Everyone remember that even if Trump loses, things aren’t great. A vote on Election Day is a beginning for action, not the single responsibility of a citizen. Get familiar with your representatives that win their spot, get their contact info, find out what their positions are on topics (you already did that anyway, right?) Make that a regular thing, and let them know what your position is. Give them praise when they side with you, give them reasons you’re unhappy when they don’t. Keep notes and don’t give up when you get back form letters or nothing at all. If everyone did this, they’d look into why all the fuss if for nothing else to stop people bugging them. They would rather people not call and email.
Excellent take. The annoying thing about democracy is that it only works if you participate. This is one reason America is in such a mess: most Americans are now ignoring everything except the presidential election. The feature common to all authoritarian states is political apathy: “it doesn’t make any difference”, “we can’t control anything anyway”, etc. Actually, it does, and you can. But if you stop participating in democracy, you will end up losing it. And then it will take a war or a revolution to get it back.
Everyone remember that even if Trump loses, things aren’t great. A vote on Election Day is a beginning for action, not the single responsibility of a citizen. Get familiar with your representatives that win their spot, get their contact info, find out what their positions are on topics (you already did that anyway, right?) Make that a regular thing, and let them know what your position is. Give them praise when they side with you, give them reasons you’re unhappy when they don’t. Keep notes and don’t give up when you get back form letters or nothing at all. If everyone did this, they’d look into why all the fuss if for nothing else to stop people bugging them. They would rather people not call and email.
Excellent take. The annoying thing about democracy is that it only works if you participate. This is one reason America is in such a mess: most Americans are now ignoring everything except the presidential election. The feature common to all authoritarian states is political apathy: “it doesn’t make any difference”, “we can’t control anything anyway”, etc. Actually, it does, and you can. But if you stop participating in democracy, you will end up losing it. And then it will take a war or a revolution to get it back.
the best time to start calling your reps (among other supporting avenues) for ranked choice voting is nov 6th!
its our only hope for actual change!