By the People

On November 3, I walked to my polling place, voted, and walked out. My vote had as much influence as anyone's, but it didn't cost me much. In that sense it was less valuable than that of people I consider heroes.

We are inspired by stories of our frontier ancestors who made the long slow trip to town in bad weather to cast their votes. We can be equally inspired by urban voters who wait in line for hours to cast their vote. And it's not just in urban centers. A friend of mine in a small Pennsylvania town told me he waited in a cold wind for 7 hours to vote—along with his mother in a wheelchair. These people were convinced that their votes mattered and made considerable sacrifices to act on that conviction.

No one I ever voted for won or lost by a single vote. So whether or not I voted is irrelevant, right? Why bother to wait in line, especially if it means losing wages? It feels like our votes don't matter anyhow.

It takes millions of raindrops to start a flood. No one can say at what point, at which number of drops, the flood begins. But each drop is part of the flood. Every one is insignificant, I suppose, but together they are loaded with significance. Your vote is part of the stream, as is each of your neighbor's, and each of theirs. Significance is most often achieved as part of a group. We humans have our individual heroes, to be sure, but mostly we achieve together.

Elections are more than a toggle switch for one candidate or the other. If Trump had lost by just a few votes, I suspect his efforts before and after the election to overturn the vote would have been far more effective. As it was, a flood of 7,000,000 votes separated him from the winner. In each of the battleground states, his loss or win was decisive. This matters. Your vote and mine counted. Every vote added to the decision. The lies about the election would have been a little more effective for each missing vote.

It's true not all votes are equal. If you are from a state or district that goes heavily for one side, then it's hard to think your vote matters as much as those cast in battleground regions. But, long term, every vote matters in those other states as well. Votes from the past election influence candidates for the next. If their margin narrows, in the next election they may double down on nasty rhetoric to fire up the base, or perhaps they tone it down to attract independent and moderate voters. But they must deal with the reality of your vote.

I am inspired by people who were determined to vote in spite of the long lines and other obstacles. Organizers who told those voters what to expect and how to make sure their votes were counted give me hope. And I'm really pissed at people who claim the votes of those who paid most dearly shouldn't count. Some people of privilege complain that if voting is as easy for everybody as it is for them, then their party won't win a national election. Why do they fear democracy?

The turn-out for the 2020 election was terrific. A lot of people contributed to our collective voices, this time more diametrically opposed than in many past elections. But those elected—and all of us—need to deal with what they said. Which is why outright lies about those voices and about the outcome of the election is inexcusable.

We all hate to lose. That's no excuse for cheating or denying our loss. When a Republican member of the Michigan State Canvassing Board took a stand for truth, law, and democracy, the state GOP effectively fired him. They said loud and clear that he was being punished for not lying, for not denying us our vote. I don't know how much lower a political organization can go.

This year a lot of people paid a high price to have their voices heard. Others paid to ensure that those voices could be heard. They represent America. Thank you!

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The rain begins with a single drop.
-Manal al-Sharif

Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little.
-Edmund Burke