Now Is the Time For Action

July 9th, 2024

We all know that the debate two weeks ago was a bad night. Since then, President Biden has reiterated his intent to remain in the race multiple times, despite several Congressional Democrats, the New York Times, and the Washington Post calling on him to drop out. Meanwhile, RFK’s dog-eating episode and sexual assaults and the Supreme Court’s dismantling of Chevron and the rule of law continues to receive comparatively less media coverage.

The best thing to do is not to focus on the debate of replacing Biden. He is the nominee unless he chooses to step down-which I do not believe he will. Even if he does, Vice President Harris is the only one that could replace him while maintaining the massive war chest due to campaign finance law. No, the thing to do is to act.

Joe Biden. Photo credit: Getty Images

So how do we act?

First and foremost, remember that democracy is also a verb. There is nothing too small that will make a difference: knocking doors, phone banking, text banking, or art/graphic design will help to re-elect Biden and defeat Trump. Each voter needs to be identified, motivated, and turned out on Election Day-preferably earlier if they vote by mail.

The time to sit on the sidelines is over. We must step out into the daylight.

We can also act by reminding our fellow Americans of the stakes. Trump passed massive tax cuts for the top 1%, let large numbers of Americans die during covid by downplaying it, and ordered the National Guard and plainclothes police to fire tear gas into protesters. He appointed three Supreme Court justices which ripped away a woman’s right to choose as well as giving him immunity to rip up our rights and the Constitution.

Trump and his justices: Neil Gorsuch, Amy Comey Barrett, and Brett Kavanaugh Credit: CNN

We also need to dare to hope. Part of the reason why we are so angry as a country is because we believe that each generation has the right to a fair shake and to do better than the one prior. I am much worse off than my parents were at this point of my life and the data suggests I will die three to eight years earlier than they will.

But that is no reason to give up hope: far from it. Rather, we should look at our own history and what we have defeated before. In 1776, we took on the most powerful empire in the world and defeated it in 1783. In 1861, the Union fought the Confederacy to preserve the Union and stamp out slavery, winning in 1865. In the early 20th Century, striking workers secured their right to organize and right to strike after paying for them in blood, including miners resisting the U.S. Army in Blair Mountain. In the 1930s and 1940s, average Americans urged FDR to go further than he originally planned to in order to expand civil rights and labor’s power, to break the stranglehold of the mega-wealthy, and to defeat fascism at home and abroad.

In each and every instance of crisis in our country’s past, it is ordinary Americans who have saved and redeemed democracy by voting, volunteering, and demanding more rights. Are we going to let the memories of our grandparents and great-grandparents fade? Will we shrink from our national obligation as free people because we’re upset with our nominee?

I don’t think we will.

The best cure for hopelessness is action. Action builds hope. Hope spurs small victories. Small victories beget greater ones.

Fascism wins when people give up on democracy.

Dare to hope. Demand a new era of freedom. Volunteer. Vote.

I’ll see you on doors and in the voting booth. Go with good cheer, my friends.

President Biden and Vice President Harris. Photo credit: Fulton County Democrats