It Doesn’t Matter How We Feel - It Matters What We Do
Even if you can't keep calm...sign up for a phone bank.
I will be honest, my anxiety is through the roof right now. This election is much too close for my comfort, and while I know to stay away from things like early vote data (which is impossible to interpret), knowing what to do and actually doing it are two different things. I know I’ve reached peak anxiety and peak irrationality, because it’s not just bad news that makes me anxious at this point. Anyone who talks about politics at all is one bad moment away from getting a snarky comment or an angry tweet from me.
There are plenty of reasons to be optimistic, and hopeful as well though. Dan Pfeiffer made the case in this post, and you can find similar assessments from folks like Simon Rosenberg and the Harris campaign themselves.
The truth is, no one knows what’s going to happen. We are all stuck in our information silos, doing our best to understand a country of 330 million people, a disconcerting number of which seem to be ready to throw it all away on Donald Trump. The polling could be right, the polling could be wrong. Voting habits could have changed dramatically since 2020 or they could be the same. Maybe abortion has lost salience as an issue or maybe it’s gotten even more important to voters. Maybe everyone, including Republicans, are ready to be done with Donald Trump. And maybe we aren’t.
Maybe we’ll get hit with an asteroid, or Donald Trump will get abducted by aliens, or Zeus will come down and tell everyone that Harris is a demigod and his anointed heir for world domination.
Literally anything can happen, none of us can predict the future, and at the end of the day, whether we’re hopeful or anxious or certain or annoyed or terrified or optimistic, it doesn’t actually matter. Our feelings can’t predict the future, and nothing about the news or the polling changes whether we’re looking at it or not.
You know what does matter? You know what can change things? Getting out there and talking to voters. Here’s what you can do to actually make a difference:
Text your family and friends and make sure they have what they need to vote. Seriously - anyone you know, particularly if they live in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, Nevada, Arizona, or Georgia. You can send them to Vote Save America to help them find their polling place, see what’s on their ballot, and find opportunities to volunteer.
Sign up to canvass! You can find opportunities by clicking here and scrolling past the big yellow box and then clicking on “Knock Doors Near You” - particularly if you’re in one of the states above or if you’re near enough to travel.
Sign up for a phone bank! You can do it from your house! You can do it for the whole shift or part of a shift if you want. It has never once killed me, and sometimes it even is kind of fun. And it’s ALWAYS helpful. Here are some ways you can sign up:
Hit up this link again and click either “Phone bank for Kamala” or “Phone bank for down ballot candidates”
Pennsylvania offers anytime calls, so you can drop in and spend a few minutes on the dialer whenever you have time instead of waiting for a specific shift. Sign up here.
Come hang out with me! I’m going to be making calls with Sister District every day this week! Pick one or two or all of these shifts and come join me.
Monday at 7pm ET (this one is actually DCCC’s Take Back the House phone bank because I signed up for it a while ago)
Saturday - break for canvassing!
Like I said, I don’t know what’s going to happen. I know we can win. I know we might not. I know that no matter what happens, the work we do now matters. It matters that we make connections with each other from all parts of the country. It matters that there are so many of us fighting for our future. And no matter what happens next week, we’re going to keep fighting.
See you out there!
"It has never once killed me"
Me neither! 😁