I know you’re sick of hearing that This Is The Most Important Election of Your Life, but as a scholar who’s devoted his career to studying American political history, I am telling you that No, Seriously, This Is The Most Important Election of Your Life.
Incredibly moving, poignant and necessary. I’m sitting in a waiting room for an appt, awash in chills and sadness over the violent deaths of those you listed and anger at all those today who won’t think beyond their reactionary, childish urge to put an incredibly dangerous fascist in power all so they can thumb their nose at everyone who doesn’t want to live in a fascist led theocracy.
"If all of you had voted the other way - there's about 5,500 of you here tonight - I would not be the President of the United States." --"Address in Chicago at a dinner of the Democratic Party of Cook County (155)," April 28, 1961, Public Papers of the Presidents: John F. Kennedy, 1961.
In his own, very strange way, Donald Trump has been saying the same thing--vote in this election. But in July, I believe, he added that if the "beautiful Christians" (whom he was addressing) vote for him this time, they won't ever have to vote again. I have not seen much reference to that weird statement since it was spoken by him. I'm wondering if he has given any clue as to what he might have meant by those words.
He blabbers on in a decidedly word-salad way, but there's the sense of many of us that, if he says what he is, believe him. What do you think he was/is saying when he said "...it will be fixed... and you won't have to vote any more."?
The charitable interpretation is that he'll fulfill their every demand and they'll never need to show up again, but the more obvious one is that he'll suspend elections entirely.
I turned 18 in August of 1972 and within a couple of weeks, I registered to vote. I think it was the first election held after the voting age was lowered to 18. Even though my winning record in presidential elections isn't the greatest (first vote was for McGovern), I have missed maybe one or two elections since then. And the ones I missed were not major ones; they were mostly for school levies in my city. These days, I vote by mail, usually requesting my ballot several months ahead of time and returning it promptly. My ballot in this election has been received by my board of elections and accepted for counting on election day. 🌊💙👩🦳
I am curious about the subset of voters who are undecided because they want to vote for the candidate who is most likely to win, and are waiting to the end to pick correctly. Do we know much about what percentage of voters fall into this group, and how influenced they are by the passive political environment (signs, bumper stickers)?
Thanks for the reply. They're interesting to me in a fear of being the out-group sense. (I wonder if increased polarization increases their numbers, but this is just idle conjecture.)
thanks, Kevin. these are the real stakes, under all the daily hype and hysteria of supposed chaos in the race and all the hand-wringing about lesser of two evils.
Not to put too fine a point on it, but that generation of voting rights activists fought to overcome discriminatory measures put in place by Southern Democrats but gladly voted in large numbers for national Democrats like LBJ when they could. Their political calculus would shock the purity brigades today.
Incredibly moving, poignant and necessary. I’m sitting in a waiting room for an appt, awash in chills and sadness over the violent deaths of those you listed and anger at all those today who won’t think beyond their reactionary, childish urge to put an incredibly dangerous fascist in power all so they can thumb their nose at everyone who doesn’t want to live in a fascist led theocracy.
"If all of you had voted the other way - there's about 5,500 of you here tonight - I would not be the President of the United States." --"Address in Chicago at a dinner of the Democratic Party of Cook County (155)," April 28, 1961, Public Papers of the Presidents: John F. Kennedy, 1961.
Thank you for sharing this summary.
In his own, very strange way, Donald Trump has been saying the same thing--vote in this election. But in July, I believe, he added that if the "beautiful Christians" (whom he was addressing) vote for him this time, they won't ever have to vote again. I have not seen much reference to that weird statement since it was spoken by him. I'm wondering if he has given any clue as to what he might have meant by those words.
He blabbers on in a decidedly word-salad way, but there's the sense of many of us that, if he says what he is, believe him. What do you think he was/is saying when he said "...it will be fixed... and you won't have to vote any more."?
The charitable interpretation is that he'll fulfill their every demand and they'll never need to show up again, but the more obvious one is that he'll suspend elections entirely.
I turned 18 in August of 1972 and within a couple of weeks, I registered to vote. I think it was the first election held after the voting age was lowered to 18. Even though my winning record in presidential elections isn't the greatest (first vote was for McGovern), I have missed maybe one or two elections since then. And the ones I missed were not major ones; they were mostly for school levies in my city. These days, I vote by mail, usually requesting my ballot several months ahead of time and returning it promptly. My ballot in this election has been received by my board of elections and accepted for counting on election day. 🌊💙👩🦳
I am curious about the subset of voters who are undecided because they want to vote for the candidate who is most likely to win, and are waiting to the end to pick correctly. Do we know much about what percentage of voters fall into this group, and how influenced they are by the passive political environment (signs, bumper stickers)?
There's often a small set of bandwagon voters, but I'm not aware of any studies tracking them this cycle.
Thanks for the reply. They're interesting to me in a fear of being the out-group sense. (I wonder if increased polarization increases their numbers, but this is just idle conjecture.)
Beautiful as well as heartbreaking essay. Thank you for writing and posting it.
Thank you!
thanks, Kevin. these are the real stakes, under all the daily hype and hysteria of supposed chaos in the race and all the hand-wringing about lesser of two evils.
Not to put too fine a point on it, but that generation of voting rights activists fought to overcome discriminatory measures put in place by Southern Democrats but gladly voted in large numbers for national Democrats like LBJ when they could. Their political calculus would shock the purity brigades today.