Whether Joe Biden or Donald Trump wins will depend on which candidate’s voters are more self-motivated and organized.
The COVID epidemic has disrupted normal society. It has displaced millions of people who have moved or altered their living arrangements to be safe, to care for loved ones, or because they’re suddenly out of work or their workplaces are closed. The risk of illness has estranged Americans from one another, making ritual gatherings, including all those associated with politics, rare.
COVID-related conditions have blunted every normal, in-person aspect of political campaigning. The conventions were virtual, rallies are extinct, and stumping, whether by the two candidates or state-level surrogates, must be so highly orchestrated as to sap its momentum and energy. The face-to-face aspect of American politics has been declining for decades in favor of electioneering that is more impersonal, media-driven, and premised on masses of sociological data. COVID has pushed those trends to almost pointless extremes.
At the same time, many of us crave a politics that is more immediate, local, and personal. Only by restoring honest personal discourse will Americans forge a new political consensus, and will a new generation of leaders be empowered to govern in a more accountable, forward-looking, and effectual way.
The temporary lull in national “retail” politics invites each of us ordinary voters to fashion personally appropriate ways to further the Biden cause.
All over the US, small grass-roots efforts are coalescing to get out the vote for BIDEN, to help people vote successfully during the pandemic, and to persuade inactive, new, or disaffected voters to “86 45” and make Joe Biden POTUS 46. One of my family members, for example, is active in the newly formed We of Action Virginia. Many other such local volunteer groups are loosely organized under Indivisible. Check out this map on the Indivisible website to find a local pro-Biden group near you.
I hope you will join me in committing to elect Biden on November 3. Please check back for American Inquiry‘s election count-down posts devoted to these themes.
- Making a personal plan to vote, whether in person or by mail.
- Voting in a timely fashion.
- Lending your talents and influence to the campaign.
- Deploying swag.
- Considering who voted for Trump, and why they might switch.
- “Each one, reach one:” personal GOTV efforts are the surest kind.
- Aspiring to turn a pink county blue.
American Inquiry will disseminate information and materials in support of Biden. More soon.
Image: from this source.
Thanks for the shout out! We love your sister’s energy, enthusiasm and ACTION! I am so glad she shared this article with me. I might also add that we are not newly formed but were formed November 9, 2016. I teach at a Spanish Immersion School and the day after the election many of our Hispanic students did not come to school. They were afraid of immediate consequences from the election results. It was terrifying. W.O.F.A. was born the very next day. Women of F’n Action. We started out as a group of friends, teachers and neighbors vowing to protect our students and neighbors. Shortly after we became a “huddle “with guidance from the Women’s March Organizers. Two months later we morphed into WE of ACTION -WOFA, an #indivisible group. We feel our group and other grassroots group had a big part in turning Virginia Blue. We are thrilled that we have so many new members like your sister, who can share their talents and expertise to help us continue this important work, during a global pandemic! Onward! Thanks again for the work you are doing! “Let’s Win this Thing!”
Yours in the Resistance, -Micaela Pond -Founder of WOFAVA @wofava
Micaela, Thanks so much for taking the time to write in–your passion for action is inspiring, as is Janet’s!
SB
Important information, S.B., thank you for posting.
I also love the photograph showing women counting votes! Wondered where it was taken, but the photo info does not tell us. There is a clue, perhaps – the box under the table labelled “Clicquot Club”. Turns out C.C. was a Massachusetts-based soft drink company that didn’t expand nationally until the late 1930s. So, possibly taken in New England? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clicquot_Club_Company
KW, I try to find out as much as I can about the photographs American Inquiry publishes, but this one is more than a little mysterious, even to the folks at the LC who wrote the cataloging description. The National Photo Company collection, which the image comes from, contains photographs mainly taken in Washington, DC. I think T. R. Shipp Co., is not a place but the name of a photographer; the photo may have been staged. Interesting that the soda crate might help date it. For more info on the National Photo Company, see http://loc.gov/pictures/collection/npco/