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I Got 200 Postcards To Send Out To Voters Today! [1]
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Date: 2022-10-25
For most of my life I have not been politically active. The first time I ever voted was in 2008. I was 32 years old. Prior to that, I was pretty ambivalent about elections, believing like a lot of Americans, that there really wasn’t much difference between the two political parties.
And while I suppose I rooted for a particular side (my family were all Union members who had a history of voting Democrat.) I never felt the republic would end if the other side won, or that the damage would be all that great.
Of course that changed in 2016 (for obvious reasons) When truly alarmed, I began doing something I had never done and donating money to candidates. I wish I could say I had done more, but like a large number of people the idea of Donald Trump winning the presidency was simply absurd.
I mean, I remember as a kid watching watching a VP debate in 1992 When Ross Perot did one of his third party runs and picked Admiral Stockdale as his running mate, I remember the Admiral, during the debate making a joke saying “Who Am I? Why am I here?”
To me it seemed at the time a rather innocent joke and still does, But what I remember of the aftermath was that Stockdale was immediately disqualified with the American people for that joke. He was parodied on SNL, and crucified in the press with Millions of people deciding a heartbeat from the president is too important to take chances with. I mean what if he is not joking? What if he’s a bit off?
Probably an overreaction (although I was not rooting for the Perot ticket). In those days despite all the problems we had as a country someone liked Trump would have been laughed off the stage in the first primary debate, at the first sign of his lunacy. But as we all know he wasn’t. Exploiting flaws in our election process and finding enough crazy people to put him over the top was just enough for our long National nightmare to begin.
So In 2018, I was determined to do more than wait around for Hillary to win, and for the first time in my life, despite being on the socially phobic side, I went canvassing door-to-door to get out the vote.
In 2020, I did that and phone-banking as well, and was glad I did despite my introversion and fear of putting myself out there.
I’m a dad these days. I have a young girl who means a lot to me, and the thought of how things will go for her if we let Republicans make America into the Handmaids Tale of their dreams, is not something I can accept.
So this year, I can’t get out and canvass, but I’m going to hand write a note on a postcard and send it to two hundred potential voters in congressional races around the country. My family is helping. I’ll also be doing a little donating because financially things have been good for my family, and I know every bit helps.
I know there is a lot more I could be doing, but honestly, I’ve been plenty tempted to do nothing because political activism is not a passion of mine and it’s easy to feel a bit of despair. But the consequences are too great if we don’t get involved.
So whenever, I don’t want to do the little I’m doing (not trying to be too pretentious) I think of the Jewish proverb:
“If Not You, Then Who? If Not Now, Then When?"
I guess what I’m thinking, is that if we don’t save Democracy who will?
So today I’m starting to write my postcards. I hope any who read this (and I know many are doing way more than I) can do a little something too. Whether it’s donating money, hopping on a phone-bank or just talking a friend into coming to vote with you, because while I know fascist hordes at our door is a despairing thought, I also can’t help but believe there are enough good, sane people to turn them back.
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