Enough Complaining ... There is Work to Do …. Add a Vote, or Two
Before Joe Manchin changed his mind again, he was singled out by the New York Times as the “one senator who doomed” the Democratic climate plan. Pundits and strategists suggested that in deciding how to respond, the Democrats faced a “stark political choice”. They could “bash Manchin or bash Big Oil.”
Bashing was the option. The only choice was in who to bash.
But that accomplishes nothing except to make us feel good about having “done” something. When it comes to politics, the only thing that matters is the vote. Why bash Manchin or Big Oil? Neither is on the ballot.
Here in Wisconsin, Ron Johnson is on the ballot. If we had not elected him to the Senate six years ago, Manchin’s vote today, whether it be yes or no, would not matter. If we replace Johnson this November, next year there will be one less vote to do nothing about climate change, one more vote to do something.
There is work to do here. We have to motivate enough voters to vote yes to combat climate change and no on Sen. Johnson on November 8. A much more useful task than bashing Manchin or Big Oil and one that only we who live here in Wisconsin can do. (Voters in other states who elected the other 49 no-voting Republicans have their own work to do.)
Some national polls and the Marquette Law School poll here in Wisconsin say that Democrats are not particularly enthusiastic about voting this year.
The reasons seem to come down to a fair percentage of Democrats are disappointed that more of what they hoped for, what they voted for in the last election, has not been accomplished. They are discouraged and thinking about staying home. Frustrated because they did their thing – they voted – but not much seems to have changed.
What is lost in that thinking is not enough people voted in other places to give Democrats the power to get stuff done. At an education funding forum when Kathleen was state Senator, those who attended, unhappy with the political process and their inability to achieve what they wanted, were in a “let’s have term limits, throw everyone out and start over” mentality—not thinking that they already had 15 votes in the Senate, that they needed to keep those 15 and figure out where and how to get the other two to reach a majority. Keeping each of the 15 was just as important as adding two more.
The young and the more progressive among us – there is a great deal of overlap -- seem to be the most disenchanted. A recent Siena College survey found that just 1 percent of the 18-29-year-olds strongly approve of President Biden’s performance and only one-third said they were “almost certain” to vote in November. Nearly half said they did not think their vote made a difference.
In the last election, one young person citing the demands that had to be met if she was going to vote declared, “The Democratic Party needs to actually listen to us and serve us. Or else they need to die and we will create a new party ourselves.”
There is a reciprocal relationship, however, between who votes and what gets done. Politics is not a spectator sport. There is truth in the recognition by a 21-year-old. The Party “would be more receptive to young people if they actually voted.”
Every Party, new or old, has the same work to do. Build a big enough tent. Bring people in. Fill all the seats. Get stuff done.
Justice Democrats, the Working Families Party, and some other progressive organizations believe the Party would have more appeal if it was bolder and more revolutionary in its proposals and actions. In their effort to change the Party, they have run younger and more progressive candidates in primaries in strong Democratic districts, against Democratic incumbents deemed to be too moderate.
The successes they have had have not moved us any closer to getting stuff done. We have to enlarge the tent and add more seats to reach a majority. Taking someone else’s seat gets us no closer. We have to win in areas where Democrats are now losing if bolder stuff is going to get done.
As a columnist from Tennessee pointed out, “Changing what happens in red states is the surest way to change what happens in Congress, but railing on social media from your blue state won’t change a thing ... ”
Which brings us back to Wisconsin., a quintessential purple state where recent elections have been decided by new voters and occasional voters who were motivated to go to the polls in that particular election. Four years ago, Tony Evers broke a string of Republican gubernatorial victories and won by 30,000 votes when Republicans increased their vote slightly, but Democrats turned out in much larger numbers than usual for an off-year election.
In 2016, Trump won when a fair number of Democrats stayed home and many more voters than usual voted for third party candidates. In 2020, Trump lost even though he motivated 200,000 new voters to go to the polls and vote for him. Biden won, narrowly, when all the Democrats who voted for Obama came back.
To win this year, Democrats will probably have to do even better than 2018, the last off-year election. If precedent holds, many of those new Republican voters who showed up to vote two years ago will be back this year. Those votes will have to be matched.
We have work to do. Democrats don’t have to win every county; we just have to increase our vote in every county. That requires a plan and concerted effort. Building on what has been done before. Convincing people that voting does make a difference, in the long run, if not the short run. Organizing is difficult. Success is not guaranteed. The other side is also working. Continual effort is required.
Each of us can start thinking of one, two, perhaps three people we can convince in the three months between now and the election. Convince to vote if they otherwise would not. Convince to vote for what brings us together, builds community, and respects diversity, if they are otherwise undecided.
Increasing turnout is possible and leads to success. Two years ago, Black church leaders in Georgia organized voter registration and get-out-the-vote efforts in 534 churches across the state. This year the effort has been expanded to 1,000 churches. Evangelical churches have become a force in the Republican Party, providing votes and having their wishes granted, since they started urging their members to register and vote some 30 years ago with the advent of Jerry Falwell and the Moral Majority.
Politics shapes our communities and our lives. Voting matters. Every major decision is made on election day. The stakes are high. Players play for keeps. There are no final victories. What gets done this election, can be undone the next.
In politics, as in all of life, you win some, you lose some. You don’t get to win, just because you play. You play until you win.
Douglas Kane is the author of "Our Politics: Reflections on Political Life" published in 2019 by Southern Illinois University Press
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