The Vision

What does the future of American politics look like? 

I think about this a lot in both my personal and professional life. Having recently passed the four-year mark as a community organizer and having worked on a national political campaign, I have seen citizens engaged, apathetic, and everything in between. I have seen what happens when a population underestimates an impending threat and what happens what a population finally recognizes incompetence in government at the highest levels. I have seen a famously blue state be a leading voice on an issue like paid family and maternity leave while simultaneously being woefully behind on an issue like immigration. I have seen undocumented immigrants deported and asylum-seekers detained in this bluest of blue states. I have seen allies and some people I would call dear friends get caught up in fringe leftist organizations and movements. And I have seen dedicated, committed individuals from all walks of life come together for a better and more hopeful world.

I have learned as Democrats we are on the right side of history. Immigration. Refugees. Climate change. Voting rights. LGBTQIA+ rights. Women's rights. Police reform. We recognize both the potential and pitfalls of the Great American Experiment. We point out injustice not as an attack on our country but as an area of necessary improvement for our most vulnerable communities. We know and understand White privilege and how we benefit from a system that favors us the moment we are born. We have empathy for our fellow human beings. We don't see the homeless man as a drain on society but rather as someone who has been failed by the system. It is a system designed to keep and maintain White power through a series of subtle and more recently non-to-subtle means. It is created in a way to keep the power in the hands of the few and away from the masses. 

While all this is obvious to those of us on the left, those on the right see the world differently. They want an authoritarian figure to assert control. They want a strong police force with little to no accountability. They want access to weapons of war to protect them and their families from "the other." They want to limit women's ability to become educated and to choose whether or not they will be having children. They don't care to understand the transgender community so rather than sit and listen to them they instead want to regulate how and where they can be present. They see non-White people as inherently inferior and unworthy of occupying the same space as them. They disagree with affirmative action. They disagree with the arrival of new immigrants for the unfound fear that they will "take jobs" from every day (read: white) Americans. They refuse to welcome refugees, even though their own families were once refugees themselves on these very shores. They long for a world that never existed and refuse to accept the world as it truly is. 

But there are more of us than there are of them. At least 7 million more, according to the 2020 election results. But there still exists large swarths of Democratic and Democratic-leaning voters who are simply not engaged. Who see both parties as the same. Who don't vote because they feel their vote doesn't matter. These people exist in red and blue states, in urban and rural areas. There are tens of millions of them who never cast a single vote to potentially improve their lives or the lives of those in their communities. By refusing to partake in a democracy's fundamental requirement, they are abdicating their voice and leaving it to others to dictate how their lives will be run. When they don't vote, legislators get elected who don't have their best interests in mind because they see no reason to reach out to those who won't vote for them or against them in the first place. They become invisible, seamlessly blending into the background of their own backyard. By not participating, nothing changes, and their belief that this always happens becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. 

Herein lies the challenge at the heart of community organizing. How do we end this vicious cycle? How do we reach the 60 million nonvoters in this country and create a space for them to participate in the Great American Experiment when for generations they have been intentionally left out by those in power? How do you tell someone that her or his voice matters when it's the same thing she hears every four years and she has yet to see any sort of improvement in her daily life? How do you create enthusiasm where none exists? How do you, as a person of privilege, in good conscience, speak truth to power and say that their vote will matter when it may very well not? How does one balance the reality of the situation knowing that a person's long-standing distrust of government and elected officials may be perfectly reasonable based on her or his experience? How do you be honest with them, and, more importantly, how do you be honest with yourself?

I don't know all the answers.

But what I do know is that for America to prosper, truly prosper, we need to be engaged in every local state, and national election starting with universal voter registration. Of course, this will be fought tooth-and-nail by Republicans. But removing this barrier is the first step in the process. After that, we then need to ensure that these brand new tens of millions of voters have a basic background as to what their vote entails. That is why we need to reestablish civics and economics as a foundational course in high school classrooms. Again, you'll have pushback from the GOP. There will be the issue of how secular schools have autonomy in their teaching. But to really, really engage these new voters you have to start at the high school level. A national high school civics education requirement is a great place to start. Understanding why a person votes is just as important as how a person votes. 

Yet even with a new generation of voters, we still need a system to keep them engaged for all local, state, and national elections. This is where the worlds of electoral politics and community organizing can come together. Every four years, a brand new team of field organizers traditionally sweep into town, harvest relationships, recruit veteran and new volunteers, turn out everyone they can to vote, and then leave that town forever. Imagine instead, having those based in the communities doing all the work. Having neighborhood "teams" that get out the vote not every four years but for every single local and state election. New resident in your neighborhood? Great! Swing by with a fruit basket and a voter registration form or instructions about how to register to vote. Local election at the high school? Canvass your neighborhood and organize carpools for those that need. National election? Have a neighborhood captain for each and every precinct and have him or her be the main source of contact for the campaign. Identify hard-to-reach communities ahead of time and foster relationships. Bank on those who already know the land and the people. Let them be the experts through their own lived experience. 

This vision is grand, I'll be the first to admit. But the infrastructure is already there. There are thousands of organizations doing community organizing. There are Indivisible groups that have emerged in the suburbs. There are social justice committees that have become reengaged in their local churches, temples, or mosques. There are workers' and teachers' unions that have the capacity to directly engage those in their own backyards. And Jamie Harrison's DNC already has tens of thousands of pre-coded IDs for registered voters. Imagine the power of getting these folks linked up with up-and-coming community leaders from the next precinct over. Pretty soon, you'll have an army of volunteers, all based in the communities in which they live. It will be like the old neighborhood watches, only this time rather than looking out for debauchery, people will instead be looking out for democracy. And a healthy democracy is critical to move toward a more perfect union.

All this costs money. But if we truly want to invest in our future, let's start with civic engagement. Rather than placing multi-million dollar ads in swing states, let's recruit and train community leaders in Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, Texas, and Arizona. Let's learn from Stacy Abrams in Georgia and Beto O'Rourke in Texas as to how to best mobilize one's own community. Let's learn from Native Americans who registered record numbers of their own members in Arizona. Give them the floor and let them lead national workshops on organizing. Bring these workshops to the people where they are at: churches, unions, local festivals. Co-facilitate them with a local community leader ensuring community buy-in. Do them in the native language of those in attendance. Highlight the importance of voting and what it means to those in the audience. Share personal stories. Create a sense of urgency that makes people want to act right there and right then. Inspire the next generation. 

In community organizing, we often talk about the dual nature of the work and how we must view both the world as it is and how it should be. This is my version of the world as it should be. Rather, as it could be. It will take a massive undertaking to make it all happen. But the pieces are all in place. What we saw in 2016 is how disastrous it can be when a population becomes apathetic. Lesson learned in 2020 but now more than ever we need to build on that momentum. Voter turnout was the highest it's ever been in 2020 and still we had nearly 60 million nonvoters. Reaching them is critical for the long-term stability of the country. We know they're out there and we know we need to reach them.

All we need now is the courage to do so.