Sat, 08:22: I'm really starting to lose my patience with all this "uprising" and "revolution" talk, as though that will ever actually happen or as though it would even take that kind of effort. I no longer even have patience for marches, which are never large enough for the "leaders" being protested to care about.
Why? Because they understand something far too few Americans understand: VOTING is what matters. And they bank on the fact that not enough people VOTE.
It's astonishing how frequently people online argue with me about this, that "voting doesn't make a difference." (Granted, it's not hard to find morons online.)
The 2018 midterm elections had the highest midterm turnout in four decades, and do you know what percent of the voting age population actually voted that year? 53%. That means the percent of the voting population who did *not* vote that year was FORTY-SEVEN PERCENT. Nearly half. And side note: people love to talk about how "the youth will save us," except the youth especially doesn't vote! There was a *huge* upswing in voters between 18 to 29 years old in 2018 versus 2014, and what percent of that group voted in 2018? 36%.
(Behind the 2018 U.S. Midterm Election Turnout: Voter Turnout Rates Among All Voting Age and Major Racial and Ethnic Groups Were Higher Than in 2014)
These are positive trends to be sure—at least they're going up—but you can stop with all this "revolution" talk when the most effective tool we have IS ALSO THE EASIEST. We still don't have anywhere near enough people voting, not by a long shot, and if everyone actually voted this country would look a lot different right now.
And please don't come at me with arguments about disenfranchised voters and how voter suppression is how we got here. That's a bad faith deflection because you know the people who *can't* vote but should be able are not the ones I'm directing this at. Can you guess *why* we have legislatures—particularly state legislatures, whose races even far fewer people pay attention to—that passed voter suppression laws? Because the people who were wrongly convinced that those elections didn't matter didn't bother to vote, and the people who smartly understood how they matter did vote, and thus voted in the wrong people!
It's up to the rest of us who still have unrestricted voting rights to take that privilege seriously and actually do something with it. This is not hard. All you have to do is fill in some bubbles on a fucking piece of paper. Preferably with at least a little knowledge of the policy platforms of the people you're voting for. This causes far more lasting change than walking down the street ever could.
I'm already seeing people scoff at the absolutely correct assertions that what will make all the difference in the wake of Roe vs. Wade being overturned is voting this November, and these dismissals are driving me crazy. This is precisely what (mostly) Republicans want, to convince you that you're powerless so you won't make any of the moves that have actual consequences. But that power is right there in your hand, far more than in your feet.
