I think of 2020 as “the year of everything,” when nearly every day brings news of something bizarre or extraordinary. Beginning with the impeachment and the pandemic, continuing on with the protests following the police killing of George Floyd, now with the unprecedented West Coast forest fires, historic events are reshaping US society. How peculiar that all this is happening while many of us are cooped up at home, with many of our normal channels for congregating, communicating, and witnessing closed.
How, though, will COVID affect the November election and the anti-Trump campaign? It’s possible that, even as the candidates themselves do less, stay-at-home conditions may foster an unprecedented political mobilization. For some of us, staying at home results in our having more time. Once we have figured out how to cast our own ballots safely, we have plenty of time to influence how one of our nation’s most crucial presidential contests turns out.
The Biden campaign can’t pivot quickly enough to come up with a brand new style of voter mobilization. That’s where new initiatives like The Last Weekends come in. The Last Weekends is a consortium of left-leaning and anti-Trump activist groups that in 2018 pioneered its signature approach to getting out the vote, mobilizing volunteers nationally to work together in concert on the last three weekends prior to Election Day. That year, voter enthusiasm helped turn the US House blue.
Now the group is back, with an impressive platform aimed squarely at dealing an electoral defeat to Trump and spineless Republican Senators. Visit the Last Weekends website to find location-specific ways to volunteer.
If you are a committed Democratic voter, you may also like the Swing Left website. There, enter your zip code to learn the most effective ways to volunteer / give during the 2020 campaign. Almost everything about Swing Left’s campaign, which includes hosted “events,” is virtual. Its focus is on a dozen or so “super states” that together will determine the outcome of the presidential election. Swing Left’s operations are compliant with the CDC’s COVID recommendations and prioritize personal safety and public health.
If you’re tired of Trump’s presidency, join the groundswell that will put Joe Biden in the White House. Don’t just stay at home, volunteer!
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“Celebrities and progressive groups team up for (virtual) get-out-the-vote push” (NBC News)
Image: Carol Highsmith, “Old voting house on the Johnston property, where everyone in Washington County would go to cast their votes during the early 1900s.” Leroy, Alabama. From this source.