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VIEWPOINTS Get involved in Michigan now
by Coco Soodek
2020-09-15


You probably feel anxious and frustrated by the political climate and the risk that the Republicans will cheat their way to victory or the Democrats will bumble their way to defeat. The best thing you can do is channel your fears into action. Even though Illinois is not a battleground state, Michigan is.

Three reasons to get involved.

Here are 3 reasons why you should put aside your fears and get active.

YOU'RE IN DANGER. Three years of Trump and you're locked away from other people, at risk of getting a new disease. Trump's appointees fabricate public data, lie under oath, fire whistleblowers and flip democracy the finger. Trump is packing the courts with homophobic, monopolistic, cruel and stupid judges. He's encouraging disease, police and militias to run wild. And, the only thing restraining him is the next election. If he crosses to victory, all checks are gone. It can and will get worse.

THE ELECTION NEEDS YOU. I hope you long ago realized that there is no one backstage creating the genius plan to save our democracy. Obama's victory was well engineered, but it was also driven by the tireless efforts of millions of volunteers. You know who lacked enough volunteers? Hillary Clinton. You know who doesn't lack volunteers? Trump.

YOU CAN REALLY MAKE A DIFFERENCE. The people who really decided the 2016 election were the 30% who didn't vote AT ALL. Most of the people who didn't vote were Democratic voters. Maybe they didn't vote because they didn't like Hillary Clinton. Maybe they didn't vote because they thought Hillary Clinton was certain to win. Maybe they didn't vote because they weren't encouraged or helped to vote. If we had gotten a decent number of nonvoters to vote, we would have avoided the last 3 years of mayhem and melodrama. But, we can fix that this year.

Three things you can do in Michigan.

Here are three ways you can get to work in Michigan, now.

GET PEOPLE TO VOTE. To get people to vote, you can join a phone bank, canvas or do targeted GOTV. A big LGBT+Allies group is having its first meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 22 at 6 p.m.

You can join Chicago LGBT+Allies Biden/Harris group on Facebook at Website Link Here or email us at 20vote2020@gmail.com .

You can volunteer directly with the Michigan Democrats here: Website Link Here .

You can volunteer for Jon Hoadely, a gay candidate running for Congress in Michigan �' jonhoadley.com/phonebank .

PROTECT THE VOTE. Voters often lose their vote, because of polling place mistakes, bad information or Republican efforts to keep people from voting. Democrats field lawyers and others trained in election law to observe the polls and report problems. The mission is to make sure every eligible voter can vote, regardless for whom they are voting.

You can join the Michigan Voter Protection campaign here: Website Link Here .

WORK THE POLLS. Polling places won't have enough paid election workers because of the pandemic. But, you can apply to work at a polling location where you live.

To apply to work at a poll, go here: Website Link Here .

PS…Wisconsin. And, if you are interested in Wisconsin, here are some links:

Get People to Vote ( Website Link Here ) .

Voter Protection in Wisconsin

( Website Link Here ) .

Coco Soodek is a business lawyer and progressive activist.


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