There are 43 days until the Election Day that might be the most important one of our lives. We need to flip the House blue to save our democracy. If we don’t, the Republican party — which has no consistent belief system aside from opportunism — is going to continue to deprive most of us of our rights, opportunities, health, environment, and decency in order to concentrate power in the hands of a few billionaires and their lackeys.
The Republicans are way beyond hypocrisy, which Merriam-Webster defines as “the quality of acting in a way that goes against claimed beliefs or feelings.” Paul Krugman opted for the term “bad faith” in the New York Times last week. As he pointed out, “bad faith” is a legal term meaning “intentional dishonest act by not fulfilling legal or contractual obligations, misleading another, entering into an agreement without the intention or means to fulfill it, or violating basic standards of honesty in dealing with others.” “Bad faith” is not simply “do as I say, not as I do.” It’s a deliberate plan to harm.
We are all responsible for what happens next, and we all need to take action. If you haven’t done anything yet, it’s not too late. In fact, this is your moment! Person-to-person interaction is the best way to get out the vote. Here are a few options:
- Postcards to Voters: Hand-written cards to voters are more memorable than printed campaign literature. This is an easy thing to do from home. If you’re artistic, even better. Make those cards look great!
- Learn how to do phone banking with Indivisible. I can’t tell you how many people don’t even know who their representatives are and why they should care. If you enlighten even one person, that makes a difference.
- Speaking of Indivisible, join a local chapter. There are 6,000 across the country — at least one in every Congressional district. Indivisible started as a document created by former legislative aides after the presidential election with tips for activism, and a nationwide grassroots movement grew up around it.
- Meet voters face to face by canvassing. Go knock on some doors on behalf of local candidates. You’ll be pleasantly surprise: Most people are pretty nice, and even the ones that aren’t friendly aren’t THAT bad. You can find canvassing opportunities through your local Indivisible chapter, Swing Left, Sister District, or Flippable.
I went canvassing for my second time ever on Saturday on behalf of Liuba Grechen Shirley, who is the Democrat running for Congress against the incumbent Peter King on Long Island. She’s one of the hundreds of first-time candidates — many of them women — who decided to run for office because they couldn’t sit by and do nothing. First she started an Indivisible-like local action group, New York’s 2nd District Democrats. King refused to meet with those activists in town halls, saying they would “scream” at him. He was felt that appearing on national television and taking meetings with “supporters and opponents of Obamacare” in his office was an adequate substitute for meeting publicly with the constituents who pay his salary. Liuba disagreed so she stepped up to offer an alternative. My Indivisible chapter endorsed Liuba, so a few of us set out for Long Island to do our thing.
Lindsay, me, Stacy, and Nicole in Liuba’s campaign office.
I am generally uncomfortable talking to strangers, so if I can do this, you can too! (I try to look at it as I’m never going to see them again so if I have an awkward moment, who cares?) All you have to do is take that first step, the way one of my fellow canvassers did recently. She’d been feeling overwhelmed by everything, so she decided to stop by the “Blue Wave Festival” a group of activist chapters had in Brooklyn a few weeks ago. There she met one person from my Indivisible chapter, who invited her to our next meeting. At the meeting, we announced our canvassing plans and lo and behold! She was out on Long Island, making a difference. That first step leads to real action so quickly.
If you live anywhere in New York City, you too are welcome to come to my chapter’s meetings. The next one is on October 11, and you can find the information here. I also encourage you to sign up as a member in order to get my weekly action newsletter by email. I promise I won’t spam you — the only emails you get are about meaningful actions to take. If you don’t want to get an email, you can read the newsletter here. Check out this week’s newsletter right now, and pick one thing to do. You’ll be happy you did.