Three successive phone bank parties at the Goodstein/Kelly home yielded 2,365 GOTV calls for Hillary Clinton.
Election Day is just hours away, and you want to know that you have done enough. You have:
Written checks—small ones—but, like clockwork, one after each debate and each vicious misogynistic swipe at Hillary.
Stuck a sign in the middle of your front yard.
Risked ruining your favorite leather jacket by putting on a campaign sticker or button.
Obsessively watched MSNBC, read The Upshot, and followed Nate Silver.
Memorized the number of electoral college votes for each state.
Shared every insightful article, late night comedy routine, and celebrity endorsement on Facebook.
Retweeted every clever, snarky tweet aimed at showing the other candidate’s true colors.
Live tweeted all three debates until your fingers ached.
Argued late into the night with your younger cousin in Pennsylvania who insists on supporting a third party candidate in a puzzling pox-on-both-your-houses move.
Tried to remember whether a Cubs victory was good or bad for the Democrats.
Phone banked to remind supporters in Iowa to vote early.
Held phone bank parties to share pizza and get others to call folks in Iowa.
Knocked doors to remind people to GOTV even though no one was home.
Awakened before dawn for bagels and a several hour bus ride to canvas in Nevada or Pennsylvania or New Hampshire or North Carolina. #MostJewsonaBusSinceSummerCamp
Learned the dance moves for last week’s Pantsuit Flash Mob downtown (and managed to put together a pantsuit-like ensemble).
Carved a jack-o-lantern that featured Hillary’s logo.
Waited in line with your friends for three hours to get into a rally for which you stayed up all night making placards.
Waited in line for two hours to early vote because you just never know.
Posted a selfie with your “I Voted” sticker.
Volunteered to do Election Protection or official poll watching in a swing precinct near where you live.
Used your frequent flyer miles to go to Tampa to do election protection.
This is a partial list of the actions taken by myself and my friends in the interests of electing Hillary Rodham Clinton and defeating Donald J. Trump.
I am almost 66 years old and have never seen this level of activity among such a diverse age group in an election year. Even when we got “neat and clean for Gene” (McCarthy that is), the activists were largely younger, white students. And I don’t recall an election when the level of anxiety, sleeplessness, nervous drinking and eating, and emotional ups and downs was so pronounced. I like to think of this surfeit of angst as energy ready to be channeled into the causes that got us involved in this election to begin with.
Regardless of the results of this election, there’s an expanded base of activists with some valuable experience under their belts ready to step up and take action in the next administration, in the struggle to overcome hatred and bigotry.