Voting, Not Violence
Forty million rely on federal food assistance, guns kill 18,000, and 27 million are without healthcare, including 5% of all children under the age of 18. America has its problems. Violence is not the answer. We don’t champion murder.
Be frustrated. Yearn for change. But don’t become so jaded that you give up on the society that we have. If we’re not pushing the nation forward, we’re watching it slide back. There are people who want to take from you, who want to push you down to lift themselves up. These special interest groups use fear, anger, and hatred to distract you from the real source of our problems. They need to distract you because you have the power to change everything.
Our founding fathers knew the oppression that comes from a government where the people don’t have a voice and a vote. No taxation without representation became the rallying cry of the resistance that became the American Revolution.
The founders knew they hadn’t made the perfect government and couldn’t predict the needs of the future, so they gave us the means to improve it to fit our needs. The republic they enacted ensured that Americans elected their leaders every two years, providing continual opportunities for change and a Constitution intended to be amended. Democracy doesn’t maintain itself, and progress doesn’t just happen; it takes constant effort from the public and you.
77 million voted to elect Donald Trump and give Republicans control of Congress. That is the change those voters wanted. The Electoral College was won by just 200,000 votes when 90 million eligible voters stayed home.
Those who wanted the democratic platform didn’t get enough people to the polls. It can be difficult to accept, but Democrats didn’t do enough to inspire turnout. Those who wanted to protect our democracy, take on corporate greed, and stand up to oligarchy didn’t connect with enough voters.
If you’re angry about the expensive, greedy healthcare system, what have you done to change it? Have you talked to friends and family about the issue? Had discussions online? Supported politicians, journalists, and writers working to create change? Organized groups, marches, or protests? Our democracy is as good as the effort we put into it. Staying home, doing nothing, and being mad doesn’t create change—anger breeds hatred, and violence begets violence. Organizing creates change.
It may feel insurmountable. How could we reach 90 million voters if everything we did over the last few years couldn’t? Politics is a game of inches. It doesn’t take much of a shift to change the balance of power drastically. Every 375 Harris voters needed to work together to convince just one more voter. That’s all it would have taken to shift the election. If you convince a single person to vote for the issues you care about, you create change.
It may seem like there are no good options in a two-party system, but you have the power to change that, too. You can vote for new voices in primaries and retire the incumbents who have been in power for decades. You can make it clear what issues you care most about and what it will take to earn your vote. Whether that is universal healthcare, higher minimum wage, better education, or environmental concerns, you can make it a reality.
MAGA took the Republican party and reshaped it into one that better matched their ideas for the nation. MAGA voters across the country speak up, donate, and demand that their politicians listen to their demands or get voted out. They also support far-right influencers, pundits, networks, and organizations. They create the change they seek,
Democrats have been largely passive. They stick to mainstream news, don’t get overly involved in politics, and don’t call for primary challengers to shake the party up. Their message has been on the threat that the far-right represents to our nation’s foundations while failing to offer a clear path to solving poverty, hunger, inequality, and all of the other core issues that Americans are dealing with.
It is difficult for voters to care about what will happen to the climate a decade from now when they’re struggling to make ends meet today. That’s why green energy needs to be discussed in terms of the jobs it creates and the prosperity it can bring so voters understand why it matters to them.
We have two years. Two years to connect with voters and increase turnout. Two years to find the messaging that shows why a higher minimum wage matters to the working class, why universal healthcare matters for those who are insured, and why stronger unions benefit everyone.
There is no time to be wasted cheering on gun violence instead of finding ways to solve it. When we fall, we get back up. When we fail, we regroup and find a new way forward. What we don’t do is give up on our ideals out of frustration or see vigilante justice as a replacement for law and order. We’re better than this.
