I’ve been hearing it lately more and more, and probably you have too: There’s no use in voting in November because only the seven swing states matter.
Wrong. Wrong! Wrong!
This is the most important election in American history, at least since 1860 and certainly many elections before that. To my way of thinking it would be almost treasonous for any qualified American not to vote this year. Robert Hubbell explained why as well as anyone I’ve heard, so I quote:
“The 2024 election is not merely a choice between Biden and Trump. It is a choice between democracy and tyranny, liberty and subjugation, dignity and debasement, safety and mayhem, global stability and chaos, climate crisis mitigation or acceleration, retirement security and insecurity, justice and vengeance, science and ignorance, decency and depravity.”
And although it’s probably true that the presidential race will be decided by those seven states – Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin – the total nationwide vote matters greatly. I am absolutely convinced Joe Biden will win despite trailing in the polls and his poor showing at the debate – more on that later — but it will be much better if he wins by 20 million votes than 2 million.
But the reason to vote in November is much more important than just the presidential race. Every bit as important this year are the down-ballot races, especially for seats in the U.S. House and Senate. Democrats must take control of both houses so that Congress can restore sanity to that out-of-control, plain nutsy U.S. Supreme Court.
Just as a quick reminder of how important that is, consider what the experts have said about the court’s recent decision on presidential immunity.
Political scientist Norm Ornstein said Trump could “order his handpicked FBI director to arrest and jail his political opponents. He can order the IRS to put liens on the property of media companies who criticize him and jail reporters and editors.”
Legal analyst Joyce White Vance pointed out that a president with such broad immunity could order the assassination of Supreme Court justices.
Renuka Asha Rangappa, an American lawyer, former FBI agent and the senior lecturer at Yale University’s Jackson Institute for Global Affairs, wrote: “The court has handed Trump, if he wins this November, carte blanche to be a ‘dictator on day one,’ and the ability to use every lever of official power at his disposal for his personal ends without any recourse.”
Robert Hubbell again: “Today, the Supreme Court overthrew the American Revolution and anointed the U.S. president as a modern-day king. Their betrayal … is all the worse because they did so to promote the most corrupt, dangerous, depraved person to disgrace the office of the presidency.”
Justice Sonya Sotomayor: “With fear for our democracy, I dissent.”
Only a Democrat-dominated Congress can undo that and all the court’s other outrageous decisions – denying women the right to control their own bodies, giving district judges the power to overrule government scientists and other experts in areas where the judges have no knowledge, essentially making bribes legal if they are called gifts, and on, and on.
But voting for officials at the state and local levels is just as important as voting in the presidential election. Gerrymandered MAGA legislatures all over the nation are making crazy laws, such as outlawing virtually all abortions, taking money from public schools and investing it in religious schools, promoting Christian nationalism wherever and however possible, and on, and on.
Getting back to why I am so convinced Joe Biden will win and this nightmare will be over, let’s begin with Biden’s poor showing at his debate with Trump. Sooner or later the news media, which so far has focused on Biden’s failures in that debate, will be forced to spotlight Trump’s performance in which he vomited a steady stream of long-proven lies, ignored questions and instead used the time to make political speeches, often sounded powerful but rambled incoherently, refused to acknowledge the Jan. 6 riot for what it was, and said he would accept the November election results only if it met his standards.
The media also will be forced to remind voters of some simple and vital facts: Trump is a convicted felon; he faces several more easily proven felony charges: he is a rapist; he supports the horrendous Project 2025 (see my blog Danger Ahead: Project 2025, published April 14, 2024); he wants to destroy our democracy and become a dictator; and, most importantly, this elections presents voters with a pivotal choice (see Hubbell’s summary of that choice in this blog’s fourth paragraph above.)
I cannot believe that awakened American voters want that. How ignorant would you have to be to give a criminally mentally ill person permission to murder you? (“Criminally mentally ill” is not my opinion. Twenty-seven psychiatrists, psychologists and other mental health experts make that case in their 2017 book The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump. )
Trump is also an Adolf Hitler wannabe, and if you’re too young for that to send a chill down your spine you owe it to yourself and your country to read up on him and the actions of his 1940s’ Nazi party. Any librarian would be more than happy to help you.
And don’t forget, more than 150 academic experts in presidential politics recently voted Trump the worst president in U.S. history in a survey. The! Worst! In! History!
Furthermore, both candidates need Black people’s support, and although that support appears to be weakening for Biden right now, that will not last. Trump is a white supremist who only likes Black people who are celebrities who he thinks can help him, like Herschel Walker and Sen. Tim Scott.
Remember what Trump said in the debate? He said that Biden has allowed millions of people to cross the border and “they’re taking Black jobs now and it could be 18. It could be 19 and even 20 million people. They’re taking Black jobs.”
Presumably, the people Trump claims are “taking Black jobs” are those who he (falsely) says are being dumped on us by “shithole countries” that are “clearing out their prisons and mental institutions” to do so. What more needs to be said about Trump’s attitude toward Black people than that?
On the other hand, more Black businesses were started under Biden’s administration than at any other time in U.S. history, Black unemployment is at a historic low, and Biden’s administration has relieved student debt, invested in historically Black colleges and universities, and is working to provide for childcare costs, all issues that affect Black Americans. There plainly is more to be done, but that’s not a bad start.
Beyond that, Biden’s efforts have created 15.6 million jobs, eight times more than the last three Republican presidents combined. He led the way to the most important gun safety legislation ever enacted. He lowered the cost of prescription drugs. And perhaps most important of all, he led the way to creating an infrastructure package that is rebuilding America.
As for those polls that show Trump is in the lead, polls this long before an election are meaningless. A lot can and will happen between now and election day that will have a huge impact on the election. So we can safely ignore the polls for now.
Friends, we’re in the darkness before the dawn right now, but morning is coming. Regardless of whether Biden chooses to stay in the race or drop out, MAGA Republicans are headed for history’s garbage dump. Democracy defeated white supremacists in 1865 and we’re up against the same ilk today. We won then and we’ll win again in 2024.
But only if we vote.
- Voter Tools : Check Status, Register, Absentee Ballot, etc
- More Featured Resources @BlueCrabCollective
- People for the American Way – works to defend our democracy from authoritarian threats and advance America’s promise that everyone will enjoy freedom, safety and a vote that counts.
- Protect Democracy – nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to fighting efforts to undermine democratic norms and institutions.
- RepresentUs – nonpartisan anti-corruption organization pushing for democracy reforms like stopping gerrymandering and unrigging the system.
- The Indivisible Project – grassroots movement providing tools for activists to push their member of Congress to uphold democratic values.
- Voting Rights Lab – nonprofit using data-driven strategies to make elections more accessible and combat voter suppression efforts.
- Americans United for Separation of Church and State – protecting the foundational American principle of freedom of religion — including the right to believe or not believe — for all
- Brennan Center for Justice – a nonpartisan law and policy institute, striving to uphold the values of democracy.
- ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) – works to protect and expand Americansʼ freedom to vote.
