Lottie Ash

My ex-husband was abusive in all the ways a man could be abusive. One of his favorite tactics--in psychological abuse--was to bring up my past traumas to try to weaken me. He would say to me, "Oh you think I'm mean? Am I as mean as the men who raped you? Do you feel raped right now?" I remember finding this place inside of my mind and thinking of it as my "Invincible Summer." A place where I could internally go and hide, while watching him as he abused me, almost completely detached. When I observed him from that place, he failed to trigger me, which is what he wanted to do. He wanted to break me. He achieved the opposite. Every time he reminded me of being raped, I became stronger, not weaker. I became stronger because I could remember what it felt like, after rape, to live in shame and darkness and secrecy and stigma. And I could also remember how it felt once I recovered from that trauma. Like I had once been drowning and then I could finally breathe. Like I could live in the light. That made me want to fight. The darkness was all-encompassing but also, I knew, precisely because I had recovered from rape, that somewhere in the world, the light also existed. I knew that I could fight to live in that light once again. Vivek Ramaswamy used Amy Acton's childhood trauma to weaken her. Not just to falsely tell people she was a "liar." But to put her in that same position. One of being trapped and ashamed, mired in the ghosts of her own trauma. He wanted her to be engulfed in darkness. It's obviously not working. Amy Acton is thriving. And that Democratic crowd in Ohio? They're a part of her own Invincible Summer. And part of mine too. I'm so proud to be a Democrat right now.