Redistributing Power to the People: In the Streets and on Beacon Hill
Black people are sick and tired of being sick and tired. Sick and tired of police brutality, racism, and broken promises. Trump, his base, and many moderates say that our country is in chaos. But the raw, unapologetic truth is that Black people are in pain and have been long before COVID19. With limited help from a government hellbent on “saving the economy” and prioritizing property over human life, recent declarations from across the political stage to simply “vote” this November ring hollow in the face of this pain.
How can you possibly tell people who have lived through this modern era - with administrations encompassing Nixon, Reagan, Clinton, Bush, Obama, and Trump - that voting this November will be enough to address a country more prepared to criminalize you than see your humanity? A country that reviles your bodies, your breath, that doesn’t believe you matter? Understanding the systematic failures of our government has to be at the center of work and the message. Voting is not enough.
As for Election Day this November, progressives and Democrats at all levels of government need to be ringing the alarm on election safety and security. Just as important, they need to understand that an anti-Trump message will not be enough to expand the electorate. Trump’s base is staying with him. His race-baiting is effective in spoiling the most precise turnout models across the country. This year, we cannot make a false choice between turnout and persuasion. We need the whole kitchen sink.
We have a dual public health crisis—racism and COVID19—with the backdrop of a national election emergency. Through unfair elections at home, and nationally, we will see the accumulation of power in the incumbent systems. The active protection of incumbency comes at a time of rising authoritarianism, all which can have a deadly impact on how we come out on the side of this pandemic. With our civic infrastructure in flames across the country, now is the moment for us to invest in a deeper democracy - a democracy that lifts up the leadership of black people, indigenous people, and all people of color. Demanding our elections are accessible is the only way we can push back on the entrenched incumbency. The start of that is a call for Vote by Mail (VBM) this November.
“With our civic infrastructure in flames across the country, now is the moment for us to invest in a deeper democracy - a democracy that lifts up the leadership of black people, indigenous people, and all people of color.”
At home, elected officials on Beacon Hill can make a different choice, and we must ensure that they do. The largely Democratic leadership is missing this opportunity by diluting what could be a comprehensive package for Vote By Mail in November. Leadership, in the legislature and among our elected officials statewide, should be prioritizing the safety and fairness of our elections over their incumbency. Incumbents view voting by mail as a threat to their power. In truth, a lack of voting access is a threat to our democracy.
Instead of using the pandemic to create comprehensive legislation that makes our primary and general election available through mail, they insist on the placement of hurdles. Voters will have to request a ballot or risk their lives at the polls to vote in September and November. While the House may have added a measure to the Vote By Mail legislation requiring pre-paid postage on return envelopes for ballots and request forms, barriers for participation remain.
Folks in Massachusetts are beginning to push back on the legislature about how to execute elections this Fall. Town Clerks across the Commonwealth are gravely concerned about their ability to process all of the ballots. If they are asked to process ballot request forms and the ballots themselves without additional funding, it is a recipe for disaster.
Demand any ballot postmarked by Election Day will be counted.
Demand PPE for poll workers, and accessible in person elections.
Demand voters be able to update their Election Day registration on and the days leading up to the election.
As our fellow Black mothers, sisters, fathers, and sons continue to lift up their own voices across the country towards the possibility of a new restorative chapter, let's march behind them as we mount a long term strategy to redistribute power away from “leadership and authority” and towards the people.