Thanksgiving provides Americans with a long weekend to spend time with family and to spend time reflecting on their lives and the world around them. As such, I have decided to create a relative list describing just some of the many things that I am thankful for.
- I am thankful for Net Neutrality and the fight to keep Net Neutrality as the standard for American internet access. Net Neutrality allows for all of us to enjoy the internet equally, it allows for our right of free speech, thought, and expression to be expanded to a medium we all use extensively on a daily basis.
- I am thankful for our constitutionally guaranteed rights to free speech and religion. The First Amendment protects some of the most important and fundamental rights we could possibly have. Because of the protections contained within the First Amendment, I have the right to practice whatever religion I could possibly dream up and at the same time, I have the right to live free of any and every religion imaginable. The First Amendment protects my right to write this article, it protects me from any backlash that the state or various political actors could possibly have because I write on this blog.
- I am thankful for the constitutionally protected right for a woman to have an abortion. Pregnancy and parenthood are incredibly difficult realities that not all of us are prepared for. Having the right to an abortion protected in the constitution allows for safe and secure access to quality abortion services, women no longer have to have dangerous procedures to terminate unwanted pregnancies. On top of that, an abortion can easily be regarded as one of the most personal and intimate decisions that an individual can make. The state has absolutely no right to be involved in that decision. The constitutional protections for abortion are incredibly important for Americans across this country.
- I am thankful for the existence of term-limits for politicians, no matter how scarce their existence may be. Competitive elections ensure that our representative democratic system stays as democratic as possible. Politicians that remain incumbents in office for decades can become complacent, they can lose touch with the people that they represent. Term-limits ensure that politicians remain as receptive to their constituency as possible and that elections remain as competitive as possible. Competitive elections further force politicians to listen to the people that they represent, it allows for there to be a plethora of candidates available for people to vote for in any given election. The New York City Council has successfully enacted term-limits, hopefully it becomes a trend and spreads to the New York State Government soon and then the American Federal Government.
- I am thankful for the various social movements that are currently active, like #BlackLivesMatter, socialist organized groups, and anti-Trump movements. Social Movements are the groups and individuals that directly participate in our political system. They influence our politicians and can change the topic of conversation on a near-daily basis.
American politics can seem incredibly dour as of late. Trump and the far right are making new pushes to preserve and enforce white supremacy. For how awful all of this can be, there is still some light at the end of the tunnel. 2018 brings about midterm elections that could potentially move Congress to the left and 2020 provides us with the chance to elect a new President. The future still gives us some hope.