Popular Vote, Drought, Hunger, Your Voice Matters
National Popular Vote Interstate Compact could happen this next year!
Virginia’s 13 electoral votes bring the compact’s total to 222, more than 80 percent of the way to the 270-vote threshold. That leaves just 48 electoral votes to go until every vote—urban and rural, red state and blue state—counts the same. Those 48 votes can be seen in states whose leadership will be decided in this November’s elections.
Arizona and Michigan together hold a combined 26 electoral votes, and both have already seen one legislative chamber pass the compact. Their passage of the compact would close more than half the remaining gap. From there, Pennsylvania could add another 19 electoral votes, North Carolina offers 16, and Wisconsin offers 10.* This does not have to be a 20-year horizon, but rather something that could be accomplished within the next year.
Video: Colorado River Drought, PBS
Colorado River Drought may be extreme this year because of low snowpack & expected extreme heat. Compromise among the states has been challenging, but efforts are ongoing. 20 million Southern California residents depend on Colorado River water. Over 70% of Colorado River water use has been for agriculture.
Video: Trump Math Doesn’t Add Up, NYTimes
Authoritarian regimes impose their authority by insisting that people believe things that are obviously not true. The point is that the regime is more powerful than the truth. By going after the data and inventing his own narrative, Trump is following a familiar pattern. Almost immediately after his second inauguration, Trump’s mass deletion campaign began. The government’s 13 core statistical agencies were stymied, losing over 20 percent of their staff, and entire data sets were discontinued. Cases against Jan. 6 rioters, the Drug Abuse Warning Network, the Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program and the Farm Labor Survey — these are just a few of the deleted data sets that informed the public, helped the government do its job and were critical in holding the government accountable.
Imagine what could happen if we allow this to continue in the U.S.
Imagine being told that hunger is at an all-time low when lines in your neighborhood go around the block as people line up for food.
Imagine not being able to access a medication you need because the government withheld the data that showed its effectiveness.
Imagine election officials facing criminal prosecution for announcing the correct results.
Accurate and well-reported data is an essential element of a well-functioning democracy. The true victim in the war on numbers isn’t just the data; it’s you.
When People Stop Believing Their Voice Matters, Rev. Cameron Trimble
One of the most dangerous things happening in the United States right now is not only the weakening of voting rights; it is the growing sense that participation no longer matters.
Authoritarianism does not just grow through force. It also grows when people give up. When citizens start to believe that participation does not matter, they pull back emotionally long before they stop taking part politically.
Vaclav Havel saw this during communist rule in Czechoslovakia. He wrote that oppressive systems last not just because leaders have power, but because ordinary people slowly get used to living with lies.3 They stop expecting honesty from public life. They stop believing their actions matter. Being cynical becomes a way to cope.
Systems do not just try to control laws and institutions. They also try to control how people imagine the future. They want people to stop believing that change is possible.
That is why justice movements have always relied on communities that protect moral imagination. The Civil Rights Movement did this through churches, songs, rituals, organizing, storytelling, and shared courage. They were not just fighting laws. They were defending the belief that change was still possible, even when the system said it was not.
Hope isn’t about pretending everything will turn out fine. It’s about not giving up your part in shaping what comes next.
Maybe that’s the most important thing to protect right now. Not just voting rights themselves, which are definitely important, but also the shared belief that regular people still have the power to shape what happens next.
Keep the faith, folks. Not in the system as it is. In each other. In what we can build together that they cannot take away.
And get ready to organize, organize, organize. But also: rest, rest, rest. Grieve, grieve, grieve. Imagine, imagine, imagine.
We are in this together.
Do not let cynicism harden our hearts or resignation narrow our imagination. Give us the courage to remain engaged with one another and with the work of justice, even when the path forward feels uncertain.
Help us remember that movements for dignity and freedom have always required ordinary people willing to stay awake, stay connected, and keep showing up. And when we feel powerless, remind us that history has often turned in favor of communities that refused to surrender hope.
Video: This Is What Hunger Feels Like, NYTimes
At least one in seven Americans, over 47 million people, are living with hunger.
Excellent Overview: University District Food Bank Briefing, April 2026, by Director Joe Gruber
