I have an inexplicable affection for B-grade science fiction movies. You know, the kind that has a planet-killing asteroid headed towards Earth, in which citizens must band together to save life as we know it.
But ever since Donald Trump became the presumed Republican nominee for president, I have felt like I am living in one of those movies.
Trump is the asteroid.
Somehow, racism, misogyny, denying he lost the election and leading an attempted coup against the United States wasn’t enough for most Republican senators to impeach Trump. Impeachment would have banned Trump from running for any public office, including dog catcher, let alone president. But most Republican senators wouldn’t do it.
We citizens have to band together to do what spineless senators and Trump’s mesmerized followers refuse to do: Save our democracy, and the rest of the world, from a lawless, despot-loving, fascist wannabe from gaining the Oval Office.
Again.
I have re-written this column about four times, which is why it’s so late. I’ve been spinning my wheels because I find the prospect of Trump regaining office so upsetting that it almost, but not quite, renders me inarticulate. And given how exhausting the last eight years have been, and how toxic politics have become, it is tempting to simply disconnect, turn off the news and ignore the whole damn thing.
So one of our biggest tasks is to avoid getting so discouraged that we just walk away. We mustn’t. Ration news intake for your own mental health, but find a way to be informed and involved. Act.
I have an offer for any of my readers. I have written probably 5,000 opinion pieces in my lifetime for four newspapers. If I do say so myself, I am one hell of an editor.
If any one of my 1,000-plus readers wants to write a commentary about why Trump should not be elected, I’m here to help as a volunteer editor.
I’ll also suggest places to send it. Just message me; I’ll put a button in this column to make it easier.
If, however, any reader wants to write in favor of our 45th president, I honor your right of free speech, but I can’t help you.
Here’s the example that inspired me, and my offer.
In Tulsa, Okla., Republican community leader Jim Young read Republican former Rep. Liz Cheney’s excellent book, “Oath and Honor: A Memoir and a Warning.” Young is a self-described “almost redneck conservative,” and former Trump supporter who had dismissed Jan. 6 as bad behavior from thugs. Cheney’s book convinced him otherwise, and it inspired him to read the Jan. 6 Committee Executive Summary. Then he read the Justice Department indictment against Trump. He wrote about his experience in an op-ed commentary for the March 3 Oklahoman, Oklahoma City’s daily newspaper. His question: “How is Trump not in jail right now?”
How, indeed. But good for him for educating himself, and finding the courage to write about it in Trump country. I love that. So if any of my readers wants to do the same, I am here to help.
But maybe you don’t want to write. Perhaps you would rather act. Fabulous. I have two more examples for you to consider.
About 16 months ago I interviewed Trump supporters in Arizona and wrote about it. I was trying to understand their devotion, and honestly, I’m still trying. But one man I interviewed, a conservative former Marine, decided to become trained as a poll worker, helping oversee elections. The training thrilled him and convinced him of the strength of our system. I loved how he said he wanted “to get his hands dirty” on behalf of democracy. And he did.
My friend Elissa Bass also decided it was time to do something, in 2016.
Elissa and I worked together for years at The Day, a newspaper in New London, Conn. She is funny, smart, and was so committed to the idea of impartiality that she registered as an unaffiliated voter her entire adult life, avoiding any political party affiliation.
That changed with Trump’s election. A week later, Elissa, who had left the paper by then, registered as a Democrat, eventually becoming a poll worker for the 2020 election. In 2021 she became deputy Democratic registrar of voters for her town of Stonington, Conn., and soon after, when the registrar retired, she became Democratic registrar of voters.
Registrars of voters manage the minutiae of democracy. They run voter registration, train poll workers to oversee elections, maintain the voter database and a myriad of other tasks, all under penalty of law. In a small town like Stonington, the office pays peanuts, budgeted for only nine hours a week.
Elissa said she understands the misconceptions people have, because they are ignorant of how much goes into the nuts and bolts of democracy.
“The learning experience in being up to your eyeballs in this process makes me understand why Americans react the way they do, because they don’t understand how the system works. They don’t make the connection between the act of voting and what the consequences really are,” Elissa said.
“I’ve trained a couple hundred people to work the polls and to a person, they say, ‘Oh, my God, the system is actually really good.’ But that’s not the public perception,” she said. “The immersion in the process makes you understand and appreciate that what Trump has alleged since November of 2020 could not and would not happen. If you don’t have an idea of how the system works, you might believe the conspiracy theories,” Elissa said.
While Elissa said that “it is exhilarating to be a cog in the wheel of government,” she will not accept another time-consuming term as Democratic registrar. It sounds like she has done more than her part.
For the rest of us, it’s time for those who love democracy to get their hands dirty.
Write, and if you wish, I’ll help. Act. Campaign. Vote and ask everyone you know to do the same. Volunteer at the polls. But do something.
It’s the only way to fend off the asteroid heading towards us.
Great thinking, acting and writing ( and rewriting !) Maura.
L AND M
I worked the voting polls in 2016 and I recommend everyone do it at least once. As Elissa said - once educated to the process you understand all that was alleged could never happen.