Running Through The Tape

This presidential race has been going on for approximately our entire lifetime, but it’s finally the last weekend of the campaign.

While I’ve explained that I have my reasons for not making predictions in moments like this, I do think I can offer some encouragement. Not about the outcome, but about how you might best maintain your sanity these last few nerve-wracking days.

First, you can take solace in the fact that Donald Trump seems hell-bent on doing whatever he can to sink his own campaign, whether it be stumbling like a drunk around a garbage truck or pretending to fellate a microphone at a rally. This Trump Campaign has been run with all the care for detail and results as any Trump business, and thank God for that.

Second, you can take comfort in the fact that Kamala Harris has, in sharp contrast, been running a pretty damn impressive campaign. No matter what happens, we should be spared the second-guessing that came after the 2016 loss, because her team did pretty much everything right from the start. And while the Trump campaign is spending its closing days crying foul and threatening lawsuits, the Harris camp is projecting confidence.

And yes, the Trump campaign is pretty clearly committed to stealing the election by crying foul about voter fraud, declaring victory on election night, pretending that the slow process of counting all the votes is somehow illegitimate, and working with his co-conspirators in the GOP House to steal it away in some sort of post-election coup that Trump couldn’t help but teasing as a “little secret” of theirs.

Luckily, the Democrats seem to realize these things will assuredly happen and have said they’re ready to respond and push back immediately when they do.

But things would be even better off for the Harris campaign, obviously, not just if she pulls out a clear win, but if she pulls out an overwhelming win. The larger the margin of the popular vote nationwide, the harder it will be for Trump’s lackeys to pretend the election was “stolen” from them. And the broader the electoral map is for her, the harder it will be for Trump’s lawyers to subvert the results. (When it all hinged on Florida in 2000, it was relatively easy to flip. When they had to reverse several states in 2020, it became impossible.)

So that brings us back to what you can do this weekend. And that’s do whatever you can to help get out the vote, to make sure the Democratic ticket runs up the numbers and not just wins, but wins convincingly.

In general, check out the Harris-Walz campaign GOTV page which has a number of links for checking registrations, volunteering, canvassing and phone banking. Even if you can just do a day or an afternoon or an hour, that’s better than nothing, and I mean that in terms of helping the campaign but also channeling your nervous energy into something useful.

If you leave in a swing state, or even just next to one, consider heading there and helping out. That might mean door knocking and distributing literature, or working to help transport voters, or just calling every friend or family member you have in the state and asking if they have a plan to vote.

But you can also help out in other ways, whether it’s something simple like sending pizza to polling places with long lines on Election Day or helping to “cure” ballots that need final touches in order to count this weekend. (This is a great activity if you’re on the shy side — these are people who tried to vote and will be thrilled that you’re calling to make sure their vote counts.)

Anyway, check out state and local resources. For instance, here’s a ballot curing operation in Pennsylvania that starts up tomorrow. And here’s another for Michigan that targets absentee ballots after the election. And North Carolina. This is an incredibly important role and one you can do from home. Look for places to help out here.

I keep thinking about how I felt the first week after the 2016 election, a bit dazed but mostly angry with myself for feeling I hadn’t done as much as I could have to keep a psychopath out of the presidency. I’m sure you felt something similar. Let’s do what we can to make sure we don’t go through that again, and a whole lot more.

Run through the tape.

Stop worrying about what might happen. Make the future you want actually happen.