A Survival Guide for November 6: Turn Off The News, Vote! Talk It Up

This is the season of High Anxiety. The fate of the republic is on the line. The news is either horrendous or ridiculous. You can’t focus on anything. Here are some tips on how to survive the next seven days until the election. Turn off CNN and NPR, ignore your Facebook app, toggle off Twitter, and only look at the newspaper once a day. Nothing you read, see or hear in the next week will change your mind about the issues. Your focus is to VOTE and, if at all possible, vote early. If not, set aside a morning or afternoon on November 6 to vote. Research your state’s requirements and the nearest polling place. Sit down and call your adult children, your nieces and nephews, and your friends. Make sure they have voted.

As we wrote these words, political violence filled the news with stories of pipe bombs that didn’t explode and a disturbed anti-Semite who did. Even while covering these assaults and assassinations, the mainstream media is reflexively chasing the latest flashy lie off Donald Trump’s Twitter feed while spinning a fact free narrative about how the Democrats are blowing the midterm election. Folks, please! The ballot box is our best weapon to fight this regime of disinformation and hate. Stay on task: get out the vote, Remember, “It ain’t over ‘til its over.” 

The toxic combination of public violence and the Trump’s angry, provocative campaign rhetoric mean that the coming days will be especially tense. Trump and his Republican allies know that this tension frightens voters and discourages the opposition. Do not give in to panic or discouragement. Fight back: Vote and then Get Out the Vote.

Our only job for the next week is to get as many ballots in the mail and voters to the polls as possible. Fewer then half of all registered voters will vote in this election so everyone who does vote has an outsized effect. Even if you haven’t volunteered for a campaign, or don’t want to leave the house, you can help get your family and friends to vote. If each of us can motivate one additional person to vote who is on the sidelines, we can win this election. See the Call to Actionbelow for some ideas to get more people to the polls. 

Call To Action

Vote! 

If you can’t vote until election day, then make a concrete plan of how and when you are going to the polls: set aside time to vote, determine how you are getting to the polls, set a reminder in your calendar. To make it personal, find a voting buddy to check in with after you have voted. 

Create your own Get Out the Vote program. Download VoteWithMe mobile app or visit the New Voter Army website and get to work. These programs use your contacts (VoteWithMe) and your Facebook friends (New Voter Army) to search for people you know who live in swing districts and haven’t yet voted. They will prompt you about how to get them to vote.

While you are taking a break from the news you might have more time to canvass, make phone calls, and give money. See the last two issues of My Weekly Resistance for specific suggestions and leads.