What are the odds Gaza will be your top issue?
What was your top issue two years ago? Climate change? Gun violence? Abortion rights? Preventing another Trump term? What will be your top issue two years from now? What are the odds it will be Israel’s war in Gaza?
I want to follow up on Digby’s (and Rick Perlstein’s) reflections on Saturday about Gaza and young people voting (or not). It’s my regular complaint every four years that the presidential race is not the only one on the ballot or the only reason to cast one. There will be over three dozen races alone on the ballot in my county, one of over 3,100 in the country. Only one race is for national office (two counting the VP). For some states with ballot measures, the fate of women’s reproductive rights is on the ballot. State district, appeals, and Supreme Court races may be on your ballot.
Remember how we held our breath over Janet Protasiewicz in Wisconsin’s Supreme Court race in April 2023? Her colleague, Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Ann Walsh Bradley announced last month that she will retire next spring, putting Wisconsin Democrats’ thin court majority, voting rights and more up for grabs again in April 2025. In your state, such races may be on your ballot in November 2024. Don’t be on the receiving side of what’s going down if Democrats lose.
In the race for governor and other down-ballot contests in North Carolina, Republicans have nominated the Trumpiest head cases they could find — just short of those proudly wearing adult diapers in solidarity with Von Sh**zInPantz. The New Apostolic Reformation is targeting local races in the bluest counties in eight states (including mine).
In 2016, a certain #NeverHillary celebrity argued that a Trump presidency would mobilize the left and hasten the revolution. And then “things will really explode.” Never mind who suffers in the explosion. What the Trump presidency gave us was three U.S. Supreme Court picks that ended a half century of women’s reproductive autonomy, 400,000 dead from COVID-19, and a violent insurrection that might have ended our 250-year experiment in self-government. Plus all those Federalist Society judges Republicans installed like Aileen Cannon.
Another Trump term in 2025 will define the rest of this century and perhaps the fate of democratic self-government across the globe, and the planet itself. There are plenty of reasons to vote this November beyond the presidential contest. And not just reasons to vote against things. For all their shortcomings (we all have them, Joe Biden too), your chances of advancing the issues mentioned above lie with the Democrats and the choices you make (or fail to) this fall.
What was your top issue two years ago? Climate change? Gun violence? Abortion rights? They are on the ballot this November. What will be your top issue two years from now? The same ones? New ones? Fight for the future. Vote for a beautiful tomorrow.
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