If I start a go fund me for a friend’s medical bill or a beloved pet’s operation, chances are enough people will be moved to help. If my goal is reasonable, my ask is clear, the helpers will appear. My friend will get through a difficult time. Mr. Whiskers will get through his bladder stone surgery. But if I ask you to vote in this upcoming November election, chances are I’ll get one of the following reactions- 1) I don’t talk about politics. I’m voting. Shut up already. 2) I don’t talk about politics. 3) Blank stare 4) Here she goes again.
Reaction 1 troubles me most. Because if those of us that know, aren’t willing to talk, I don’t know how democracy survives. A culture of silence means we agree to hand our fates to the whim of the powerful few. I can sum up Eric Holder’s Our Unfinished March, in one sentence. Without all American citizens exercising the power to vote, no change however imperfect and slow is possible, and we guarantee that any hard fought freedoms are stripped away from us.
So my ask is simple. I want you to register to vote. And I ask you to do a minimal amount of homework and soul searching so you can be clear about the party platform you are empowering with your vote.
The goal- let’s get at least 70% of registered voters to vote in this election. (That’s 4 percentage points more than voted in the 2020 presidential race.) Although I’m hoping we exceed this goal!
Here’s the pitch- no disrespect to Mr. Whiskers.
Save America from Fascism (yes, loves, I looked it up – the word actually applies)
Hey,
The far right GOP are really great at winning elections. They stick together. They diminish whole groups of people – immigrants, people of color, women. Yet through it all they manage to grab us by the you know what, and pull us in for a big sloppy kiss and smack on the you know where- confident that we will vote for them or shut up or sleep in or walk away scared, dejected and numb to the new normal.
Yay them! They are great storytellers. They keep it simple. They keep it on point. They appeal to our lowest selves. Then they provide us cover (both in numbers and leaders who tell it like it is) as we throw fellow Americans and ourselves into the control of their authoritarian government. Thanks to former reality star, 34 count convicted felon, and the 45th president of the United States, and the Republican party and everyone who voted for them, ignored or excused them (so really everyone- welcome to the party, America!), women and people who give birth have no federal protection for abortion.
Oops… hold up… there’s that complicated and radical phrase from the far left. Women and??? She had to go there. Keep it simple. We’re appealing to those “suburban moms”. Stick to the broad categories. You know, the people with agency- never as much as white males for whom this country was founded- but anyone with the proper head space to join the ranks of the privileged. Us not them. And, careful how you talk about abortion. You don’t want to alienate religious voters on both sides of the aisle.
But then I ask why simplicity doesn’t work for both sides. Vice President Kamala Harris puts it simply. This isn’t a fight for abortion. It is a “…fight to protect a woman’s right to make decisions about her own body…” VP Harris frames this as a “most fundamental freedom.” Oh boy, you had to mention her, the talking point for Fox News, the person we’re supposed to fear being a breath away from the oval office. Unpacking the racist and sexist code inherent in these flimsy attacks, is not part of the win my vote playbook.
“Danger, Will Robinson!” This is why we need book bans! Voters are uncomfortable with this. We don’t talk about the “isms”. Even though we all experience them and it’s an opportunity for unity. This is America. Let’s make it great again! Great, meaning – we’ll give ourselves over to this school yard bully who lies, cheats and steals but will protect us. He’s friends with all the other bullies, and we need him. Yes, the planet will continue to burn. Perhaps a world war will start or be held at bay since the bullies hold the strings, but that’s what central air and reality TV is for! Yes, his tax policies make the rich richer, but we have go fund me and pot luck dinners and pull yourself up by your bootstraps mentality. And yes, the U.S leads the free world in gun violence death, but we bow to the gun lobby. They get us!
If you’re still out there- here’s the ask.
Vote.
Whoever you are. Whatever you believe- vote. Why? Because I’m not the reality star, convicted felon former president, and he doesn’t scare me. We scare me, America. And I believe that if enough of us look in the mirror there is no way America will choose Fascism.
Vote.
If you’re sleeping, please wake up. If you’re normalizing this, please check out some news. Pick any issue- reproductive rights, tax policies, climate change, the economy, healthcare, infrastructure, gun violence. Pick any issue and a reasonable source of FACTS.*Fox News and MSNBC, and the likes of them, are not recommended as sources. You will find what you believe, not what you are looking for. Thank you, Regan Administration. Then pick another issue, because you know it’s not about one narrow interest. One issue voting works wonders for authoritarians- yes, I’m thanking our TV evangelists here.
America, I believe it’s not really all that hard to tell the difference between facts and malarkey. Vote.
If you’re making excuses for not voting, learn more about our voting system and how it’s designed to keep us from voting. And when we do vote, how it’s designed to miscount, not count or gerrymander the hell out of what voters actually want. Read Our Unfinished March: the Violent Past and Imperiled Future of the Vote by Eric Holder, with Sam Koppelman. Don’t get discouraged. Our system is not perfect but it’s what we have. And the only way they can take it from us is if we give it away with our lack of participation. As Holder says, “…we owe a debt to those who came before us and have a duty to those who will come after- to leave behind a country that may not be perfect, but is, at the very least more perfect than the one we inherited.”
Hope.
This may seem like an abstract and unscientific strategy. But our highest selves are powerful. Every great movement that advanced our country was fought with heart, truth and determination for a better, more just world. The people that fought did so with the knowledge that generations ahead of them would reap benefits they would never see. We vote for ourselves, our children, our grandchildren and all the generations that come after. We can disagree, but we stand at a moment when our choice is clear. And if we hate our limited two party power hugging system and want to change that I say, Amen, but we need democracy to survive first. We need to wake up, America. We can and must do this.
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This campaign was organized by a radical, “woke” American who’s heard enough malarkey.
