Best wishes to all of you for the New Year. 2020 will be the year to make voting cool again.
Suggested resolutions.
#1: Register new voters. Only 58% of the eligible voters in the US voted in 2016.
If you live in the US and you’re able:
- find those who dislike Trump or lean progressive
- help them register, and
- get them to the polls.
I have almost 100K followers on Twitter. If half my followers register 20 new voters, that’s one million new voters, enough to sway the election.
Resolution # 2: Get involved. Pick a few things off my list. I’m committed to voter protection legal work this year. What will you do?
Resolution # 3: Don’t go down “what if” rabbit holes
They’re draining. If you’re in a “what if” rabbit hole, you can’t pay attention to what’s really happening. Deal with each situation as it arises.
Resolution #4: Don’t spread gloom and despair. As Clint Watts explained, one goal of active measures is to “undermine democracy, to make Americans lose confidence in democratic institutions.”
There are a few gloom-and-doom questions I get so often (usually phrased as gloom-and-doom comments) I added a FAQ to my blog. The questions are often phrased as “we’re doomed” comments, like this:
Resolution #5: Turn your anxiety into constructive action.
If you’re worried about any of these:
click on my new FAQ page, read my answers, take a deep breath, and then click on the ‘things to do’ button at the top and turn your anxiety into constructive action.
Resolution #6: Read about Susan B. Anthony (or Thurgood Marshall!) and feel inspired. Susan B. helped create the democracy we have, and she risked her life as an abolitionist, so she sets the example of the work it takes to preserve democracy.
I saved this tweet because sometimes I think the same thing: The universe is unfolding as it should. Trump awakened us from complacency and spurred us to treasure our democracy and take the necessary steps to preserve it.
This too:
It applies to all social media. There are people who are trying to wear you out and discourage you. They pick fights. They ask you for evidence to support what you are saying. My problem is that they constantly ask me the questions I posted earlier. But so do people genuinely worried.
Also, don’t wear yourself out in real life. Don’t try to change people who are entrenched in their thinking. If you’ve ever canvassed for a political campaign, you know that they send you to talk to like-minded people, to inspire them to vote and get them excited too. Your time will be better spent finding new voters and registering them.
