I've been doing Post Cards for voters for about a year. It doesn't take much time, costs the are the postage and if you choose postcard from PCV. I live in a rural area where there is little person to person opportunity. Doing 10 postcards 3-4 times a week is my contribution. Highly recommend signing up. Takes about 5 minutes.
Yes, I have done other things as well (letter writing, phone banking) but writing postcards through Tony the Democrat is my go to meditation practice to calm my nerves. Good for me and good for the cause. I am aiming to do 10 cards a day but 4-5 times a week is probably my average.
I wrote 200 postcards for PSS and am ready to send them to Pennsylvania. Even with being 80 yo and arthritis in my right hand I was able to help - and it feels so good!
Traveling on a Tauck tour through Ireland with predominantly Americans. I know there are Trump supporters among us - I can no longer engage in any way shape or form with Trump supporters. I am committed to remaining calm, optimistic and quiet. I’ve never felt such animosity towards Republican Americans as I have since 2016.
Isn't it awful to feel this way? People tell me to separate politics and find things in common with the maga people. I can't or truth is I won't. I am a peaceful person and this makes me feel bad.
I have nothing in common with people that support a monster, why would I choose to seek common ground with one supporting a dangerous lying con man? What is there to gain by befriending people living in an alternate universe?
My closest friends are Repubs. They voted for Hilary. They will vote for Harris. They are smart people and love this country. I have no trouble with the fact we disagree on conservative vs progressive politics. It is the idiocy of the maga fools that hurts me.
It's not the people caught up in the MAGA cult we need to reach. They are unreachable, and we waste way too much time and energy talking about them. But there are a lot of people who are mostly unaware or confused, or who are surrounded by people they feel unsafe or uncomfortable confronting. Those are the people we need to stay open to, reach out to in ways they can recognize, and not assume that they are part of the cult because of where they live, what they look like, who they are related to.
My town is dysfunctional, and for my own well-being, I needed to step away from the increasing discord. Yet, freed from that, I keep finding people who share my concerns, I am not actively seeking out people, but have been gratified as I meet them in the course of my days, and sense the topic of politics cautiously being approached. If I stay open and receptive, nearly everyone I meet is supportive of the same issues I am, and indicate that they are voting for progressive candidates, both at the national and the local level. We don't talk parties, we talk issues, and we are on the same page.
Our Democratic legislative representative is being challenged by a newly arrived right wing operative disguised as a republican. He was born in a different part of Vermont, but has been gone since childhood, now claims to be "returning to his roots". He somehow has mysterious funding to support upscale campaigning full of disinformation and exploiting the fears of people who feel marginalized.
I don't think many in the town are buying it. Letters in our community-owned weekly newspaper and on our community forum are heavily in favor of civility and supportive of our incumbent legislator. Many of them note that "No is not a policy". And there are all those folks who are quietly planning to vote blue, or are just trying to sort out what's what. I don't know how the election will go, but I see a whole lot more blue signs than red, and the people I meet kind of randomly are pretty much committed to blue and to civility. So I continue to hope.
Community owned and other local newspapers are critical to keeping people informed. I’m glad you have one and hope the quiet support you’re hearing results in a win for your present Representative.
This is so true and encouraging Annie. Thank you! I'm so sad that I can't communicate with friends I've had for years. Never even knew their politics! Trump has been a scourge on our country for the last nine years :(
I have also been struggling with these feelings....especially the hypocrisy to myself and who I am....that is required if I remain friends with Trumpers. It comes down to a question of respect. How can I have someone as a friend whose willful ignorance and poor judgement I don't respect? And yet, they are good friends on so many other levels. Occasionally, I do get to interject a "reality check" whether about what a misogynist Trump has always been, starting in NYC in the 1970's with his first wife Ivana (front page of the NYPost), MTG's crazy weather claims, or confirmation of how scary awful Mark Robinson is. So I hang in with them and try, but it is very hard. Many books are going to be written about how so many Americans went down the rabbit hole of the MAGA cult.
I will be staying with my conservative sister for four days in a hotel room next week. I thought she was apolitical (although married to a maga). It turns out not so. This close to the election I’m not sure I can keep my mouth and temper in check. We just don’t listen to the same information and at this point I don’t think I can sway. The disinformation is so bad.
Good you are staying in a hotel room. My sister voted for tffg the first time using Benghazi as the reason. Of course she had no idea what Benghazi entailed. Damn she had the faux news talking points down!
Thankfully she admitted she was wrong and votes blue now.
Me too Karen!! We are having a sister reunion with 2 of us Democrats and 2 Repubs. My democratic sister and I are wondering if we should keep quiet about our views or find a calm, supportive way of listening and guiding...
In general, I have found that there are fewer MAGA on tours overseas than one might expect - although Ireland might be an exception since so many people of Irish heritage want to see the "old country".
But in general, people who travel overseas are curious and open-minded - not characteristics I associate with Trump supporters!
No …. we go to many different countries… most recently Japan, India, Croatia, Turkey, and will be heading to Sri Lanka and the Maldives in January. We have been experimenting with different companies that don’t necessarily cater to only Americans. My favorite company is Enchanting Travels which sets up personal itineraries… not in a group. It is an American company. Scenic is an Australian company which caters to Brits, Canadians and Australians - we like them alot. We did encounter Americans on a Scenic tour unfortunately this past summer who bragged about getting vaccination cards off the black market as they were anti-vaccine types 😡. I’m attempting to keep an open mind on this trip. I’m an out going person and am very saddened by my feelings towards Americans. 🙁. Thanks for your support. I am grateful for the many GOP members who are aligning with our Harris-Walz ticket. It’s the MAGA cult that angers me.
I have no respect for these people, they are dangerous, and willfully ignorant. I want nothing to do with them and have no problem feeling this way. They are undeserving of my compassion, there are millions of people and animals who are though, and those are the ones who receive it.
My daughter and I were in Ireland in August. We met several Harris/Walz fans! Those we met were as puzzled as we were about even one person voting for Trump!
The responses seem to address two things: How to get your own message across so you don't feel compromised by the MAGAt's inability to allow you your own opinions or their insistence on exposing you to toxic disinformation (likely delivered in an aggressive or know-it-all manner), and sympathy with your discovery that you have grown to harbor negative feelings that may be new to you, or at least at this level of intensity.
I hope you can manage to enjoy your tour despite the MAGA presence. I find firmly applying good manners (with a meaty dose of inner snark) helps as well as having specific phrases at the tip of your tongue such as "we'll have to agree to disagree" or "let's not discuss politics at the dinner table", delivered with sufficient stiff formality to be quelling. Using humor helps and can be delivered from your Miss Manners' position as a surprise attack. Lots of changing the subject and sufficient forming of cliques within the tour group to limit exposure might be your ticket to a nicer experience. With luck, you can find your own balance between enjoying the tour and preserving your self image as an outgoing person who has never yet actually dumped a bowl of spaghetti on someone's head.
An alternate perspective: Francis Collins MD, PhD (NIH Director, physician scientist, human genome)'s book "The Road to Wisdom: on Truth, Science, Faith, and Trust". He is involved with "Braver Angels", the nation’s largest grassroots organization working to bridge the partisan divide. One presentation in which he was involved was called "A Deplorable and an Elitist Walk into a Bar..."
Futureme.org allows you to send yourself a letter in the future, you can choose the date.
This might be an attractive option for those of us who depend on our phone's calendar notifications to arrange our daily activities.
If you handwrite a note to yourself, might I suggest doing so on good stationery, or using a postcard or greeting card with an image that makes you smile.
To repeat - THE FUTURE IS UNWRITTEN.
It is in our hands.
Let's continue our outreach, encouraging family, friends, neighbors, our community, and even those in battleground states we volunteer to contact.
We CAN win this!
Don't boo, VOTE.
The only "poll" that matters is the results of the ballot box on November 5.
(And as absentee and mail-in ballots are tabulated by the deadlines in each state.)
I have been a subscriber to,” Today’s Edition” since the beginning and today’s edition is a well needed pep talk we all needed to hear. As I watch the Harris campaign unfold and watch the multiple messengers fan out across the country and we watch the contrasts between the messages and delivery between the two candidates somewhere there are people who say to themselves I am going to go out and vote and I am going to vote for Kamala. This is not something that pollsters can measure effectively. Remember Clinton lost because she did not run a great campaign and assumed she would win whereas Harris Walz believe they are the underdog until all the votes are counted. We need to do everything we can together to help them and down ballot candidates win. Remember someone voting for Harris may not split their ticket and this could help down ballot candidates.
Many of us have been supporting key races to win the Senate, including Tester for MT, Brown for OH, Mucarsel-Powell for FL, Allred for TX, Slotkin for MI, Gallego for AZ, Casey for PA, and Baldwin for WI.
Many of us have been supporting key races to win the House. I confess that I have been focusing on the 6 to 8 most winnable Democratic races in California. In preparation to canvass for Dave Min CA-47 (currently held by Katie Porter), I looked him up on FiveThirtyEight. This led to a list of the 50 most competitive House races, with analysis that Republicans are on track to win control 54 times out of 100, and Democrats only 46 times out of 100. There are 25 states on this list. Here are the Democratic candidates in the top 10 House races for which the Republican is running ahead by the slimmest margin, so here is where we get the biggest bang for the buck of our donation dollars and volunteer efforts:
CA-45 Tran
NY-19 Riley
ME-2 Golden
CA-22 Salas
WA-3 Gluesenkamp Perez
AK At-Large Peltola
IA-3 Baccam
AZ-1 Shah
MI-7 Hertel
AZ-6 Engel
This is hair-on-fire time to win Congress! Donate to their campaigns. Volunteer postcarding, text banking, phone banking, canvassing--which at this point is largely to drive voter turnout among Democrats. Look up the full list. It all matters, and matters more than ever that we continue our push to DO SOMETHING!
If we don't give Kamala Harris a Congress to pass her Legislative goals, it will be a short Administration.
MAGA is willing to burn the whole system down if they can't be in control.
It scares me, as a woman of color, that millions appear ready to support the grifting liar who appears to be using Hitler's playbook. Meanwhile, both The Heritage Foundation and Putin are ready to call the shots once/if he gets installed - he's just a useful idiot to them.
We might as well consider Vance to be President if 45 gets elected. Vance will be directed by Thiel and Musk, with input from the worlds' dictators. 45 will be content to play golf (outside of prison) and his handlers will supply people who can stomach standing beside him lavishing praise on his game, his physique, his "big brain" and his "smart" ability to avoid work by just rubber stamping whatever is thrust in front of him.
Ellie, I got super active politically only in 2020, which because of Covid involved very little direct contact with voters. I wrote tons of Vote Forward letters and wrote postcards and phonebanked for local races for state legisature.
This year there have been massive efforts where I live to canvass early and often - not just the home stretch that we are just now entering. But we also haven't slacked off on postcards, phone- and text-banks. I don't think that the current level of effort is baked into the election forecasts.
Before I retired, I was a Data Analyst and I am still a big-time "data geek". One of the most difficult aspects of election "forecasting" is guessing at the mix of voters who will show up to vote - especially for newer, younger voters. They can't just get it right for Baby Boomers and Gen X, for whom there may be decades of voting records.
I am more optimistic based on the surge in new voter registrations amongst groups more likely to support Democrats - especially for Gen Z, and black and Hispanic women, etc. But I am not taking anything for granted and am still writing postcards for down ballot races in NC and to register new voters during one-stop early voting.
Check out this podcast for insight on new voter registrations:
And not with votefwd.org, but also Dave Min CA-47 and Pat Ryan NY-18; it was noted that the NY-18 campaign is in partnership with gun safety organizations and focused on re-electing a champion for common sense gun safety who needs our help.
Good advice, Robert. In 2016 I thought I was doing a lot if I just volunteered some to try to help win the election-and just the top of the ballot at that. Afterwards, I expected I could return to whatever else I was doing knowing everything was going to be taken care of (by somebody else). Now I know my participation has to continue and has to anticipate all of the ways that democracy can be subverted if we don’t pay attention. It actually helps me to remind myself that there’s no guarantee that everything is going to turn out alright and “the assignment” is essentially permanent.
Afterwards, I expected I could return to whatever else I was doing knowing everything was going to be taken care of (by somebody else).
⬆️
Gee, that sounds familiar!! Now I make sure I do something - even if it is small - every day!
I'm a dedicated postcard and letter writer. I can do it whenever I want and then send them off when they will have the greatest impact. For me, it can be a soothing routine - especially when I wake up well ahead of my alarm clock. (The only downside is the cost of postage).
I'll soon be switching over to phonebanking. There are LOTS of opportunities at multiple levels of the ballot and across the country. You can easily search on Mobilize (www.mobilize.us) using filters for "Type of Activity", date range, "Virtual Only" and "Campaign or Organization".
If you don't like "cold calling", there are also phone banks to recruit volunteers to join canvassing events. These are usually people who expressed an interest in volunteering in the past. You are much more likely to reach a receptive person. Even if they may not be available for the next canvass they may be interested in volunteering for a later date or something else like being a poll greeter at early voting! I often get thank yous for reaching out.
In addition to Zoom-based phonebanks that include support and training, experienced phone bankers can sign up for on-demand set-ups where you chose from a list of campaigns and then spend as little or as much time as you want calling voters. Here is a link to one such opportunity with Grassroots Democrats HQ: https://www.mobilize.us/grassrootsdemocratslahq/event/549753/
You can also leverage your time zone - night owls on the east coast can call into CA congressional districts while early birds in the PT zone can be calling for races in ET or CT zone districts!
I see Jessica Craven advises us to vote early to help get a blue narrative going and to help election officials be less overwhelmed on the day. As a result I am going to vote early.
I'm a poll-worker this year and we were told in our training that the ballots turned in more than a few days before election day can be processed quickly with high-speed voting machines. But late arrivals will need to be processed the same way election day ballots are, by manually feeding the ballots into the machine. So there is much less pressure on election workers if you vote early--at least where I am.
You are all an example of how the people should be engaged to nurture democracy. The rest of the world and I am thinking of countries here in Europe too, could learn one or two things from your grass roots efforts.
Evanston Dems have buses going to WI,MI, and PA each weekend. With the Northwestern students involved we have good teams for phone banking also. Postcardstovoters.org has the best approach by far. I’ve been writing for them since 2020. It’s my therapy. I will have 2-3 friends here for postcard parties all weekend while their husbands watch football: Saturday, Sunday and Monday night. Being frugal in general I’m able to donate quite a bit. I don’t believe the polls. There are so many surrogates all over the country rallying for Harris-Walz, including Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger plus many others. Republicans for Harris has a bus tour going through PA and MI. Our campaign has so much more money and energy. Kamala is doing a podcast with “Charlamagne tha God” on Tuesday - a town hall format in Detroit. I have no clue about him. On October 23 Kamala will do a town hall on CNN. Please check out Simon Rosenberg’s Hopium Chronicles on Substack. Young voter registrations are way up. Colin Allred in Texas has Republicans supporting him. Colin was interviewed by Simon this past week. Watch Obama’s speech in Pittsburgh I you need to calm yourself.
Linda, thanks and great news about the buses and the Northwestern students. I hope my alma mater -- University of Chicago -- has students fired up and active, but the ol' U of C crowd has always been less organized and organizable than Northwestern's. On the football games, and being sensitive to the oversized weight carried by women in even "simple" tasks like postcarding, which ain't simple really, may I suggest you invite the football watching men to take on some of the tasks, even putting on postage stamps at half-time might save you some minutes and a commercial can give time to write an address -- just double check probably.
I say this partly in an encouraging, grateful, and humorous spirit, but also with some serious consciousness that women have taken on most of the scut work of all kinds of political, cultural, and religious organizations for years.
Another observation then I'll shut up: I have resolved to delete all begging emails unread. Harris/Walz are begging for money despite sitting on a war chest of (if I recall correctly) over ONE BILLION DOLLARS. I also have quit reading "news" stories, many of which have headlines like "Election prospects shift" or "Bad news for Harris." Invariably, there are opinion pieces by some columnist who is offering their thinking about the race, not anything new or factual.
I'll make one last round of donations to people like Field Team 6 and The States Project and the others, and then back off.
Doomscrolling, reading every article that casts doubt on Harris's standing in the race, all of it, collectively depresses me, which is what they want. So I'm reading Robert Hubbell and Simon Rosenberg and no one else. Others will accuse me of wearing rose-colored glasses, but I don't think so. We need energy and hope to fight, and they provide that.
They have also tapped into something the "experts" are ignoring--the sheer joy and enthusiasm for Harris that has galvanized Americans.
I've also given up on Robert Reich. His subject line almost always has a trigger word in it: "Trump" or "fear" or "terrifying." He's doing a lot of psychological damage, though I doubt it's intentional. I hope it's not, anyway. It could be a driver for people to send money to Inequality Media, but he's gotten on my last nerve.
Anyway, I have to get to work so I'll wish you all a great weekend. Postcards, letters, yard signs, enthusiasm--let's go!
This was such an important newsletter. Thank you for the dose of reality. I had started to become anxious despite everything I’ve done for the last six years, but especially the last two. As a leader of 4,000 grassroots members, I don’t have the luxury of projecting anything but hope and that was becoming challenging. Your early morning dose of reality helped put things back in perspective for me and I’m sure for many readers of this newsletter. Yes, there’s a lot at stake, but time is on our side, as are the millions of people like us who have been working on behalf of what’s right. We will prevail in the end. We just must keep going for the next 24 days, take a deep breath and then reevaluate what and how we do what’s next. It’s the dawn of a new year. L’Shana Tova.
Remember that July 4, 2026 is the 250th anniversary of the country’s founding. We need to prepare to keep the United States whole, and we will risk chaos and eventual dissolution if we fail.
Robert, I rely on your newsletter for reason and calm amidst the national horror show that is Trump and MAGA. As a nation, we're stressed and fearful. Yours is a wonderful service and I thank you for it.
"I believe that pollsters and pundits have failed to recognize that the 2024 election is like no other election in the history of our nation and that a historic turnout will crush the perfunctory and unimaginative models created by pollsters."
There is both anecdotal and empirical evidence that supports this, and I haven't seen much to the contrary (that leans trump).
I was sobbing as I finished reading today’s newsletter. I have been feeling such fear about what will happen if Trump wins or if we lose the house and senate. Like thousands of people, I have been doing postcards, making calls, giving money, etc. and trying to keep a balanced perspective about the outcome. But I guess I didn’t realize that my day-after fear was so close to the surface until I read today’s newsletter. I am writing my letter to myself today!
Robert, I saw what you did here: "Below is an image of the Jellyfish Nebula. My astronomy app told me the nebula was too dim and not worth imaging without a special filter (which I do not own). I tried, nonetheless. Glad I did!" Words to live and act by when it comes to defending our democracy. Let us not give up in advance. Let us choose to be participants, not spectators, in this 249-year-old experiment. Let us be - as Kamala Harris says - happy warriors, recognizing that tending to our own seemingly dim "nebula" of the right to self-determination and the rule of law are very much worth our effort as we engage to brighten it each and every day.
I've been doing Post Cards for voters for about a year. It doesn't take much time, costs the are the postage and if you choose postcard from PCV. I live in a rural area where there is little person to person opportunity. Doing 10 postcards 3-4 times a week is my contribution. Highly recommend signing up. Takes about 5 minutes.
Excellent Michal - instead of worrying we all should follow your example and do what we can.
Yes, I have done other things as well (letter writing, phone banking) but writing postcards through Tony the Democrat is my go to meditation practice to calm my nerves. Good for me and good for the cause. I am aiming to do 10 cards a day but 4-5 times a week is probably my average.
Every postcard helps, Wendy!
Right: calming + important. That's my job today, once I've done some bookkeeping.
Postcards to Swing States has no more postcards to send out! What a massive grassroots effort. Thanks for doing your part.
I wrote 200 postcards for PSS and am ready to send them to Pennsylvania. Even with being 80 yo and arthritis in my right hand I was able to help - and it feels so good!
Traveling on a Tauck tour through Ireland with predominantly Americans. I know there are Trump supporters among us - I can no longer engage in any way shape or form with Trump supporters. I am committed to remaining calm, optimistic and quiet. I’ve never felt such animosity towards Republican Americans as I have since 2016.
Isn't it awful to feel this way? People tell me to separate politics and find things in common with the maga people. I can't or truth is I won't. I am a peaceful person and this makes me feel bad.
I have nothing in common with people that support a monster, why would I choose to seek common ground with one supporting a dangerous lying con man? What is there to gain by befriending people living in an alternate universe?
My closest friends are Repubs. They voted for Hilary. They will vote for Harris. They are smart people and love this country. I have no trouble with the fact we disagree on conservative vs progressive politics. It is the idiocy of the maga fools that hurts me.
It's not the people caught up in the MAGA cult we need to reach. They are unreachable, and we waste way too much time and energy talking about them. But there are a lot of people who are mostly unaware or confused, or who are surrounded by people they feel unsafe or uncomfortable confronting. Those are the people we need to stay open to, reach out to in ways they can recognize, and not assume that they are part of the cult because of where they live, what they look like, who they are related to.
My town is dysfunctional, and for my own well-being, I needed to step away from the increasing discord. Yet, freed from that, I keep finding people who share my concerns, I am not actively seeking out people, but have been gratified as I meet them in the course of my days, and sense the topic of politics cautiously being approached. If I stay open and receptive, nearly everyone I meet is supportive of the same issues I am, and indicate that they are voting for progressive candidates, both at the national and the local level. We don't talk parties, we talk issues, and we are on the same page.
Our Democratic legislative representative is being challenged by a newly arrived right wing operative disguised as a republican. He was born in a different part of Vermont, but has been gone since childhood, now claims to be "returning to his roots". He somehow has mysterious funding to support upscale campaigning full of disinformation and exploiting the fears of people who feel marginalized.
I don't think many in the town are buying it. Letters in our community-owned weekly newspaper and on our community forum are heavily in favor of civility and supportive of our incumbent legislator. Many of them note that "No is not a policy". And there are all those folks who are quietly planning to vote blue, or are just trying to sort out what's what. I don't know how the election will go, but I see a whole lot more blue signs than red, and the people I meet kind of randomly are pretty much committed to blue and to civility. So I continue to hope.
Community owned and other local newspapers are critical to keeping people informed. I’m glad you have one and hope the quiet support you’re hearing results in a win for your present Representative.
This is so true and encouraging Annie. Thank you! I'm so sad that I can't communicate with friends I've had for years. Never even knew their politics! Trump has been a scourge on our country for the last nine years :(
I have also been struggling with these feelings....especially the hypocrisy to myself and who I am....that is required if I remain friends with Trumpers. It comes down to a question of respect. How can I have someone as a friend whose willful ignorance and poor judgement I don't respect? And yet, they are good friends on so many other levels. Occasionally, I do get to interject a "reality check" whether about what a misogynist Trump has always been, starting in NYC in the 1970's with his first wife Ivana (front page of the NYPost), MTG's crazy weather claims, or confirmation of how scary awful Mark Robinson is. So I hang in with them and try, but it is very hard. Many books are going to be written about how so many Americans went down the rabbit hole of the MAGA cult.
I will be staying with my conservative sister for four days in a hotel room next week. I thought she was apolitical (although married to a maga). It turns out not so. This close to the election I’m not sure I can keep my mouth and temper in check. We just don’t listen to the same information and at this point I don’t think I can sway. The disinformation is so bad.
Good you are staying in a hotel room. My sister voted for tffg the first time using Benghazi as the reason. Of course she had no idea what Benghazi entailed. Damn she had the faux news talking points down!
Thankfully she admitted she was wrong and votes blue now.
Me too Karen!! We are having a sister reunion with 2 of us Democrats and 2 Repubs. My democratic sister and I are wondering if we should keep quiet about our views or find a calm, supportive way of listening and guiding...
I hope your sister visit goes well. Four days is a long time. I have a MAGA sister, as well. Hard to comprehend their mindset.
I will be in blood red Arkansas during the election process. My daughter and her family live in a blue dot. Should be interesting.
There is still enough time to flip some of them. https://rvat.org/
Well placed comments on social media...."Not suckers or losers" to vets groups, military, military dependents, history sites.
Trump hates dogs.
Trump stole from kids with cancer.
In general, I have found that there are fewer MAGA on tours overseas than one might expect - although Ireland might be an exception since so many people of Irish heritage want to see the "old country".
But in general, people who travel overseas are curious and open-minded - not characteristics I associate with Trump supporters!
Unfortunately I and my partner travel extensively and have met many MAGA supporters on our travels.
Do you only travel to Engish-speaking countries or travel with a specific tour company? If the latter, please share so that I can avoid them!
No …. we go to many different countries… most recently Japan, India, Croatia, Turkey, and will be heading to Sri Lanka and the Maldives in January. We have been experimenting with different companies that don’t necessarily cater to only Americans. My favorite company is Enchanting Travels which sets up personal itineraries… not in a group. It is an American company. Scenic is an Australian company which caters to Brits, Canadians and Australians - we like them alot. We did encounter Americans on a Scenic tour unfortunately this past summer who bragged about getting vaccination cards off the black market as they were anti-vaccine types 😡. I’m attempting to keep an open mind on this trip. I’m an out going person and am very saddened by my feelings towards Americans. 🙁. Thanks for your support. I am grateful for the many GOP members who are aligning with our Harris-Walz ticket. It’s the MAGA cult that angers me.
Yep. That is what I call self-care.
I have no respect for these people, they are dangerous, and willfully ignorant. I want nothing to do with them and have no problem feeling this way. They are undeserving of my compassion, there are millions of people and animals who are though, and those are the ones who receive it.
I'm with you. It's like they are zombies from another planet. I do not engage.
My daughter and I were in Ireland in August. We met several Harris/Walz fans! Those we met were as puzzled as we were about even one person voting for Trump!
Me too.
The responses seem to address two things: How to get your own message across so you don't feel compromised by the MAGAt's inability to allow you your own opinions or their insistence on exposing you to toxic disinformation (likely delivered in an aggressive or know-it-all manner), and sympathy with your discovery that you have grown to harbor negative feelings that may be new to you, or at least at this level of intensity.
I hope you can manage to enjoy your tour despite the MAGA presence. I find firmly applying good manners (with a meaty dose of inner snark) helps as well as having specific phrases at the tip of your tongue such as "we'll have to agree to disagree" or "let's not discuss politics at the dinner table", delivered with sufficient stiff formality to be quelling. Using humor helps and can be delivered from your Miss Manners' position as a surprise attack. Lots of changing the subject and sufficient forming of cliques within the tour group to limit exposure might be your ticket to a nicer experience. With luck, you can find your own balance between enjoying the tour and preserving your self image as an outgoing person who has never yet actually dumped a bowl of spaghetti on someone's head.
lol 😂 re: spaghetti 🍝
Besides, who wants it after it's been in contact with a MAGA hat? We know where those things have been...
An alternate perspective: Francis Collins MD, PhD (NIH Director, physician scientist, human genome)'s book "The Road to Wisdom: on Truth, Science, Faith, and Trust". He is involved with "Braver Angels", the nation’s largest grassroots organization working to bridge the partisan divide. One presentation in which he was involved was called "A Deplorable and an Elitist Walk into a Bar..."
I just bought the kindle version- thanks!
Futureme.org allows you to send yourself a letter in the future, you can choose the date.
This might be an attractive option for those of us who depend on our phone's calendar notifications to arrange our daily activities.
If you handwrite a note to yourself, might I suggest doing so on good stationery, or using a postcard or greeting card with an image that makes you smile.
To repeat - THE FUTURE IS UNWRITTEN.
It is in our hands.
Let's continue our outreach, encouraging family, friends, neighbors, our community, and even those in battleground states we volunteer to contact.
We CAN win this!
Don't boo, VOTE.
The only "poll" that matters is the results of the ballot box on November 5.
(And as absentee and mail-in ballots are tabulated by the deadlines in each state.)
Thank you for the link, and your caring advice. The Bavarian cabaret artist Karl Valentine said “The future was better in the past “.
I have been a subscriber to,” Today’s Edition” since the beginning and today’s edition is a well needed pep talk we all needed to hear. As I watch the Harris campaign unfold and watch the multiple messengers fan out across the country and we watch the contrasts between the messages and delivery between the two candidates somewhere there are people who say to themselves I am going to go out and vote and I am going to vote for Kamala. This is not something that pollsters can measure effectively. Remember Clinton lost because she did not run a great campaign and assumed she would win whereas Harris Walz believe they are the underdog until all the votes are counted. We need to do everything we can together to help them and down ballot candidates win. Remember someone voting for Harris may not split their ticket and this could help down ballot candidates.
"Win control of Congress."
Many of us have been supporting key races to win the Senate, including Tester for MT, Brown for OH, Mucarsel-Powell for FL, Allred for TX, Slotkin for MI, Gallego for AZ, Casey for PA, and Baldwin for WI.
Many of us have been supporting key races to win the House. I confess that I have been focusing on the 6 to 8 most winnable Democratic races in California. In preparation to canvass for Dave Min CA-47 (currently held by Katie Porter), I looked him up on FiveThirtyEight. This led to a list of the 50 most competitive House races, with analysis that Republicans are on track to win control 54 times out of 100, and Democrats only 46 times out of 100. There are 25 states on this list. Here are the Democratic candidates in the top 10 House races for which the Republican is running ahead by the slimmest margin, so here is where we get the biggest bang for the buck of our donation dollars and volunteer efforts:
CA-45 Tran
NY-19 Riley
ME-2 Golden
CA-22 Salas
WA-3 Gluesenkamp Perez
AK At-Large Peltola
IA-3 Baccam
AZ-1 Shah
MI-7 Hertel
AZ-6 Engel
This is hair-on-fire time to win Congress! Donate to their campaigns. Volunteer postcarding, text banking, phone banking, canvassing--which at this point is largely to drive voter turnout among Democrats. Look up the full list. It all matters, and matters more than ever that we continue our push to DO SOMETHING!
https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/2024-election-forecast/house/
Thanks!
If we don't give Kamala Harris a Congress to pass her Legislative goals, it will be a short Administration.
MAGA is willing to burn the whole system down if they can't be in control.
It scares me, as a woman of color, that millions appear ready to support the grifting liar who appears to be using Hitler's playbook. Meanwhile, both The Heritage Foundation and Putin are ready to call the shots once/if he gets installed - he's just a useful idiot to them.
We might as well consider Vance to be President if 45 gets elected. Vance will be directed by Thiel and Musk, with input from the worlds' dictators. 45 will be content to play golf (outside of prison) and his handlers will supply people who can stomach standing beside him lavishing praise on his game, his physique, his "big brain" and his "smart" ability to avoid work by just rubber stamping whatever is thrust in front of him.
Ellie, I got super active politically only in 2020, which because of Covid involved very little direct contact with voters. I wrote tons of Vote Forward letters and wrote postcards and phonebanked for local races for state legisature.
This year there have been massive efforts where I live to canvass early and often - not just the home stretch that we are just now entering. But we also haven't slacked off on postcards, phone- and text-banks. I don't think that the current level of effort is baked into the election forecasts.
Before I retired, I was a Data Analyst and I am still a big-time "data geek". One of the most difficult aspects of election "forecasting" is guessing at the mix of voters who will show up to vote - especially for newer, younger voters. They can't just get it right for Baby Boomers and Gen X, for whom there may be decades of voting records.
I am more optimistic based on the surge in new voter registrations amongst groups more likely to support Democrats - especially for Gen Z, and black and Hispanic women, etc. But I am not taking anything for granted and am still writing postcards for down ballot races in NC and to register new voters during one-stop early voting.
Check out this podcast for insight on new voter registrations:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CcdKkgske8
https://election.lab.ufl.edu/early-vote/2024-early-voting/
Mostly good. I'm not pleased with the numbers voting for spoilers. I shall book mark this and keep checking - it's pretty interesting.
And not with votefwd.org, but also Dave Min CA-47 and Pat Ryan NY-18; it was noted that the NY-18 campaign is in partnership with gun safety organizations and focused on re-electing a champion for common sense gun safety who needs our help.
Thank you for this list! I was just looking at where to write for my next batch of votefwd.org letters and knew CA-45 Tran was a priority.
Thanks for this list!
Good advice, Robert. In 2016 I thought I was doing a lot if I just volunteered some to try to help win the election-and just the top of the ballot at that. Afterwards, I expected I could return to whatever else I was doing knowing everything was going to be taken care of (by somebody else). Now I know my participation has to continue and has to anticipate all of the ways that democracy can be subverted if we don’t pay attention. It actually helps me to remind myself that there’s no guarantee that everything is going to turn out alright and “the assignment” is essentially permanent.
Afterwards, I expected I could return to whatever else I was doing knowing everything was going to be taken care of (by somebody else).
⬆️
Gee, that sounds familiar!! Now I make sure I do something - even if it is small - every day!
I'm a dedicated postcard and letter writer. I can do it whenever I want and then send them off when they will have the greatest impact. For me, it can be a soothing routine - especially when I wake up well ahead of my alarm clock. (The only downside is the cost of postage).
I'll soon be switching over to phonebanking. There are LOTS of opportunities at multiple levels of the ballot and across the country. You can easily search on Mobilize (www.mobilize.us) using filters for "Type of Activity", date range, "Virtual Only" and "Campaign or Organization".
If you don't like "cold calling", there are also phone banks to recruit volunteers to join canvassing events. These are usually people who expressed an interest in volunteering in the past. You are much more likely to reach a receptive person. Even if they may not be available for the next canvass they may be interested in volunteering for a later date or something else like being a poll greeter at early voting! I often get thank yous for reaching out.
Here is a Mobilize search: https://www.mobilize.us/?event_type=2&is_virtual=true&q=volunteer%20recruitment
In addition to Zoom-based phonebanks that include support and training, experienced phone bankers can sign up for on-demand set-ups where you chose from a list of campaigns and then spend as little or as much time as you want calling voters. Here is a link to one such opportunity with Grassroots Democrats HQ: https://www.mobilize.us/grassrootsdemocratslahq/event/549753/
You can also leverage your time zone - night owls on the east coast can call into CA congressional districts while early birds in the PT zone can be calling for races in ET or CT zone districts!
I see Jessica Craven advises us to vote early to help get a blue narrative going and to help election officials be less overwhelmed on the day. As a result I am going to vote early.
I'm a poll-worker this year and we were told in our training that the ballots turned in more than a few days before election day can be processed quickly with high-speed voting machines. But late arrivals will need to be processed the same way election day ballots are, by manually feeding the ballots into the machine. So there is much less pressure on election workers if you vote early--at least where I am.
Daniel Solomon has offered a link above which shows rates of early voting by state, and some do appear to have significant numbers of early votes.
You are all an example of how the people should be engaged to nurture democracy. The rest of the world and I am thinking of countries here in Europe too, could learn one or two things from your grass roots efforts.
Evanston Dems have buses going to WI,MI, and PA each weekend. With the Northwestern students involved we have good teams for phone banking also. Postcardstovoters.org has the best approach by far. I’ve been writing for them since 2020. It’s my therapy. I will have 2-3 friends here for postcard parties all weekend while their husbands watch football: Saturday, Sunday and Monday night. Being frugal in general I’m able to donate quite a bit. I don’t believe the polls. There are so many surrogates all over the country rallying for Harris-Walz, including Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger plus many others. Republicans for Harris has a bus tour going through PA and MI. Our campaign has so much more money and energy. Kamala is doing a podcast with “Charlamagne tha God” on Tuesday - a town hall format in Detroit. I have no clue about him. On October 23 Kamala will do a town hall on CNN. Please check out Simon Rosenberg’s Hopium Chronicles on Substack. Young voter registrations are way up. Colin Allred in Texas has Republicans supporting him. Colin was interviewed by Simon this past week. Watch Obama’s speech in Pittsburgh I you need to calm yourself.
Linda, thanks and great news about the buses and the Northwestern students. I hope my alma mater -- University of Chicago -- has students fired up and active, but the ol' U of C crowd has always been less organized and organizable than Northwestern's. On the football games, and being sensitive to the oversized weight carried by women in even "simple" tasks like postcarding, which ain't simple really, may I suggest you invite the football watching men to take on some of the tasks, even putting on postage stamps at half-time might save you some minutes and a commercial can give time to write an address -- just double check probably.
I say this partly in an encouraging, grateful, and humorous spirit, but also with some serious consciousness that women have taken on most of the scut work of all kinds of political, cultural, and religious organizations for years.
Another observation then I'll shut up: I have resolved to delete all begging emails unread. Harris/Walz are begging for money despite sitting on a war chest of (if I recall correctly) over ONE BILLION DOLLARS. I also have quit reading "news" stories, many of which have headlines like "Election prospects shift" or "Bad news for Harris." Invariably, there are opinion pieces by some columnist who is offering their thinking about the race, not anything new or factual.
I'll make one last round of donations to people like Field Team 6 and The States Project and the others, and then back off.
Doomscrolling, reading every article that casts doubt on Harris's standing in the race, all of it, collectively depresses me, which is what they want. So I'm reading Robert Hubbell and Simon Rosenberg and no one else. Others will accuse me of wearing rose-colored glasses, but I don't think so. We need energy and hope to fight, and they provide that.
They have also tapped into something the "experts" are ignoring--the sheer joy and enthusiasm for Harris that has galvanized Americans.
I've also given up on Robert Reich. His subject line almost always has a trigger word in it: "Trump" or "fear" or "terrifying." He's doing a lot of psychological damage, though I doubt it's intentional. I hope it's not, anyway. It could be a driver for people to send money to Inequality Media, but he's gotten on my last nerve.
Anyway, I have to get to work so I'll wish you all a great weekend. Postcards, letters, yard signs, enthusiasm--let's go!
This was such an important newsletter. Thank you for the dose of reality. I had started to become anxious despite everything I’ve done for the last six years, but especially the last two. As a leader of 4,000 grassroots members, I don’t have the luxury of projecting anything but hope and that was becoming challenging. Your early morning dose of reality helped put things back in perspective for me and I’m sure for many readers of this newsletter. Yes, there’s a lot at stake, but time is on our side, as are the millions of people like us who have been working on behalf of what’s right. We will prevail in the end. We just must keep going for the next 24 days, take a deep breath and then reevaluate what and how we do what’s next. It’s the dawn of a new year. L’Shana Tova.
Remember that July 4, 2026 is the 250th anniversary of the country’s founding. We need to prepare to keep the United States whole, and we will risk chaos and eventual dissolution if we fail.
If we fail, that July 4th won't be a celebration, it will be a funeral. Or conversely, it could be a new Revolution.
Robert, I rely on your newsletter for reason and calm amidst the national horror show that is Trump and MAGA. As a nation, we're stressed and fearful. Yours is a wonderful service and I thank you for it.
I think you are right about this Robert.
"I believe that pollsters and pundits have failed to recognize that the 2024 election is like no other election in the history of our nation and that a historic turnout will crush the perfunctory and unimaginative models created by pollsters."
There is both anecdotal and empirical evidence that supports this, and I haven't seen much to the contrary (that leans trump).
I was sobbing as I finished reading today’s newsletter. I have been feeling such fear about what will happen if Trump wins or if we lose the house and senate. Like thousands of people, I have been doing postcards, making calls, giving money, etc. and trying to keep a balanced perspective about the outcome. But I guess I didn’t realize that my day-after fear was so close to the surface until I read today’s newsletter. I am writing my letter to myself today!
Robert, I saw what you did here: "Below is an image of the Jellyfish Nebula. My astronomy app told me the nebula was too dim and not worth imaging without a special filter (which I do not own). I tried, nonetheless. Glad I did!" Words to live and act by when it comes to defending our democracy. Let us not give up in advance. Let us choose to be participants, not spectators, in this 249-year-old experiment. Let us be - as Kamala Harris says - happy warriors, recognizing that tending to our own seemingly dim "nebula" of the right to self-determination and the rule of law are very much worth our effort as we engage to brighten it each and every day.