Because the 2024 election grinds to a hair-raising conclusion, it’s not simply democracy that’s on the Nov. 5 poll. Voting itself is underneath assault, in huge methods and small, from Donald Trump and his Republican allies.
Trump is already spreading unsubstantiated claims of election fraud and dishonest in Pennsylvania, with he and his supporters laying the same groundwork of lies, threats and misinformation as he did 4 years in the past in preparation to contest the outcomes if Vice President Kamala Harris wins. Their assaults on the equipment of democracy put poll workers and election officials in danger. And the GOP’s efforts to challenge the eligibility of voters, purge voter rolls, restrict the counting of ballots and change the certification process threaten to disenfranchise residents and cast doubt on the election.
However that is no cause to despair. It’s time to behave, utilizing the most effective protection we’ve towards the specter of a vindictive authoritarian, consummate racist and malignant narcissist who places himself earlier than People and our democracy. It’s time to get out and vote.
As late civil rights chief and U.S. Rep. John Lewis stated: “The vote is valuable. It’s nearly sacred. It’s the strongest nonviolent device we’ve in a democracy.”
Nevertheless it’s meaningless until you train it.
It shouldn’t should be stated, but when Trump and the Republican Occasion assume their path to victory depends upon spreading misinformation about election fraud, attacking ballot employees and suppressing votes, that doesn’t bode effectively for democracy. By working to limit the citizens quite than increase it, that solely demonstrates that they don’t assume they’ll win on the deserves of their unpopular agenda.
Increasing voting rights was an almost two-century battle, however these rights have been underneath assault from Republican leaders. So it’s painful and tiring the extent to which each election has turn out to be a referendum on democracy.
That actuality is clearer than ever. Trump is working an explicitly authoritarian and antidemocratic marketing campaign, saying he can be a dictator on “Day One.” He stated at a Christian summit this yr that if he’s elected, “you won’t have to vote anymore.” His fomenting of the Jan. 6 riot and his makes an attempt to overturn the need of the voters and his unabated lies about his 2020 loss to Joe Biden could solely be previews of what’s in retailer within the coming days.
Trump’s working mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, has stated he wouldn’t have voted to certify Biden’s 2020 election win and stated final month that Trump didn’t lose. And in a current social media publish, Vance praised a Trump supporter who had verbally attacked a ballot employee, saying, “What a patriot.”
It’s not simply your vote on the presidential ticket that’s vital. Keep in mind that 4 years in the past there have been 147 members of Congress, all of them Republicans, who tried overturn the need of the folks by voting towards the certification of Biden’s victory. Lots of them, from Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Rick Scott (R-Fla.) to Reps. Ken Calvert (R-Corona) and Mike Garcia (R-Santa Clarita), are working for reelection, whereas their get together lays the groundwork to undermine this yr’s election in the event that they don’t just like the outcomes. Most California Republicans working for Congress won’t commit to certifying the 2024 presidential election results. That’s shameful and disqualifying.
In the event that they don’t respect our votes, they don’t deserve our votes.
If you’re disillusioned, on the fence, pondering of sitting this one out, in any other case disengaged or uninspired to make use of your vote to reject Trump and his assaults on America’s values, keep in mind that you can be given no second likelihood. There shall be no do-over in returning an aggrieved and emboldened demagogue to energy, and no alternative to reverse the following hurt to ladies, LGBTQ+ People, immigrants and other people of shade, together with buddies, relations and neighbors.
So simply vote. Vote, vote, vote. None of this issues for those who don’t vote.
