An Arc Bent Slowly

There’s really no other way to say it: this blows. The last few days have been rough, and to be honest, we didn’t really feel like sitting down to write silly jokes for our funny moderately humorous occasionally amusing newsletter. We’re not in the mood for that and we’ll hazard a guess that many of you aren’t either. But now that the dust is starting to settle and we’re finally drying our eyes [Becky] and sobering up [Jesse], one thing stands out clearly to us as a reason to gather here with you in this space, and that’s how grateful we are to live in Alexandria—always, but especially at a time like this.

Tuesday’s electoral map is ugly, and it’s depressing. A whole lot of people in every part of the country said “yes, please” to a ticket for a second run down the tracks on the chaotic rollercoaster of Trump’s administration of the federal government. To those of you who are trying to make sense of it, we’ll be the first to tell you that we don’t have the answers. No one does, not right now. Months from now when the voter file can be matched up with Tuesday’s results we’ll have a definitive picture of the trends among people and places that delivered Trump back to the White House. The one thing we do know for sure right now is that the people and place here in Alexandria—by a margin of 57 points—said “absolutely the fuck not” to the prospect of that bronzer-smeared carny throwing the switch on another stomach-churning ride. 

And while that doesn’t change the ultimate result, we should take comfort in the knowledge that this is a city full of people who share fundamental values like empathy, kindness, and optimism; who care about democracy, science, bodily autonomy, and functioning institutions. Whatever else happens over the next four years, we can look around and know that we’re not alone in these beliefs. We don’t have to carry that emotional burden. We are so lucky to have that certainty, and to have each other.

This is no small thing. We’ll come to depend on it a lot moving forward. And it’s a blessing that we have it since we really don’t have any other choice but to ride out these next years together. While there is escapist relief in thinking about packing up and leaving the country—the reality is that very few people can or will actually follow this course. Moving abroad is really hard, and even for those with the means to do it… where would they even go? It’s become increasingly obvious in recent years that people suck everywhere governments lurching to the right is a global trend not unique to the United States (not to mention you’ll just go from facing Trump’s domestic policy to facing Trump’s foreign policy, which, uh, hard pass). We say all this to make the point that most Alexandrians are going to stick it out here for a whole host of reasons, not the least of which being we love this place too much to give up on it. Which leaves the most critical question—what we’re going to do to get through this, individually and collectively.

It’s still too early to know what kind of progressive response will coalesce at the national level—but it’s possible we won’t see the kind of animated anti-Trump energy we saw from 2017 to 2020. He’s on track to win the popular vote this time, which is pretty demoralizing. People are tired. We’re running dangerously low on our strategic stockpile of Krassensteins. But no matter what happens nationally, right here in Alexandria we are going to take care of each other, to the goddamn limit of our abilities, no matter what happens. 

And yeah, a lot of bad shit can and will happen. There are no silver linings to this, not even the promise of Infrastructure Week 2: I Still Know What You Infrastructured Last Summer. Federal employees could lose their jobs. Members of our community might be deported. Every national policy change from tariffs to reproductive rights rollbacks to weakened food safety regulations will touch our lives in some way. And—brace yourselves—some of the skipping dipshits who are engineering all of this cruelty and stupidity are probably going to move here. We know what you’re thinking—does the city even have that much Cybertruck parking?? We don’t know, but we’re probably going to be forced to find out. 

It is left to us then to support one another in the face of these threats and pressures, in ways big and small. During Trump’s first term Alexandrians weren’t shy about objecting loudly to the administration’s actions. While protests and council proclamations can feel ineffective and performative, telling our neighbors that we stand with them, that we neither actively wish them harm nor passively condone it, is never a waste of our time. Solidarity through moral support is a form of strength. It gives all of us the courage to keep fighting. We’re confident that our city will continue to show up in this way—and as conditions worsen, we can pursue more material forms of support, whether that’s relief for affected residents through grants and mutual aid networks, refusal to devote local resources to enforcing federal incursions on our civil rights, or collaboration with other city governments on potential legal strategies. Every little bit will matter, even if none of it is enough.

Critically, at the same time we push back, our city can and must continue to make forward progress on the things that matter to us. No one is coming to help us—if we want to get something done, we’ve got to do it ourselves. With federal abdication on climate a sure thing, local action to build resilience and reduce emissions has never been more critical. So let’s push it forward as aggressively as we can. Let’s build more housing to address the cost of living issues that according to many experts exacerbated the economic concerns motivating the election results. Let’s creatively explore funding options to replace the federal grants that might no longer be available to support the city’s work. Let’s ban gas-powered leaf blowers! Okay fine that last one doesn’t really have anything to do with Trump but let’s do it anyway! The point is—it’s more important than ever that the progressive priorities our local candidates talked about during this year’s campaign be pursued as ambitiously as possible.

And the good news—yeah that’s right, we’re gonna end this essay on a high note, bitches—is that we’ve elected some incredible people to lead us through it. Mayor Alyia Gaskins and expected Vice-Mayor Sarah Bagley—do you guys even know how fucking amazing these women are? We are so fortunate to have them on our team. The rest of the members of our next city council—John Chapman, Kirk McPike, Jacinta Greene, Canek Aguirre, and Abdel Elnoubi—are to a person, smart, compassionate, and determined to do the work we all need and expect. In the midst of the anxiety and grief we’ve been feeling since Tuesday, let’s give ourselves space to celebrate them, and to congratulate ourselves on our choices. We deserve to feel great about our local government. We did that! And we gave them a clear, unambiguous mandate to keep our city moving forward, no matter what happens nationally—so let’s fucking go. 

That’s it for this week, so you’ll just have to imagine what we might have written about the Nextdoor meltdown over the big lot on Braddock that’s being subdivided [Editor’s note: we’re pretty sure you can guess] or what memes we would have used for the discourse item about the rabies raccoons. As we sign off, we’ll leave you with this: Be there for each other. Take care of each other. Model for each other the America we thought we’d find on Tuesday, and in so doing ensure that we’ll yet find that America some ways down the road. That’s what we’re going to do, that’s all any of us can do.

We love you, Alexandria.

You can follow Becky @beckyhammer.bsky.social and Jesse @oconnell.bsky.social on Bluesky, or you can e-mail us anytime at alxtranewsletter@gmail.com.

ALXtra is a free-to-read newsletter about current events in Alexandria, Virginia. Subscribe to get it delivered directly to your inbox. Paid subscriptions give you access to the comments. Revenue from subscriptions gets used in the following ways: 1) a third goes into a charity fund, and every time that fund hits $500 we’ll make a donation to a local charity in the name of ALXtra’s readers and we’ll feature and write about that organization; 2) another third of the money will go toward investments in the newsletter; and 3) the final third of the money goes toward self-care for your two intrepid authors.