Volunteer for the 2022 Midterm Election

Also see this article on my website at: https://www.beyondoilnyc.org/save-democracy

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Voter outreach for the November 2022 midterm elections is underway! Even if you've never been politically active, your participation now is crucial. Democracy in the US is in extreme danger of a takeover by radical Republican extremists.?As the January 6 Committee hearings reveal, the attack on the Capitol was the tip of the iceberg, and the insurrection is still underway. Democrats must hold on to Congress and win control of the Senate to prevent MAGA insurrectionists from trying to overturn the rule of law. Usually, fewer people vote in midterms than in Presidential election years.?This year, massive voter outreach is needed to ensure pro-democracy candidates win.?

We have the momentum: polling after the leaked Roe v. Wade decision now has Democrats leading Republicans 47% to 42%, reversing the previous Republican lead. But it's still an emergency. This article will outline how you can get involved in your own way, step by step.

YOUR PARTICIPATION IS CRUCIAL

Even if you've never been politically active, it's time now for you to get involved. Here are options:

• Donate
• Write letters and postcards
• Send texts and make phone calls
• Speak with voters in person
• Spread the word to family and friends
• Get groups in your community involved

Donate: Do’s and Don’ts for Small Donors

Donating requires nothing more than sending money. For many people, it may be the easiest thing to do.?If you can afford to, start here.?Target your donations so they are most effective.

Do:

• Focus on the eight states that are key this year: Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Texas and Wisconsin.?In many of these states, there are multiple offices up for election.
• Give to effective state, local and national organizing groups, such as Indivisible, MoveOn, SwingLeft, Fair Fight (GA) and Turn PA Blue.

Don't

• Don’t give based on misleading fundraising “deadlines” or other “last chance” appeals.
• Don’t give to most major super PACs or Democratic Party committees - they are often already well funded, are not transparent, and often campaign in obsolete ways.?
• Don’t give to incumbents in solidly blue districts.
• Don’t give money to unrealistic, long shot campaigns.

Volunteer

Letter and Postcard Writing

You can work from home, and don't have to talk to anyone.?Only minimal computer skills are needed. Campaigns let you target Democratic or likely Democratic registered voters who are infrequent voters in swing states.

Letter writing has been proven to increase actual voting by a small but significant percentage, which is important since many elections are decided by the narrowest of margins.?

Vote Forward plans to send 10 million letters to voters this election. Pick a campaign, download and print a template letter, add a handwritten, personal message, and stockpile finished letters for mailing in late October.?

Indivisible Upper West Side together with Indivisible Philadelphia?is sending Bans off our Bodies postcards to young Philadelphia women who are registered as Democrats or unaffiliated, and who are infrequent voters. Indivisible UWS activists meet weekly to write postcards together. Contact Indivisible Philly directly to work on postcards from home anywhere.

Text or Phone Voters

Both texting and phoning can be done from home.?An easy online training will direct volunteers on use of scripts and pre-written replies. With texting, you'll send large numbers of texts quickly, and respond to those who text back.

Find campaigns or groups that you would like to assist, and sign up to make phone calls, send texts, or both.

You can search among a wide range of election volunteer opportunities at Mobilize.

If you decide you like texting, sign up for Movement Labs, or Open Progress Text Troop. They have texting campaigns you can jump into nearly every day.?As we get closer to the election, other campaigns will have more frequent texting.

Meet Voters in Person

Knocking on doors and/or visiting potential voters in their neighborhoods is very important for get out the vote operations.

Enter your zip code at?SwingLeft?to find important races near you and connect to groups working on that race.

Here are New York City groups doing in person postcard and letter writing events, as well as setting up trips to crucial neighborhoods in Philadelphia and its suburbs:

• Upper West Side Action Group - MoveOn/Indivisible/SwingLeft
• Target Majority NYC/Indivisible/SwingLeft
• Water for Grassroots collaborates closely with grassroots groups in Georgia, Florida, and Pennsylvania.

Search among a wide range of election volunteer opportunities - in person, online, all across the country - at Mobilize

SPREAD THE WORD: Get more people involved

• Are you active with a civic group, progressive cause, political club or faith community? Contact them about the upcoming election.
• You can't get involved? Think of three other people who might be interested - and share this with them.

This is an emergency.

Here are some reminders about the big picture.

If you ever wondered what you would have done in Germany in the 1930s, witnessing Hitler’s rise to power,?this is your chance to find out.?

Remember that Trump colluded with Russia to win the 2016 election, as documented by the Mueller Report, and in a three volume series of NYT bestselling books by Seth Abramson, and in countless other sources.

Some of his supporters want to impose a Christian right-wing, Taliban-like theocracy in the US.?The movement has the support of Vladimir Putin and his allies like Saudi Arabia and Hungary, as well as billionaire oligarchs including Rupert Murdoch, owner of Fox News, and Elon Musk.

MAGA has built on the extensive network of media and PR operations the right has been building since the 1971 Powell Memo. Actually, authoritarian takeover of the US government has been a goal of far right financial magnates since they tried to overthrow President Roosevelt and replace him with a dictator in retaliation for the New Deal in the 1930s.

Given the midterm effect - the traditional tendency for the President's party to lose seats in the midterm election cycle - it's very possible that MAGA extremists could take control of both Senate and Congress.

Republican lawmakers have introduced hundreds of bills in many states to restrict voting.?Many MAGA candidates are open insurrectionists, like the candidate for Governor of Pennsylvania who promised to throw out legal election results.

The Supreme Court's majority of right wing extremists are poised to overthrow Roe v Wade. Alito's opinion approvingly cites an English judge from the 1600s who had women burned for witchcraft. A Republican-controlled Congress and Senate will pass a national ban on abortion. Without a Democratic President to veto it, abortion could be federally prosecuted as murder in all 50 states. Other rights could be easily dismantled.

This year's Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), the premier gathering in Republican politics, was held in Hungary and featured their authoritarian dictator Viktor Orban, who said all right wing movements should have their own media outlets and coordinate internationally.

The announced Republican plan is quite horrific, proposing tax hikes for middle class Americans and the end of Social Security and Medicare.

A recent Democratic House bill to clamp down on price gouging by oil and gas companies in response to the recent price hikes narrowly passed in the House, with 4 Democratic representatives and all Republicans voting against it. It was not expected to be introduced in the Senate. The prices hikes are not directly connected to the price of oil, and major oil companies are making record profits.

Democrats have proposed gun safety legislation many times in the wake of recent mass shootings, and Republicans continue to block their passage.

Republicans are fossil fuel supporters and climate arsonists.?They would douse in gasoline and set on fire any efforts to respond to the climate crisis. For all environmentalists and climate activists, the single most important priority is ensuring that Democrats win the House and Senate this year.?

Work on all other environmental and climate campaigns - in fact, on all other good government and progressive issues - should be put on the back burner until after the election.

It's essential to raise the alarm, and say clearly that MAGA is fascism.

Fascist governments are those in which most of the country's power is held by one ruler or party. They are right wing and usually totalitarian and authoritarian one-party states. Under fascism, the economy and other parts of society are heavily and closely controlled by the government.

Fascism rejects democratic principles and representative government in favor of martial law, is intolerant of dissent, and is enthusiastic about violent repression of designated out-groups.?

Authoritarian government reduces the rule of law, separation of powers, and democratic voting in favor of strong centralized power.?Its most complete form is totalitarianism, which prohibits any opposition, is extremely repressive, and attempts to completely control citizens with a state ideology.

A brighter future is possible.?It starts with you.

This is a traumatic and unprecedented time in American history. It is certainly hard to witness all this.

Now that you know, what will you do?

"The only thing required for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." - President John F. Kennedy quoting a popular saying

"Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country." - JFK

You have every right to feel despair, fear and rage at the state of the country.?The best remedy is taking action.?Join us in doing our best to bring about a brighter future. Re-read this article, find a place where you can get started. Keep on going, and bring others along.