Future generations will have some questions about what in the world happened in the last 10 years. But the only thing that matters now is what will happen in the next 10 days and what role you will play.
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If you are sitting at home wondering how it is possible that a mentally ill, 78-year-old racist and wannabe dictator with a messiah complex has a coinflip’s chance of winning the presidency for the second time (after staging a coup and killing tens of thousands of COVID-stricken Americans the first time around), you are asking the wrong question.
The right question is: What are you doing sitting at home?
There is a great deal of denial on the left about Donald Trump, his success in politics, and his supporters.
Part of that is understandable.
It truly is baffling that an awful human being like him has a good chance of winning this election.
Keep in mind that this is not just any election. It would be one thing if this were about who’d become the next grand wizard of the West Palm Beach chapter of the Ku Klux Klan. Then it would make sense.
But this race isn’t about that; it’s about who will fill the position formerly known as “leader of the free world.”
How did we even get here?
How can all of these supposed “Christians” support a man who represents everything they should reject?
Why won’t the “adults in the room” from his first administration, who know firsthand that Trump is an incompetent fascist, speak out more loudly about him?
Doesn’t it matter to Americans that he tried to overthrow the rightfully elected government?
Don’t people understand that this is a man in mental decline (and whose level of mental fitness was never high to begin with)?
Doesn’t the truth matter anymore?
How can so many people be duped by such an obvious charlatan?
While intriguing, these (and many others like them) are the wrong questions.
This isn’t the time to psychoanalyze a nation and wax philosophical about the state of affairs. This is the time to do something about it.
Here is the thing: Right now, it doesn’t matter why tens of millions of Americans are drawn to a man who appeals to their worst instincts… whether those are racism, fascism, misogyny, xenophobia, or fanaticism, or that their number also includes millions of people who are the targets of all of the above.
That’s a question that will have historians scratching their heads in the decades and centuries to come.
The short answer is probably that all of those things are deeply rooted in the consciousness of a majority of Americans — and somebody just had to tell them that it’s ok to be open about them.
But what you should be asking yourself instead is what you are going to do about it in the next 10 days.
Because you know that Trump supporters are working fervently to get their hero elected. Actually, it would be more accurate to say that they are working fervently to get him into the White House… because they want him to be president again by any means necessary. We saw this on January 6, 2021, and we will see it again in two weeks when the election hinges on the results of a few states.
Trump’s followers are attending rallies, participating in online polls, spamming social media sites, driving around in ridiculous trucks/boats with silly flags on them, and purchasing cookies.
One guy even bought a social media platform for $44 billion so that he could spread misinformation to 200 million people at a time.
Now, you may say that the yard signs, the red hats, and the rallies don’t matter. Who cares about which bakery sold more cookies of which candidate?
That’s the wrong question.
All those things make Trump supporters feel as though they are part of some massive movement… and they are.
That’s not the sense you get from Democrats. They are mostly united by a (justified) fear of Trump and not by the candidacy of Vice President Kamala Harris.
There may be polls out there claiming that there is no enthusiasm gap, but the eye test says something else.
Fortunately for the Democrats, Republicans are much better at yard signs, standing in line for hours, and boat parades than they are at getting out the votes.
But this election won’t be won by people attending rallies or putting up yard signs. It will be won by getting out the vote and maximizing the number of people willing to vote for Harris in a handful of states. That is the only metric that counts.
And, therefore, the only question that matters right now is: What can I personally do to ensure Trump loses in Pennsylvania, Georgia, North Carolina, Michigan, Wisconsin, Nevada, and Arizona?
There are plenty of things:
Obviously, if you live in one of those states, you should vote.
But that’s not enough in an election that will be determined by turnout. If you live in one of those seven states, the next 10 days of your life should be all about convincing like-minded people to vote and getting them to the polls.
If that means driving somebody, covering a shift, babysitting, or providing any other kind of (legal) aid to voters, you should do that.
If you live in a state nearby, contact get-out-the-vote (GOTV) groups and ask them what they need. There may be an in-person role for you.
If you do not live in one of those states but know people who do, get them to vote (or, if you think they are likely to vote for Trump, try to dissuade them).
And we are not just talking about the “low-hanging fruit.”
At this point, two groups matter above all: People who are not sure if they are going to vote at all (for whatever reason), and moderate Republicans who would really have to hold their noses to support Trump.
If you don’t know anybody in the relevant states, contact GOTV groups and volunteer to make calls or lend other forms of support.
There you go; that’s it. If you want to stop Trump, that’s the way to do it this late in the game.
Stop wringing your hands and roll up your sleeves instead.
That is the answer to the right question.
If you’re looking for places to volunteer, here are some resources to get started:
https://www.votesaveamerica.com/
https://www.mobilize.us/events/text-bank-volunteer-opportunities/
https://www.eac.gov/help-america-vote
https://www.lwv.org/
