Democracy in America is dying because it is a system that relies on the participation of the electorate. If the electorate is too vocal and active however, then liberals may have to pass laws that decrease their comfort and wealth, they may have to enact policies that could even cost them their donors, cushy do-nothing jobs, and friendships with republicans.

Evers’ maps “give Democrats only a 17% chance of winning half of all Assembly seats with 50% of [the] state vote”, meaning these maps still will not result in electoral outcomes that represent the actual votes cast. A representative democracy means that if you win 50% of the vote, you should win 50% of the seats. Instead, under Evers’ maps, what should be a guaranteed outcome is only a faint possibility.

While efforts to gather, hold each other safe, and defend our city are vital and encouraging, they don’t address the core problem: this should never have happened. We cannot let the people who put us at risk off the hook. The community response to the RNC needs to include holding the elected officials who invited the fascists here responsible for what goes down during their party in our city.

Beginnings are hard. Some of them you’re forced into: being born, your first day at school, the first time you have to pay your own rent. This is different: we’re voluntarily starting something new, we aren’t sure how it will go, but we hope it’s worth the effort.