We get it. You're exhausted. Congress was a huge disappointment, the Obama agenda has been derailed by an obstructionist minority, and too many people you know are out of work. Because of all that, we're looking at a potential tsunami of bad news on Election Night.
We can stop the tsunami. How? Get Out the Vote.
We've heard a lot of opportunities to GOTV. You can phone bank or doorbell for a campaign or activist group. You can talk up candidates to your friends.
The disadvantage of working for campaigns is that they don't have a personal connection to most people. You have a connection to your friends, but conversations happen in ones and twos, not the dozens we need. Here's how you take advantage of existing communities and reach lots of people at once.
Write a piece for your PTA or other community newsletter. Trust me, they're almost always desperate for something to put in the paper. The deadline for the last edition before Election Day is coming right up, and there's white space to be filled. You can't advocate for a specific candidate, but you can highlight what each candidate means for education funding. But you can give the reader enough information so that they know how to make the right choice. Or you can just ask people to go out and vote. If text isn't your thing, put together a graphic asking people to vote.
In a way, I think this approach is more powerful than the typical campaign phone banking approach. The PTA is a non-partisan organization. Everyone expects campaigns to call them up and try to influence them. The PTA mantle will make your article will be more like a newspaper endorsement than a campaign mailer.
If your PTA has a email list, offer to write a couple of reminders that will come out on or before Election Day. Again, it's a reminder from a nonpartisan group.
Not in a school with a PTA? Ask the school if you can send a flier home with kids asking parents to vote. Many schools will let you do this, although there'll probably be more limits on what you can actually say. But again, for the cost of a few copies, you'll harness the power of the school's image.
Don't have kids in school? Find a local one and offer to write something up. Or find another group that has a newsletter or email list (daycare, community club, etc. etc.).
I know, you're tired. But this is a couple of hours worth of work that will pay major dividends. I'm not going to say it's easy, but it's worth it to stop the Republican wave.
GOTV, GOTV, Get Out the Damn Vote!