WESTMINSTER WEST — You know what? There really was a vast right-wing conspiracy. I've watched it play out over my lifetime, and with the overturning of Roe v. Wade, now it's achieved one of its major goals.
It would have been better had we prevented that, seeing as we vastly outnumber those who support the position taken by the court (many of the positions!), but we didn't. Too pure, too left, too lazy, not paying attention - it doesn't matter why. That's all water under the bridge.
It's what we do now that counts.
We need a Democratic House and Senate, Democratic governors, and Democratic state legislators, and not wimpy 50-50 splits.
We need majorities that reflect the real views of this country, majorities that give the people we elect the pride and courage to reform the Supreme Court and the Electoral College and blow through the Senate filibuster.
We still live in a democracy, and we're the only ones who can keep it that way.
So friends, what are you gonna do?
You can vote, of course, but you can only vote once. The big thing is to get somebody else to vote, and after looking for a long time for a way to do that, I finally found one: writing postcards to Democratic-leaning voters, encouraging them to come out.
It's easy. Go to the Activate America website, choose a campaign to work on and how many cards to write, and request your addresses. They will send them, along with a script. Buy or print some cards and start writing.
I have worked in 20-card increments to encourage mail-in voting in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, and for the campaigns of Sens. Mark Kelly of Arizona and Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada, and House hopeful Jay Chen of California.
Every time I get mad or scared, I peel myself away from doom scrolling and useless fulminating, and I sit down and write some cards. It's one small action I can take, and it's calming, empowering, affordable, and something I can do from home. The pace is picking up!
Activate America also has phone and text campaigns, but postcards are great for a shy person who wants to reach out without being intrusive. Handwritten postcards have been found to have a measurable effect in turning out voters - a little better than going door to door. So far, more than 2 million postcards and 2 million texts have been sent through Activate America in 2022; can we make that 20 million?
So far, I know two other people postcarding; I'd like to know a lot more of us were doing it. Please join me.
I'd also love to know what other direct actions people are taking to get out the vote - it feels like that's the most important thing we can do right now.