Watching the HUGE crowds and energy for
Sanders, the massive cash infusions, and hanging out, as I do, in the
Twitterverse, I have BELIEVED and spouted the story that Sanders and his
message have galvanized a huge swath of youth and that we need that energy to
beat Trump in November. I have feared that
Sanders youth won’t vote in the fall for the Democratic nominee if its not
Sanders and wondered why the establishment didn’t take that threat more
seriously given that Hillary lost. I
have been angry at the establishment for having its head in the sand (if not
somewhere messier), for even considering anointing a lackluster same old same
old candidate like Joe Biden.
But here’s the thing: we can have all the
money, tweets and rallies in the world, but if we don’t actually get our butts
to the polling booth and vote, none of it amounts to a hill of beans (which,
come to think of it, is a phrase Joe Biden might utter, and my kids might not
even understand. I’m not sure I even
understand it).
Like many strong Sanders supporters, I woke up
on Stupor Wednesday hung over with anger at Biden voters and the insider team
that orchestrated his resurrection.
After laying low for a couple of days and doing some research, I applied
the spiritual axiom that whenever I point my finger at someone else, I have
three fingers pointing back at me. Well
not really at me, I voted for Sanders.
The fingers are really pointing at that great swath of Sanders
supporters who didn’t vote period.
See, whatever else you want to say about the
church ladies in the hats across the south and whom they supported and why,
those folks vote. They know where their polling place
is. They know where their ballot
is. They know how to arrange their lives
that day to do it. They know all of it. They have voted for decades and many of them
do NOT take that right for granted (nor should any of us). Many of them
remember a time or a story of a time of poll taxes and overt voter
suppression. (Of course with roll
purging, mandatory IDs and stripping of voting rights of people convicted of
crimes, those days are still with us).
When I canvassed for Sanders in my
neighborhood, every single person who came to the door was a young man, most of
color. Every single one of those told us
enthusiastically that they were for Sanders.
On one afternoon alone, out of 6 such people, only one of them seemed to
have any idea where or how to vote, and he was the least certain he’d vote for
Sanders, it might be someone else. The
others seemed to be under the distinct impression that they could vote online
at the last minute (like everything else they do). When we talked to them about the details of
voting, their eyes glazed over and they also indicated that that they would
find that out all online when the time comes.
But it’s not always very easy to find correct
voting information online despite best efforts.
For one thing, it varies by county, so widespread Tweets and
instagrammage doesn’t necessarily help.
I personally fielded over 10 calls on the day before election day in
California from younger friends who couldn’t figure out online where and how to
vote. And those were just the ones who called. Many others when they encounter an obstacle
or find a long line might not vote at all.
If you want people to be even vaguely
interested in the threat that you wouldn’t vote for the nominee in November
(not a threat I can or would credibly make btw), you need to actually
overwhelmingly hugely vote in the primaries now. Otherwise, all our hopes of defeating Donald
Trump are wisely pinned on the church ladies in the hats.
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