Stepping up
Jul. 29th, 2016 10:22 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
swan_towerLast night, I went to the website of the California Democratic Party and filled out a volunteer form.
Because I believe that this election matters — and I don’t just mean the presidential election, though keeping that proud bigot, Donald Trump, out of office is a high priority for me. As I’ve said before, I think we as a society need to pay more attention to the down-ticket races, to the local elections and measures. And I think one of the most corrosive factors in the United States right now is the combination of apathy and organized efforts to restrict voting rights: the sense that your vote doesn’t really matter, and the passage of laws supposedly designed to combat the next-to-nonexistent problem of voter fraud, which just so happen to make it harder for the Wrong Kind of People to vote. I don’t know yet what my local party will ask me to help out with, but I’m hoping I can work on the “get out the vote” end of things.
But I won’t be choosy. Whatever they need, I will do my best to provide. Because I’m not sure I’ve cared about any election year as much as this one.
If you’re involved in politics, organizing or volunteering or holding some political office, speak up in the comments! I’d like to know who out there has already waded into this particular pond.
Originally published at Swan Tower. You can comment here or there.
no subject
Date: 2016-08-01 06:43 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-08-01 06:48 am (UTC)I don't even remember how I got involved with the voter help line, but it was definitely my election volunteering gateway drug. I have a special fondness for nonpartisan pro-voting activism; regardless of my own political leanings, I very firmly believe that the ideal democracy is one in which every eligible voter casts a vote, and as many people are eligible as possible. This year I'm doing the partisan stuff as well because I think it's extremely important to prevent a Trump presidency at all costs, but my heart will always be with get-out-the-vote efforts and helping voters on election day. I'd love to be a pollwatcher, but I'm registered as No Party Affiliation and haven't yet figured out whether there's a nonpartisan way to do it (because there are all these requirements of equal numbers of Democrats and Republicans etc. etc.).