The Election of a Lifetime: Why and How to Turn Out the Vote
“I’ve been fighting my entire adult life for men and women everywhere to be equal and to be different. But there is one right I would not grant anyone. And that is the right to be indifferent.” ― Elie Wiesel
With less than eight weeks until the election, what can each of us do?
1. Let’s remind ourselves, and those we are mobilizing, why this election matters so much.
Putting aside for a moment the troubling values and dangerous tactics of our current President, let’s remember his policy priorities:
This administration has dramatically backtracked on environmental protections.(1)
The President has proposed significant cuts to affordable housing in his budget every year.(2)
Given that two of our Supreme Court justices are over 80 (RBG is 87 and battling cancer; Breyer is 82), the next President may shape the highest court for decades to come. Right now there is a tenuous 5–4 conservative majority. Imagine if that shifts to 7–2. The President has appointed nearly 200 judges so far, including more appeals court judges than any other president at this stage in their tenure.(3)
He has distanced the U.S. from the world community — withdrawing from the World Health Organization(4), the Paris climate accord, and the Iran nuclear deal.
Continuing the scapegoating of immigrants that was at the center of his original campaign, the President’s policies have pulled apart families seeking asylum at our border and continues to subject children to deplorable conditions.(5)
Moreover, the President’s choices conflict with our country’s core values, as seen throughout his term and recently reinforced at the Republican National Convention:
He equates all protest with violent anarchy. The President conveniently disregards that nearly all of the Black Lives Matter protests have been peaceful and a portion of the violence at other rallies was initiated by right wing counter protestors connected to hate groups.(6)
He fails to promote basic public health measures, even in the face of a pandemic that has killed close to 200,000 people in our country and nearly 900,000 worldwide. Note that his very RNC acceptance speech took place with an audience of 1500, no social distancing, no universal testing beforehand, and few masks in sight.(7)
Fear-mongering at its best, this couple, given an opening night spot at the RNC, insisted that the Democrats “encourage anarchy and chaos on our streets “ and will “abolish the suburbs,” with “forced re-zoning that would bring crime, lawlessness and low quality apartments into now thriving suburban neighborhoods … No matter where you live, your family will not be safe in the radical Democrats’ America.”(9)
The President fans flames of racism and openly emboldens civilians to take up arms. There are now 940 documented hate groups in the U.S., with a 55% increase specifically in white nationalist groups from 2017 to 2019.(8) Not long after Kyle Rittenhouse killed two unarmed people at a protest, the President “liked” a Twitter post complimenting the young man. This after the RNC featured the couple (above) who had aimed guns at Black Lives Matters protestors.
Further troubling to me as someone who once worked in government, the current President debases public service. A second consecutive win would say that our country is willing to accept a leader who …
Blatantly lies about the most important issues of our time. Just a week ago, he re-tweeted a post falsely claiming that only 9,000 people have died of COVID-19 in the U.S.(10)
Dismisses the notion of objective truth and attacks the most rigorous journalism, labeling “fake” anything that isn’t to his liking.
Compliments any group that backs him. The President recently said he appreciates the support of the fringe conspiracy group QAnon.(11)
Demeans foreign leaders and countries. One only need recall his reference to “shithole” countries.(12)
Ignores ethics guidelines governing the conduct of government employees, including his inappropriate use of the White House for the Republican National Convention.(13)
Diminishes the Presidency, spending hours a day tweeting so many insults and lies that entire tracking systems were set up to keep count.(14)
One of more than 20,000 lies documented thus far
Four more years of this administration ensures damage — to our health, our planet, our world standing, and our core values.
2. Let’s turn out the vote.
Now is the time to focus less on changing minds and more on turnout.
43% of eligible voters did not cast a ballot in 2016.
That’s 100 million voters who sat out the election, placing the U.S. among the developing world’s lowest ranking countries for voter turnout.(15)
Each of us can:
Connect directly with eligible voters who may not otherwise choose to vote, or who may be targets of voter suppression efforts. This is the focus of SwingLeft. Once you sign up, they make it easy to send personalized postcards or letters to voters in swing states, or to call or text voters. Their work is based on research that demonstrates what gets people out to vote and how close to the election is the best time to contact voters. For folks here in MA, SwingLeft Boston, and Force Multiplier offer a wide range of ways to help — and to connect with one another.
Take a look around at the college students living away from home in swing states and help them register NOW in their new state. (The 12 swing states are: AL, CO, GA, FL, IA, ME, MI, NC, OH, PA, TX and Wisconsin. In 7 of those states we also have a chance to re-take the Senate seat.) Turn as well to the young people who recently turned 18; that’s 3.5 million eligible first-time voters.(16)
Make your own plan to vote, and encourage everyone you know to do the same. Decide whether you want to do day-of in-person voting or vote by mail. Vote.org allows you to check the options and deadlines for your state. Important: in many states you do not need to mail your ballot back; you can drop it off. For the locations, google “ballot drop box in [your town/city].”
Donate, whether it’s $10 or $250 — directly to the Biden-Harris campaign or to groups like SwingLeft that counter voter suppression and are working on the presidential campaign, the Senate races and the issue of re-districting.
Rise above the tactics of the President — promote accuracy and model integrity. I urge us all not to post/re-post/tweet information without first checking the source and to re-think any post with personal attacks.
Forward this information to at least ten other people, and ask them to do the same.
Hope is not foolish. These are painful times, yet also powerful, pivotal times. We’ve seen police join in to take a knee in support of Black Lives Matter, companies around the country re-examine their policies and organizational culture, and major league sports teams cancel games to spotlight racial injustice. Young people are leading us on climate change and fighting for public health measures to prevent gun violence. More women, people of color and openly LGBTQ leaders are running for office — and winning.(17)
May the wisdom of James Baldwin push us forward:
“There is never time in the future in which we will work out our salvation. The challenge is in the moment; the time is now.”
__________
LAURIE SHERMAN is the author of Chasing Social Justice: How Do We Advance the Work that Matters Most?, available through independent bookstores and Amazon.
1. https://www.brookings.edu/policy2020/votervital/what-is-the-trump-administrations-track-record-on-the-environment/
2. https://affordablehousingonline.com/blog/trump-administration-fy-2021-budget-keeps-pushing-housing-cuts/
3. https://news.ballotpedia.org/2020/06/03/trump-has-appointed-second-most-federal-judges-through-june-1-of-a-presidents-fourth-year/
4. https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/506214-trump-administration-formally-withdraws-us-from-WHO-
5. https://www.splcenter.org/news/2020/06/18/family-separation-policy-continues-two-years-after-trump-administration-claims-it-ended
6. https://time.com/5886348/report-peaceful-protests/
7. https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2020/health/coronavirus-maps-and-cases/ https://www.newsweek.com/trump-supporters-fail-social-distance-wear-masks-rnc-speech-1528223
8. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/20/us/hate-groups-rise.html
9. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6t7k1r3CmA
10. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/30/us/politics/trump-protests-violence-coronavirus.html?campaign_id=9&emc=edit_nn_20200902&instance_id=21831&nl=the-morning®i_id=101779918§ion_index=1§ion_name=big_story&segment_id=37319&te=1&user_id=4817ae903c22471bb2e90e9d373d7d2c
11. https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/19/politics/donald-trump-qanon/index.html
12. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-immigrants-shithole-countries_n_5a57db94e4b04df054f757a0?ncid=inblnkushpmg00000009
13. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/fact-check-is-it-legal-for-trump-to-give-his-convention-speech-from-the-white-house/ar-BB17Fdvs
14. https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/politics/trump-claims-database/ https://www.huffpost.com/entry/donald-trumps-insult-hall_b_12246442 https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/07/26/upshot/president-trumps-newest-focus-discrediting-the-news-media-obamacare.html
15. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/11/12/about-100-million-people-couldnt-be-bothered-to-vote-this-year/
16. https://www.infoplease.com/us/population/live-births-and-birth-rates-year
17. https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/more-women-than-ever-are-running-for-office-but-are-they-winning-their-primaries/
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/report-electability-white-men myth_n_5d0a5c77e4b06ad4d25a0dce
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-lgbt-politics-idUSKBN25L29R