of the mother. Now, I don't blame my son for my disease, but we really should be more honest about what a toll pregnancy takes on the body and how expensive it is to be sick in America. So when the Republicans voted against extending the ACA subsidies last week, after they voted to gut Medicaid and their suggestion of an alternative plan was to give us, say, $1,000 in a health savings account for us to negotiate our own health care, they basically voted for us to die. Take Shawn's two days in the hospital with all those brain tests, it is possible that that bill is going to come out around $100,000. We currently pay $3,700 a month for insurance and that's not including our 10% co pays, our deductibles or our hospital stays. That cost is going to go up to $4,300 a month in the new year even if you're not sick. Do you know how much it costs to have a baby in America? It's around $20,000. With insurance. With insurance, without insurance. When Medicaid cuts go into effect for a lot of people in 2026, it can run you $70,000 just to give birth. Who has that kind of money? Health care isn't a red or blue left or right issue. It's being a human being living inside a human body issue. Now I know this is weird, but I want to take a minute and stop and and give a shout out to my sponsors who allow this show to be possible. So I'm going to go through them, thank them very much and then we'll be back. Sean and I have had a delete me account for a while now. We were particularly pleased to have it back in September when there was a crisis and the government decided to blame and target left wing creators for something we had nothing to do with. Deleteme makes it easy, quick and safe to remove your personal data online. At a time where surveillance and data breaches are common enough to make everyone vulnerable, it was nice peace of mind to know that they were on the case. You don't have to be a social media person to be targeted. These days, data brokers make a profit because your data is a commodity. Anyone on the web can buy your private details which can lead to identity theft, phishing attempts and harassment. They can take your name and your contact information and your Social Security number and your home address, even information about your family members. And then they compile it and they sell it it and no one wants that. There's a reason New York Times Wirecutter has named Deleteme their top pick for data removal services. Sadly, this is just something we need these days. So take control of your data and keep your private life private by signing up for Deleteme now with a special discount for our listeners. Get 20% off your delete me plan when you go to JoinDeleteMe.com politicsgirl and use the promo code politicsgirl at checkout. The only way to get get 20% off is to go to JoinDeleteMe.com PoliticsGirl and enter the code politicsgirl at checkout. That's JoinDeleteMe.com politicsgirl code politicsgirl okay, so we're well into December, which means that we're coming up on last minute shopping and last minute shopping during the holidays is a major drag. You're running out of ideas. The stores are packed, parking is a nightmare. Where which is why I'm excited to talk to you about Aura Frames Aura Frames are a great last minute gift idea because it feels thoughtful and personal and ultimately it's something the receiver can actually use. We often struggle with ideas for our parents, particularly if you have kids and you're in a different headspace than them. Their presents are great and yours are kind of meh. We have personally given Aura Frames to both my dad and Sean's parents. We also gave one to Shawn's grandmother. And yes, he he still has a grandmother. She's 101 and she is adorable. Aura Frames let you share photos or videos from any device to the frame. You can just load the frame with photos before you give it as a gift, then update it and upload it with photos you want to add anytime, anywhere. It is such a lovely gift when you can't be together to keep up with what's actually going on in your loved ones lives. Every frame comes packaged in a premium gift box with no price tag so it is ready to go. Aura displays photos in true color so it looks like photograph and not a screen and it automatically adjusts for the light level of your room. So at night when you turn off the lights your frame also lets you so at night when you turn off the lights, your frame also turns off to save energy and let you sleep. It takes about two minutes to set up using the Aura app and it's ready to go. So for a limited time, save on the perfect gift by visiting auraframes.com to get $35 off Aura's best selling Carver mat frames named number one by Wirecutter by using the promo code Politics girl at checkout that is a U R A frames.com promo code politicsgirl. This deal is exclusive to listeners and they want me to remind you that they do sell out, so order yours now to get it in time for the holidays. And when you're done, feel free to support the show by mentioning us at checkout auraframes.com Terms and conditions apply. I have learned that how you sleep is just as important as how long you sleep, which is why it really matters what kind of mattress you're using. When you finally hit the bed at the end of the day, you need your mattress to be comfortable, which is why I'm talking to you about Leesa. Leesa has a lineup of beautifully crafted mattresses tailored to how you sleep. Each mattress is designed with specific sleep positions and feel preferences in mind. The mattresses are designed and assembled in the US for exceptional quality that you will feel the difference from day one. Premium materials deliver serious comfort and full body support no matter how you sleep. Leesa has been tested and awarded Best Hybrid Mattress by New York Times Wirecutter and is exclusively featured by West Elm as their Go to Mattress partner. And Leesa isn't just about sleep, it's about impact. Every year they donate thousands of mattresses to people in need while also partnering with organizations like Clean Hub to help remove harmful plastic waste from our oceans. So go to Lisa.com for 25% off mattresses and get an extra $50 off with the promo code PoliticsGirl exclusive for my listeners. That's L E-E-S A.com promo code PoliticsGirl for 25% off mattresses but an extra $50 off. Support our show and let them know we sent you after checkout. That's Lisa.com promo code politics girl Healthcare isn't a red or blue left or right issue. It's being a human being living inside a human body issue. Could Americans be healthier? Sure. But can you also get sick when you're incredibly healthy? Yes. Just like you can get hit by a car or a falling tree branch. And that's not a lack of responsibility on your part. It has to do with luck and how close you are to the nearest hospital when something happens. Something Republican policies are also going to screw up as rural hospitals are now going to have to close due to lack of funding, making the hospitals that stay open even more crowded and expensive. You could say based on these policy choices that the Republicans hate us. US being the general public. But I think it's worse than that. I think they don't even consider us. I think they couldn't care less what happens to us past getting their voters into gerrymandered districts to keep themselves in power. The party that continues voting for Americans to not have affordable health care are the same people who get affordable health care paid for by the people they have. Universal taxpayer provided health care. We just can't have it. I swear this should be one of the only issues people talk about when it comes to elections because it is so obvious and clear cut. Democrats simply need to embrace universal health care at this point, once and for all. This is what the people need. The ACA tried, but it was never perfect because it was sabotaged from the jump by Republicans who wanted Obama to fail and benefited from us being trapped in our jobs and our marriages because that's where we got our health care. Before the Affordable Care act, not only could you get rejected for pre existing condition, we had lifetime caps on insurance. So if you hit a certain amount of money, you are just no longer insurable. Which is kind of rough if you're in the middle of a hospital stay or you have childhood cancer or honestly if you're born with any kind of illness because you could hit that cap before your 10th birthday. What would Tommy Tuberville's smart mouth have to say about that? Nothing. Because they don't care. It's why Obama made the ACA the signature policy of his first term. So insurance companies couldn't price us out. Where these hideous for profit corporations were mandated to pay for a standard level of care where preventative care had to be included. And you know what? It ended up reducing costs because people had better health outcomes. And it turns out if you find and treat things earlier, people don't get as sick and it doesn't cost as much. Now as I said, the ACA could have been way better and less expensive because it was supposed to be like all other insurances where everyone pays a premium each month and if you need it, you use it. But the Republicans said it was unconstitutional to have to pay for health insurance and it went all the way up to the Supreme Court. So the law was changed and you had to opt in, which meant everyone didn't do it, which meant the costs were higher. Now after last week's vote where the Republicans chose to allow the ACA subsidies to expire on December 31, health care costs are going to get even higher. As I mentioned, our family has been paying $3,700 a month on the exchange, because with my disease, we need a platinum plan. But that's going to go up to over $4,300 a month in the new year, which will only get higher when the tax credits expire and people start dropping off insurance. We're looking at what healthcare calls a death spiral. Prices go up so high that healthy people drop their coverage. That leaves only the people who can't afford to live without coverage on the plans. But those people, like me, tend to be really expensive. Our costs are expensive. It's why we need insurance. I have one drug that costs $130,000 every three months. One drug. And I take 15 drugs. Now, when people drop off insurance, insurance companies don't have as much money coming in, so they don't have as much money to pay for our treatments. So they raise the premiums again and the whole cycle repeats. Eventually, people just die because they can't afford to stay on insurance. And eventually insurance companies collapse because they can't afford to stay in business, and then the entire healthcare system implodes. So I understand it's bad news, really bad news. But I am warning you now, the new year is going to be terrible when it comes to our health. And I'm not even talking about the measles outbreaks or the continuing foodborne illnesses caused by the terrible decisions of Trump's HHS secretary. The best we can do is hope that enough of us make it to the midterms, where everyone, no matter who you have voted for in the past, votes for the Democrats. That is literally the only way we get our health care back. I'm being very serious. The Democrats need to win the House and the Senate. We have to flip both chambers or we are in real trouble for many reasons. It is long past time for our citizens to hold this administration accountable, to hold the Republicans in Congress who have abdicated their responsibility to us accountable. And it is well past time we joined the rest of our peer nations and used our tax dollars to fund our health care. We don't need to be paying for endless foreign wars to bolster foreign governments to build endless deportation camps. We need our government to use our money to keep us alive. I can't tell you the amount of people, from administrators to nurses to doctors that I spoke to over the past week when we were in the hospital who were just terrified about what's coming for health care. One of them said to me, people don't understand. They don't understand what they're about to lose. So many people are going to die. And we, meaning the people in the healthcare industry, we don't know what to do about it. Honestly, this healthcare vote alone should be the end of the Republican party. The Democrats are so far from perfect, but they wouldn't just let us die. This is the exact reason they held out so long during the government shutdown, the one they call the Schumer shutdown. The Democrats wanted concessions from the Republicans for the federal government to help the public afford health care. And the Republicans were like, no, open the government and then we'll take a vote on it. So that's what they did. And this is what we got. Nothing. No extensions, no affordable options and more coming crisis in the next year. The Republicans just proved with their vote that they never had any intention on negotiating on health care because they genuine don't care if we have it or not. Again, they got theirs. Who cares what we get. Please remember the Republicans have bad mouthed and tried to kill the ACA for 15 years, but they also had 15 years to come up with a solution, an alternative to the plan for our health care and they didn't bother to do it. Their plan is literally to let people die, which I guess is pretty on brand because look at their stance on guns. Because another thing that happened this past week was the mass shooting at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. A shooting that occurred on the anniversary of the Sandy Hook school shooting. Now, my child is almost the same age as the Sandy Hook kids and I know they would have graduated high school this year. I also remember exactly how I felt when I heard about the shooting because I had to go pick up my son at preschool right after and I was so traumatized I had to pull over on the way home to cry. I could see my son's little face in the rearview mirror and all I could think about was all those parents who would never have that luxury again. Yet again, this should not be a controversial political issue. It shouldn't be red versus blue to say that we want our children to go to school and come home without being shot. It's not complicated. But as Dan Hodges wrote so heartbreakingly a couple of years ago, in retrospect, Sandy Hook marked the end of the US gun control debate. Because when America decided killing children was bearable, it was all over. Well, I don't think killing children is bearable. And I know I'm not alone in thinking that. Just like the healthcare debate, people need to get over their tribalism on the right and the perfection being the enemy of good on the left. And decide to actually fix these frickin problems. The truth of the matter is one party opened the Office of Gun Violence Prevention and the other party closed it. Bill Clinton signed an assault weapons ban and mass shooting deaths went down by 43%. George W. Bush and the Republicans let it expire and mass shooting Deaths went up 239%. For God's sakes, there were two students at the Brown University shooting who had already been in shootings in their high schools. What are we doing here, America? We are literally insane to allow this to continue. One party has put the second Amendment above all the other amendments. The same party, I should add, that is actively working to dismantle the first Amendment. The same party ignoring the fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth Amendment when it comes to ice, immigration detainment, political enemies and our constitutional rights to live in a country with a rule of law. Honestly, this is the same party questioning if the 14th Amendment's right to birthright citizenship really still counts or if women really should have the right to vote like they were given in the 19th century amendment. But the precious second amendment, oh, that's sacred. Stop. Stop for a second. Seriously, stop. If you want things to change, you have to stop voting for Republicans. I do not care about the Democratic brand. I care if you have health care and a living wage and our kids make it home from school. And only one party will do something about that. So we need to give them real power. I need people to remember that this shooter at Brown University didn't act alone. Yes, he was a lone gunman, but it was only possible to do what he did because we live in a country where this kind of violence is made possible over and over again. It is a system failure. Cameron Caskey, who is a congressional candidate for New York and a survivor of the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, pointed out how America is constantly putting itself in a situation that leads to violence because the systems in place allow it to happen. Cameron says we constantly shift the blame to the individuals who do the shooting to avoid dealing with the truth. That is the systems we have in place that allow these shootings to happen. He talks about the shooter at his high school having well known violent iterations that had been reported to the police. But this was a man who was still legally allowed to buy a gun. He points out that the shootings in this country are a failure of institutions who refuse to address the problem along with a for profit health care system where people often have to choose between mental health care and going broke. He reminds us that most gun deaths are suicides and most suicides can be prevented by individuals getting the help they need. But we don't do that either. We would rather blame this violence on an individual than on the systems that are in place that lead to the violence. The Politics Girl podcast has a new sponsor, Parallel. Parallel are doctor made vitamins for women at every stage of their lives. Instead of just having women continue to take a one size fits all vitamin, Parallel is reinventing vitamins from the ground up. 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The shooter at Brown didn't act alone. The shooting was made possible by the Republican House, the Republican Senate, six Supreme Court justices, the President and the nra. There are so many things we could do to fix this. Universal background checks, red flag laws 21 years or older to buy a weapon, mandatory waiting periods, required training, safe storage laws, national gun registration permits, assault weapon bans, ghost gun bans, mandatory insurance. There are so many solutions available to us, but because of the Republican party we do nothing every single time. What happened to the well regulated part of the second Amendment because we are currently living with absolutely no regulation whatsoever. I'm not even going to get into the fact that we have heard for years that people really need their guns because they need to be able to rise up against a tyrannical government and it's overreach. And then we get Donnie Two Dolls and he destroys the economy and destroys the White House while people are rounded up in the streets and not one of these second Amendment warriors don't tread on me militiamen has even bothered to step up to save us. I often wonder what the end goal is here because it feels like the Republican priority, which is what Stephen Miller has pretty much said verbatim, is to get our numbers down in this country. Stephen Miller, the Deputy Director of the White House has said that there should only be a hundred million people in this country, but there are currently over 300 million people here. So maybe no health care, no cancer research, immigration down, deportations up, increased pandemics and mass shootings are actually part of the plan. We'll just keep forcing women to have babies though, because you can never have enough mindless workers and soldiers to act as cannon fodder for the billionaires and leaders to make themselves more money. This country is sick. But it doesn't have to be like this. Did you know that there was another mass shooting the day after the one at Brown University, but it was on a Hanukkah celebration on Bondi beach in Australia. I'm sure you've heard of it because Australia has so few mass shootings that it's world news. It was a horrific anti Semitic attack by a father and son terrorist team. But I think a number of things can be learned from the two shootings. First, the shooters in Bondi beach were using shotguns. Shotguns take time to aim and shoot, which gave a man named Ahmad El Ahmad, a fruit seller, the opportunity to charge one of the gunmen when he was distracted by aiming. He wrestled the gun from the man's hands, disarmed him, and then didn't shoot when he was no longer a threat. We very rarely have the chance for such heroism in America as our shooters primarily use guns that can fire up to 600 bullets a minute. You don't need skill or aim to use those kinds of weapons. You need a chip on your shoulder and easy access to that kind of weapon. The shooting in Australia was clearly anti Semitic, but the good guy without a gun was Muslim. He was able to do what he did without training or a weapon of his own. This idea that in America only a good guy with a gun can stop a bad guy with a gun is such bullshit. And when he did get the gun in his hands, he didn't use it because other cultures aren't as bloodthirsty as we are. In America, Ahmed El Ahmed might not even have been there to help as he probably would have already been rounded up for selling fruit or being brown. But in Australia, he's a hero and he was able to save so many lives. A true honest to God hero. And while one day later, the Australian government has already decided to tighten their already tough gun laws by improving background checks on firearm owners, barring non nationals from obtaining gun licenses, and limiting the types of weapons that are legal in their country, they are also addressing the antisemitism. But in America, we won't do anything. Republicans and American gun nuts are already saying that this Australian shooting is proof that gun laws don't stop shootings. Yeah, but they stop over 90% of shootings and gun deaths. This was Australia's first mass shooting in 29 years. The Brown University shooting was our 397th this year. What rational nation allows that to continue? Again, if you don't want to live like this, then you have to stop voting for Republicans, Period. If you want affordable health care and not to die in poverty from a treatable illness, or you want gun deaths to stop being an everyday occurrence in your nation, then stop voting for the people who refuse to do anything about it. Look at the damage this party has done in less than a year. As a creator who goes by Just Jack wrote online Remember when we weren't losing our jobs in droves, when we weren't at odds with our allies, when we weren't attacking other nations for their resources, deploying mask thugs to terrorize our citizens, or pardoning drug traffickers and violent criminals in exchange for bribes? I do. And I want those days back. I know we're never going back to the America that was, and really we probably shouldn't because it was broken and corrupted and allowed us to get here. But we do need to collectively come together and work to get to a place where there is a rule of law again. And the rule of law applies to all of us. And we have leaders who care if we live or die because of their own policies. But since I can't fix any of that today, I want us all to take a step back and acknowledge how burnt out and hurt and traumatized we are. I want us to take a moment to remember how precious our one fragile life is. And I want you to be able to do that without having yourself or someone you love have to get hospitalized to get that perspective. Five days ago, I thought I might lose my husband. Two weeks ago, we lost a dear friend. It's just all so fragile, and I don't want us to forget it. I was walking my dog in the warm winter sun of Los Angeles the other morning, and I was looking at the palm trees highlighted against the hazy sky, and there were Christmas decorations up and my husband was home from the hospital. And though we still didn't know what was wrong with him in that moment, he was okay and my son was okay. And my dog, who'd been dealing with two months of ear infections and had to be sedated twice, was finally getting better. And as I watched his little swishy tail marching along in front of me and I listened to a 70s singer songwriter playlist, I had to just stop because I just felt so incredibly grateful. I mean, things are awful, but they're all so fine. And I think we often don't realize what luck we have or how good things really are in our daily life. Sadly, we often don't get the perspective we need until something terrible happens. I would say our family has had enough perspective for a lifetime, but I guess you can always get more. When Shawn was in the hospital, the room next door collected a whole group of people outside of it. Clearly, the person inside the room was dying and this was all the loved ones coming to say goodbye. And I recognized what was happening because this is what it was like when my mom died. She didn't want anyone to see her like that. So no one went in the room. But lots of people did come to the hospital to be in the hall to support me, to support my dad, to comfort each other. And honestly, it was beautiful. It was human and generous and kind. Our family had an awful week this week, but that family's week was worse. The families at Banzai beach and the Jewish people around the world who feel traumatized by what happened to them, they had a worse week. The students at Brown and their families, worse. Poor Rob Reiner and his wife, heartbreakingly, tragically worse. And that kind of perspective is grounding. There are days when it all just seems like too much. When you're just so incredibly tired and you think you can't take it anymore. I feel like that. I'm sure a lot of people feel the same. Which is why when I can, I try to do what I did on my walk and acknowledge the moment, that in this moment things are okay. Because this moment is really all we have. Things are not good for most of us right now. It's impossible for things to be good when your country is torturing people and building concentration camps and separating families and starving people. Everything I read says we're moving into an increased surveillance state with an anti democratic government that's stealing from all of us. So we're going to have to fight back. And to do that, we're going to have to reserve all the strength and willpower we can muster. I recently read a quote that said I will never forgive him for making America a place people fear. A place people don't like, don't trust, don't want to do business with, don't want to visit, don't want anything to do with. He has made America a place people laugh at. A place that is cruel and bigoted. America is no longer a destination. It is a place to be avoided. We didn't sign up to be allies with Russia and at war with France. You'd be hard pressed to find a democratic government that sells pardons and gives themselves and their friends contracts and takes over the media and puts the military in the streets. So, yeah, big picture, things are not good right now. But I want you to slow down, down enough to see where things are okay and to gain strength from that. Years ago, I did a thing where I wrote down five things I was grateful for every day before bed. It started off really annoying, but it did really start to help over time. I started to go through the day looking for what to write down at night. Things like I almost got into a car accident but I didn't. I wasn't late when I thought I would be. I liked my lunch. I'm thinking I might start that practice again. I'm already doing more meditation and breathing with calm and insight. Timer I'm watching far too many Hallmark type Christmas movies because every story has the same plot and they all end happy and it's exactly what I need. It's self care to build or keep the strength you need to come back and fight another day. So acknowledge and honor the things that are going right in a world that seems so wrong. On the night of the Brown shooting in Rhode island, my friend Heather Cox Richardson didn't write her nightly newsletter. Instead, she put up a beautiful picture of the nature around her and wrote we haven't taken a night off in ages and I bet you're as tired as I am. Let's regroup tomorrow. And I felt her message in my bones. People are drowning. The American dream has become a nightmare, so we have to conserve our energy so we don't break. We can fix this nation and honestly, I think we can fix the world. But we can't do it if we check out, if we get sick, if we break down, or if we give up. So take a step back, reorient yourself and we will regroup tomorrow. We are not each other's enemy. We are each other's keeper and we need to keep our hope alive. Until next week. PG out the Politics Girl podcast is written and performed by me, Leigh McGowan and produced and edited by Happy Warrior Entertainment. All rights reserved.