I’ve said this before but....

There are informed people who choose to abstain from voting. Vote shaming them doesn’t work! They know the two choices are between Trump and Biden! I promise you!

We are now at the point where many people wag their fingers at anyone who has real questions and even concerns about the Dem ticket. I get the instinct. But if your goal is to get more people to turn out, this isn’t the way to do it.

I know dozens of people who aren’t planning to vote and are more civically active and doing more day to day than the people that shame them. And I think we have to grapple with that if we want to have an effective conversation about turn out.

And then I know a lot of people who don’t do much more than opine on twitter calling those people stupid. But they arent stupid or evil. Many aren’t particularly privileged. And yelling about them on social media hurts, not helps, the effort to get them to vote.

Some important points I think about: 1) there are ways to talk fairly about candidate records that grapples with harm they’ve caused WHILE acknowledging that people can - and hopefully do! - change over time! I try to believe people can be better tomorrow than they are today.

Every day I try to believe this about people who have caused unimaginable harm. So yes, I also try to believe it about powerful people (most of whom have also caused unimaginable harm), IF they demonstrate some dedication to change.

2) The percentage of people who won’t vote for Biden and Harris because they are too moderate is extremely extremely small compared to the number of people who will not vote because the process is opaque or they don’t care about politics

There are MILLIONS of people you should be actively working on convincing to show up to the polls. They are not on political twitter. They aren’t. Voter organization and mobilization is a grassroots project. It’s hard work, and it’s our job. That’s who you should focus on.

And a reminder here - the substance of the American project has been largely to prevent people from having access or reason to show up to the polls. Especially black and poor people. So when I see fancy white people outraged that people don’t vote I’m like...

My last and third thing is this. And I say it all the time but I’m gonna say it again.

The way I think of voting is this: I vote for the enemy I want. I vote for the person I want to fight for the next few years. I don’t want to play defense forever. I’d like to go on offense sometimes. So my behind will be in line on Election Day. That’s the way I come at this.

I wrote about this whole thing a few days before the last election. Here it is again! https://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/11/2/1590102/-The-trouble-with-the-liberal-arguments-against-third-party-voters-and-what-to-do-about-it

ALSO - *whispers* some people aren’t going to vote. No matter how much time and energy you put into them. Not every left voter will get on board with this ticket or any presidential ticket in history. So USE YOUR ENERGY WISELY. There are people waiting to be activated. Find them!

I’m using left as a general category but I think there are also other ways of describing or categorizing or acknowledging people who may choose to sit this one out, so I don’t intend that to be reductive.