Now that the SCOTUS has basically said that states get to decide how to make sure its residents have proper "access to voting", are you ready to make sure who's sitting in your state houses and your local supervisor of elections office?
How much longer can we afford to pat state and local politics on the head? How much longer are we going to stay focused on national politics at the expense of state and local?
Hopefully not much longer. This ruling shows we just can't afford it.
Need more? Here are three solid reasons why we need to manage out time and attention better. And here are two things you can do today to make a difference.
If you want a progressive federal government, you need to start effecting local and state government
Why? Because your local and state officers today will be running for federal office tomorrow. Nobody woke up a day after retiring from the school system to run for U.S. Senate successfully. Quit pretending that we can somehow drag the party left without leftist voters in every district.
Local politics is the most effective way to present a Democratic (and progressive) platform to otherwise disinterested communities.
If you think a federal level 30 second spot and the Rachael Maddow Show are going to do the job of presenting leftist policy to your next door neighbor, (forget motivating her to vote), you're dreaming. It's that
issue they care about - the schools their kids go to or the water restrictions being proposed or the cutting public transit hours - those are the issues that are going to get their attention. And an election is one of the only ways to make sure they hear it. It also happens to be
the best way for the left to begin moving actual voters leftward. What else allows us to knock on doors and drive our political point home, answer republican framing and win people to our positions? None.
We leftists must stop lurching from outrage to outrage to outrage like yo-yo dieters.
Anything worth accomplishing will require collaborative, steady, painstaking focus and day-to-day attention. You literally can't name anything that was ever accomplished any other way. I know, I know. It's not as much fun as raging about the latest [whateveritis] but our state and local governments did not become republican infested by mistake. They will not become liberated (pun intended) by mistake either.
So what do to?
Pledge today to get serious about local politics in your area.
I know a lot of people here already are. I know that. This pledge is not for you. For the rest who can admit to need ing to do more, call your local Dem Committee today and ask them: who's representing your community in your county elections next year, particularly the County Supervisor of Elections position. We need to field strong candidates in every one of those races. Especially in ratfuck states and counties. We know who they are.
Begin an Adopt-a-Voter campaign in your community
I saw this floating around the net today and I like it. Make sure at least one person in your community that the right would like to disenfranchise is able to vote. Make sure they have ID, even if you have to pay for it. Make sure they have a ride. Find the time to help them secure everything they need to vote. Raging about ratfucking republican state legis and SOEs two weeks before an election is not going to cut it. It'll be too late by then. Steady and focused wins this race and frankly it's the only way it's going to happen.
These two measures alone, taken by a committed group of folks from just this blog, would make a distinguishable difference.
Anecdote: a Facebook friend's thread today lamented a local mayoral election in a blue district where only 8% of the electorate even showed up. The worse candidate won by 21 votes.
Let's get serious and let's get busy, folks.
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