Vote, Vote, Vote!

I try to avoid using hyperbolic language whenever I can. Most things aren’t as extreme as they appear, so ratcheting up language to some kind of do-or-die level feels not only inaccurate but also deceptive. That’s why even I’ve cringed the past few weeks when reading headlines claiming that our democracy itself is on the line. But the eye-rolls are only because I don’t want to accept just how close we are to slipping into an authoritarian form of what Hungarian dictator (and conservative cosplay character) Viktor Orbán calls “illiberal democracy.” It’s already happening here, and things can only get worse.

I’m not going to spend a lot of time trying to convince you to vote blue this Tuesday. I’ve always thought undecided voters were a rare breed, and in our sharply polarized atmosphere it seems unfathomable that someone could actually be undecided. But in case that happens to be you — or you happen to know someone who is still undecided — then here’s a quick case for why you should vote, why you should vote for Democrats, and what could happen if you don’t.

First, everyone should vote. Conservatives have always been good about voting, not only because they tend to skew older and whiter (a demographic that very reliably votes) but also because they aren’t targeted by poll watchers, voter ID laws, voting roll purges, or other strategies used in the name of election integrity which disproportionately affect young people and people of color. There’s a reason why Republicans haven’t voted for expanding voting rights, and it’s because they know that voting is the most powerful tool each and every one of us has to shape the kind of government we want. Protesting, donating, volunteering — these are all worthwhile endeavors, but at the end of the day voting is the most effective of them all. So everyone should vote, no matter what.

Not only should you vote, you should also vote blue. Put simply, Democrats want to expand liberties, while Republicans want to limit liberties for everyone except their base of straight, white, heterosexual men and women. Democrats want to give people the freedom of choice when it comes to contraception and pregnancy; Republicans want to force people into bearing a child, regardless of the circumstances surrounding that pregnancy or whether the pregnancy could be harmful to the person’s health. Democrats want to preserve Social Security; Republicans want to turn Social Security into a program that would need to be renewed by a majority vote. Democrats want to enact more gun control legislation; Republicans want more people to own more guns. Democrats believe in fair elections; Republicans overwhelmingly claim (believe?) that the 2020 election was stolen.

This last point is particularly frightening. Even though the government’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency released a statement in November 2020 that “the November 3rd election was the most secure in American history,” over half of Republicans running for federal or statewide office are election deniers. Unless you live in Rhode Island or North Dakota, then you have an election denier running in your state.

Here’s why that’s dangerous. First, it illustrates a fundamental inability for that person to compromise in good faith. If a candidate thinks the 2020 election was stolen or affected by voter fraud, or if they objected to the certification of the vote, then there’s no reasoning with them. They are too far down the rabbit hole to be saved. I can’t think of any other conspiracy theory where it would be acceptable for a candidate from one of the two mainstream parties to so openly embrace and still be considered electable. So that’s the first problem.

But the second and far more sinister problem is that if these election deniers move into positions of power where they can control how elections are run or how votes are counted, then we’re in for some serious shit. Take Wisconsin, for example. Wisconsin is a swing state. It leans blue (since 2000, Democrats have won a larger share of the vote in five out of the six presidential elections), but the margins are always pretty close: usually no more than a single percentage point. It’s a state where you would expect to have an even split of representatives. However, since 2010 Republicans have gerrymandered Wisconsin to the point where they are only five seats shy of gaining a supermajority in the state Assembly. Even more frighteningly: Earlier this week the election-denying Republican gubernatorial candidate said, “Republicans will never lose another election in Wisconsin after I’m elected governor.”

This is where things turn grim. The prospect of a “red wave” in the midterm election — a Republican sweep where they control the majority of state legislatures, the House, or the Senate — would be pretty disastrous. The very concept of free and fair elections would be on the chopping block. Contraception, same-sex marriage, and even interracial marriage could become illegal once again. Bo Hines, a House candidate from North Carolina, “​​wants victims of rape and incest to be allowed to get an abortion on a case-by-case basis through a community-level review process.”

On top of all that, MAGA Republicans have proven time and time again that they are cruel for cruelty’s sake. Many used the recent attack on Paul Pelosi as fodder for jokes or mockery. It’s sickening.

Look, I don’t know if our democracy itself is on the line this Tuesday. It very well may be. But the fact is, I’ve already spent more words on this article than I was expecting to write, and that’s because there’s so much to say. Young people, people of color, women, and anyone with some goddamn common sense — go out there and vote. Even if it isn’t the essence of our democracy that’s on the ballot, there’s very clearly a lot at stake.