Some Pre-Emptive Mental Health Care
Let’s take a little unpleasant stroll down memory lane.
Remember the sickening feeling you experienced on November 8, 2016? Remember the way all the blood rushed out of your head when you heard the sound of Wolf Blitzer’s voice rasping away above a bed of pseudo-patriotic synthesizer music, proclaiming that Trump had won the election? Remember walking around in a daze of disbelief for hours or days afterwards? Remember those desperate “what are we going to do” phone calls that you made to your loved ones and friends at all hours of the day or night, in the hopes that somehow sharing your disgust would diminish the shock that you were feeling? Do you recall gorging on Doritos🔗 like our current Vice President (who is soon to be our next President)?
Good. You should remember it. Take a few minutes to relive that horror to remind yourself how crucial it is to make sure the twice impeached convicted felon seditious con artist never sets foot in the White House ever again.
Let’s not forget that all the dread that people felt that night was nowhere near commensurate with what was to come in the next four years of bluster, incompetence, broken promises, racism, fraud, a mismanaged pandemic, impeachments (plural!), lies, and outright criminality. We knew it would be bad; we just didn’t know the specifics.
The purpose of revisiting what we went through that night isn’t merely to re-traumatize ourselves. It’s to provide an additional kick in the pants to take action while we’re still able to ensure a Democratic victory and, in so doing, to maintain our democracy.
Here are some of the actions you can take that will directly affect the outcome of this election:
Donate to campaigns. Whether it’s the Harris/Walz campaign🔗 or Congressional Democrats🔗 in states and districts that can be flipped, your contribution can help put the people in office who will actually be working in your best interests. Those Congressional Democrats will also make sure that a President Harris will be able to keep her campaign promises and to demonstrate what a fully functioning government looks like.
Make sure you’re registered to vote. Folks on the right have been doing everything in their power to try to prevent free and fair elections, including purging voter rolls. Even if you’ve voted before, it’s a good idea to double check at Vote.org🔗 to see if your registration is still valid.
Help with Voter IDs. Many states have implemented rigid voter ID laws, making it more difficult for people to vote. You can work with VoteRiders🔗 to help ensure that prospective voters are not left out of the democratic process.
Drive people to the polls. It might seem a little old fashioned, but in lots of areas, drivers are needed to help folks get to their polling places to vote. VoteRiders🔗 can get you started, or you can contact your local Democratic party office or Harris/Walz campaign office to see if this is needed.
Volunteer at your local campaign offices. There are doors to be knocked on, phone calls to make, mailing lists to help manage, and probably lots of other ways you can help.
Participate in phone banks. There are lots of opportunities for phone banking, as well as text banking. If you’ve never done anything like this before, there are training sessions available🔗.
Send postcards. There are organized efforts to send handwritten postcards to swing states🔗. Write them now, mail them in October.
Talk to friends and neighbors. Not everyone is politically engaged. Your enthusiasm can help light the spark for disaffected or disengaged potential voters. One-on-one discussions are one of the best ways to get people to the polls.
There’s no guarantee that that dreadful feeling we experienced in 2016 won’t happen again. But we can make that much less likely by doing everything in our power to ensure a Harris/Walz victory.