As the 2022 election season draws closer and the so-called majority party in the U. S. Congress seems frozen by the incredibly bad behavior of the senior senator from Arizona accompanied by the fossil fuel-loving senator from West Virginia. It appears to me that the cavalry will not ride to the Democratic Party’s rescue. It will be up to us at local levels to get voters out and count the votes fairly.
Because lawyer time moves exceedingly slower than the election calendar is moving, the possibility is slim that legal efforts and judicial action will protect our voting and election systems from Republican tampering. and getting a fair election result will be up to us as we face rigged elections set up at all levels of government.
I have even heard “the left-leaning mainstream media” despair at the lack of a “coherent message” from Democratic candidates. Before you despair, let me recommend a simple set of messages that every Democratic candidate, precinct worker, and street-level Democrat could use in talking to friends and family.
- The Democratic Party stands for the government’s role at all levels in finding ways to make all people’s lives better, rather than letting the benefits trickle down through an unharnessed economy. The Republican Party stands for making big business and themselves the most prosperous.
- The Democratic Party is interested in improving the health and safety of people. It is not interested in maintaining unaffordable medicines and treatments that cost most people more than they can afford or allowing companies to make money in unsafe workplaces.
- The Democratic Party is willing to let women make their own decisions about issues like the autonomy of their own lives and bodies. It is not interested in denying their right to seek health and medical service in pursuit of this autonomy.
- The Democratic Party is willing to use the power of government action to promote the general welfare (a constitutional obligation) and secure the blessings of liberty (another one) in the public interest; not to protect the interest or welfare of one segment of our society at the expense of others—or the interest of corporate America at the expense of consumers.
- Finally, the Democratic Party is willing to fairly protect the rights of all people—everywhere in our country, and within reason, around this world through our justice systems and international organizations to which we share government responsibility.
So, be prepared to assert and protect your right to vote. We will have to help each other get to the ballot box this year, whether it remains a choice between mail-in ballots or not. If necessary, we must beat the Republicans at their own game before we can set things to right again; but our democracy may depend on precisely that.
