Good Op-Ed piece in the Hill on how Democrats, and others, need to keep pushing in the last few weeks before the Midterm elections next month….And make sure to come out and VOTE!
It’s not just Democrats and progressives who are energized. It’s independents, Republican-leaning college-educated women, communities of color, and people who have never been involved in politics because they never felt they had to be.
Yet, assuming that energy, enthusiasm and disgust with our leadership will automatically turn into votes on Election Day is not only politically stupid but naive. It will endanger an outcome that we all hope to see and that America deserves — for Congress to become a genuine voice of the people and to cease being a rubber stamp for an unfit president who is shredding our institutions and the very democratic foundations we hold dear.
We know Donald Trump is petrified of losing his congressional majorities in the midterms. His over-the-top fear-mongering and descent into ridiculous caricatures of Democrats as the “angry mob” — warning that, if we win, the United States will turn into Venezuela — betray his own fear of losing Congress.
Yet, sadly, fear is a powerful motivator. And no one does it better than Donald Trump. It worked for him in 2016, even when we were convinced that it wouldn’t and that our candidate would prevail. Fear, as baseless and evidence-free as it may be, has worked for decades for Republicans devoid of real ideas and sound public policy prescriptions.
No matter how much we are convinced voters will not fall for these tactics again, we cannot assume our superior ideas — including a return to decency and civility — will motivate voters on their own.
They won’t.
We have to speak to voters from the heart, about issues they care about, and we have to do it often….