Commentary: The best and only way to defend democracy from Trump’s attacks? Get out and vote
As the 2024 election grinds to a hair-raising conclusion, it’s not just democracy that’s on the Nov. 5 ballot. Voting itself is under attack, in big ways and small, from Donald Trump and his Republican allies.
Trump is already spreading unsubstantiated claims of election fraud and cheating in Pennsylvania, with he and his supporters laying the same groundwork of lies, threats and misinformation as he did four years ago in preparation to contest the results if Vice President Kamala Harris wins. Their attacks on the machinery of democracy put poll workers and election officials in danger. And the GOP’s efforts to challenge the eligibility of voters, purge voter rolls, restrict the counting of ballots and change the certification process threaten to disenfranchise citizens and cast doubt on the election.
But this is no reason to despair. It’s time to act, using the best defense we have against the threat of a vindictive authoritarian, consummate racist and malignant narcissist who puts himself before Americans and our democracy. It’s time to get out and vote.
From the top of the ticket to local ballot measures, California voters this year are grappling with major decisions that will shape their lives and communities for years to come.
As late civil rights leader and U.S. Rep. John Lewis said: “The vote is precious. It is almost sacred. It is the most powerful nonviolent tool we have in a democracy.”
But it’s meaningless unless you exercise it.
It shouldn’t have to be said, but if Trump and the Republican Party think their path to victory depends on spreading misinformation about election fraud, attacking poll workers and suppressing votes, that does not bode well for democracy. By working to restrict the electorate rather than expand it, that only demonstrates that they don’t think they can win on the merits of their unpopular agenda.
Trump is hoping to ride racism and xenophobia into office again. Americans must show him how wrong he is.
Expanding voting rights was a nearly two-century struggle, but those rights have been under assault from Republican leaders. So it’s painful and tiring the extent to which every election has become a referendum on democracy.
That reality is clearer than ever. Trump is running an explicitly authoritarian and antidemocratic campaign, saying he would be a dictator on “Day One.” He said at a Christian summit this year that if he is elected, “you won’t have to vote anymore.” His fomenting of the Jan. 6 insurrection and his attempts to overturn the will of the voters and his unabated lies about his 2020 loss to Joe Biden may only be previews of what is in store in the coming days.
Trump’s running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, has said he wouldn’t have voted to certify Biden’s 2020 election win and said last month that Trump didn’t lose. And in a recent social media post, Vance praised a Trump supporter who had verbally attacked a poll worker, saying, “What a patriot.”
Even though state governments set abortion laws now, a Trump administration hostile to abortion access could have a significant and disturbing impact on reproductive rights. Here are some of the ways.
It’s not just your vote on the presidential ticket that’s important. Remember that four years ago there were 147 members of Congress, all of them Republicans, who tried overturn the will of the people by voting against the certification of Biden’s victory. Many of them, from Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Rick Scott (R-Fla.) to Reps. Ken Calvert (R-Corona) and Mike Garcia (R-Santa Clarita), are running for reelection, while their party lays the groundwork to undermine this year’s election if they don’t like the results. Most California Republicans running for Congress won’t commit to certifying the 2024 presidential election results. That’s shameful and disqualifying.
If they don’t respect our votes, they don’t deserve our votes.
If you are disillusioned, on the fence, thinking of sitting this one out, otherwise disengaged or uninspired to use your vote to reject Trump and his attacks on America’s values, remember that you will be given no second chance. There will be no do-over in returning an aggrieved and emboldened demagogue to power, and no opportunity to reverse the ensuing harm to women, LGBTQ+ Americans, immigrants and people of color, including friends, family members and neighbors.
So just vote. Vote, vote, vote. None of this matters if you don’t vote.
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