Close your eyes. Imagine a country in which you wake up and read the news sans dread. Tragedies happen, but every day? I feel surrounded by malevolent intent. Sure would be great to spend more time liking my fellow citizens.
Now open your eyes. I know we’re reading about the federal attempt to prevent us from voting in the midterms, to discard our votes once cast, to refuse to acknowledge the outcome when counted. But all is not lost. Organizations across America are deeply involved in plans and programs to protect our rights. Here are four things you can do in the next month to increase our chance of success, from exceedingly simple to more difficult.
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- Check to make sure you are registered to vote. As we’ve all read, people are being taken off voter rolls in various places. This takes, as the site says, 30 seconds. Go here, to Vote.org.
- Donate to the campaigns of several Senators. I did this only last week, because before now I thought the Senate was out of reach. Turns out, still a reach, but worth a try. As usual, I am sending you to Charles Gaba’s ActBlue site, as I find selecting candidates myself highly anxiety-producing and I prefer to outsource to someone I trust and respect. This takes a minute, maybe two.
- Sign up to be a poll worker, or poll observer, in your state. Poll workers are the people who check you in and actually work at polling sites. They are paid. This non-partisan site, National Association Secretaries of State, has a dropdown menu to find the requirements and process for your state. Poll observers (watches) are unpaid, and often organized by political parties. Here is a list of the requirements for poll observers in each state. They vary pretty widely. In California, I signed up via California Democrats. The ACLU and Indivisible are also running programs for election support, so in your state you might try reaching out to either of them if the party process is obscure.
- Finally, when talking, or texting, or Facebooking for that matter with your friends and family, turn up the encouragement and persuasion a notch. From 4 to 5, or 7 to 8, maybe. I find this hard. As I don’t have anyone in my orbit who is a Trump supporter, this has meant exhorting my younger extended family members to be sure to get to the polls. Suggesting they might also bring their friends along. I’m embarrassed to be so “cringe” in front of cool youth, and I did ask their parents if it was OK so as not to step on toes, but right now it’s all about personal contact. As TV ads flood the airways (I cannot imagine living in a swing state right now) people tune media out. They just might listen to you.
Thank you in advance for any strength you can muster. I hate losing, but I hate losing most of all if I haven’t tried my best. If you’d told me, “Lisa, your post today can be only one sentence,” it would be this. Don’t lose hope; your effort matters.
Note I used the semi-colon to string two sentences together. We all have life hacks. I hope you have a wonderful and productive weekend.
17 Responses
So heartening to read this, even though it’s not my country. Not because (well, not only) I love a well-employed semi-colon, but because I need to know we’re not all giving up on democracy! Thank you! (And I’m pretty sure that the youngsters think cringey passion is cool! Especially when it’s devoted to improving their future)
Not giving up:). We want our neighbors to feel comfortable visiting! I hope the youngsters find out passion cool. They certainly like it when we wear big glasses, maybe a love for democracy works too.
And if you want to take the next steps, write postcards.
Or – deep breath – knock on doors for your candidate. Especially in local races, this personal contact makes a huge difference. Only about 20% of the voters on your targeted list open the door. Almost all of them are nice or at least polite, although there’s the occasional outlier but then you have a good story after.
I am so grateful for your dedication to door-knocking. For reasons I can’t quite fathom, having canvassed off and on between 2018 and now, I can’t do it any more. Something to do with my cortisol and heart rate. One day knocking doors and I’m depleted for days. So I applaud you, and I offer options to anyone else who lacks your incredible, admirable fortitude.
I had a little refrain in my head just yesterday: “Don’t ever give up hope.” It’s so hard not to do in the deepest of the deep red, where I now live. I’m still good friends with my college friends in other states, but I had to get rid of Facebook for my own sanity over a decade ago, most of my in-person friends ghosted me in 2015/2016, another in 2024, and the two remaining ones appear to have done so in the past two months. It has hurt a lot. BTW, I am not mean or prone to personal offense about differences of opinion (you know that, don’t you?) — I just can’t ignore the facts that life is very hard for people and data centers are destroying the homes of both people and animals and “minor” things like that, because those issues are so glaringly obvious and inescapable, especially here… Those issues should rise above party lines. In what world is it never enough?
Thank you for all of your hard work and for another phenomenal post, Lisa. Have a happy weekend, all. Your efforts matter; YOU matter. xo
Thank you, Jess. You remind me that in the midst of this turmoil, and fear, we can all feel small and ineffectual. Of course, one at a time that can true. But all together it is not. I’m sorry you’re stuck in a deep red community, I can only imagine how hard that is. To have such a divergent reality among people who should be able to depend on each other. I sincerely hope it gets better.
Down-ballot races are critical. The outcomes heavily influence daily life, and small donations go a much longer way.
Less direct but so healthy and powerful: build community. Form, expand, strengthen bonds at work, school, church, book group, pottery class, the corner store. That’s the foundation that (A) prevents this kind of dung-show in the first place and (B) becomes the network for mobilizing responses if needed.
There are a lot of smart, kind, and courageous people doing very good work out there. Thank you for spreading the encouragement!
You’re welcome! And you make a very good point about acting in your community, either politically or in service. Last week for the first time I volunteered at a local food distribution event. Highly recommend as a way to connect and serve.
Thanks for saying this so well
OMG you are so welcome.
Thank you for this. We need these reminders. Freedom comes at a cost. I just finished reading The Handmaid’s Tale with my students.
“Ordinary, said Aunt Lydia, this is what you are used to. This may not seem ordinary to you right now, after a time it will. It will become ordinary.” Grateful for all kinds of risktaking right now.
Maybe that’s one of the reasons we the older are so passionate. This isn’t ordinary to us. We have deep memories of what it was like in the 1980s, when women and people of color struggled for any kind of access to power, and the LBGTQ community couldn’t marry. We know progress is possible. You are welcome – this is a risk I personally can’t not take, as so many other risk so much more just be trying to live in this America.
I’m getting together with a group of neighbors next week to sign and mail out Blue Wave postcards. It’s a way to encourage lapsed voters that their vote has power. Volunteering to support this movement will be good for my mental health as well.
Excellent! Write On! And good point. Any kind of actual action I take makes me feel much better.
Let’s get this DONE!
Vote Vote Vote!
Let’s do it. I always thing of this song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1q82twrdr0U
Great post, Lisa! Let’s not forget No Kings Day next Saturday, which is focused on getting out the vote! For the past six weeks or so, my husband and I have been protesting every Monday from 12-1 pm, at an intersection near us. I saw the group while on my way to Costco one day, and we joined them. It was started by six people from a 55+ community last January, and now they average about 40 protestors. For some of them, going to downtown Portland to protest with thousands of others next weekend is too much. But they plan to be in the usual spot on Saturday, signs held high. There are other smaller groups around the community where one can also gather (check the Indivisible website). Dean and I will be heading to downtown Portland via light rail, which is invigorating in itself, to see so many others with protest signs doing the same.