Election Day is next Tuesday, November 8th. What is your voting plan?
Voting has never been more important. Since 2016 the political atmosphere has become increasingly more charged. If you read this blog, you know that I am obviously a liberal in my political views (because I follow real science and public health), but I am not above criticizing the current administration when they mess up public health.
Public health is on the ballot this year. Historically there is less turnout for mid-term elections but this is not the year for that. Everything is on the table. Gun safety regulations, social security for those who have paid into it, reproductive rights, and yes, pandemic safety, are all in jeopardy. One party runs on a platform calling for "freedom" and small government, but any look at their actual platforms shows that the most prominent members of the party are actually quite content to let government interfere with YOUR rights and access to things like safety from gun violence in your home/school/public, autonomy over your own body, and protection from a potentially debilitating illness. Not to mention that party (and its worship of the 45th President) is still the party that led an insurrection (they're all for Backing the Blue unless the police are in the way of trying to overthrow the government, overturn an election, or endanger opposing politicians).
Not to mention it is specifically that party that makes repeated attempts across the nation to suppress people from voting, while projecting that onto their opponents with overhyped cries of "election fraud!" despite their repeatedly being no evidence of that.
I am a physician. I see firsthand the suffering people undergo when these rights are taken from them, when we reject science (and the fact that knowledge evolves and grows) in favor of political power. I agree that the current administration and its party are far from perfect, but they are not using every opportunity to stop our nation from progressing into a healthier and more equitable future, unlike their opposition.
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said, as quoted by my friend Angela Weyand, "Not voting is not a protest. It is a surrender."
It's down to the final week. Voter suppression may ramp up. Make a voting plan, whether it's early voting or finding time and ability to go vote on Election Day. Tell me about it!