Worried about the 2022 Midterm Election?

[MineralMan]

Worrying will not help. Truly it will not. Complaining that not enough is being done will not help, either.

What will help is figuring out how you, personally, can help turn out the vote next November. There's plenty of time for you to plan to do that.

Did your red state put new obstacles in the way of Democratic voters? Find out what you can do to counteract that, and then help do it.

Do you live in a blue state? GOTV will still be important, especially in state and local races. What do you plan to do to help?

You can be most effective by working in your local area on GOTV efforts. How? That depends on where you live. Contact your local Democratic Party organization and ask what you can do to help. You won't have to devote all of your time to that. A small amount of time dedicated by a large group of people can work wonders.

So, please start thinking about that now. Make contact. Put your name on the list of volunteers to help with GOTV in 2022. Commit yourself to spending a little time on that. If enough people do that, we can't lose. If not enough people do that, we will lose.

It's time to begin thinking about what you will do.

[IrishAfricanAmerican]

1. 👆🏽👆🏽👆🏽 THIS!!

GOTV!

[MineralMan]

2. Exactly!

If we're unwilling to do that, we can't complain if we lose, I think.

[FBaggins]

3. I think worrying will "help" more than choosing to NOT worry will

I agree that "complaining that not enough is being done" is counterproductive... but we need to avoid results like Labor just saw in the UK... and that's more than just GOTV.

[MineralMan]

4. Worrying, alone, is useless.

All it does is create stress for those who worry.

Action relieves stress and actually accomplishes something.

Truly.

[Hortensis]

8. Worrying without action actually encourages disengaging to get away

from it, and then not voting.

That's why news programs end with happy stories and Fox is full of violent but stupid-loser criminals to laugh at, leave 'em smiling so they won't go away and not come back.

Otoh, positive action, even a little bit, calms worry and replaces it with assurance that you're doing what should be done. I know.

[ananda]

5. I'm doing what I do best: donating!

To Democracy Docket, Fair Fight, and Move Texas.

[Elessar Zappa]

6. Agree!

I'm seeing on this site people who have already convinced themselves that we're doomed in 2022 and beyond. It's that kind of mindset that leads to inaction and self-fulfilling prophecies.

[MineralMan]

7. Well, DU has a full complement of doomsayers, for sure.

Others here try to counteract that nonsense.

[MineralMan]

9. Why Do GOTV Threads Die?

I've never quite figured that out, but it happens all the time.

[NurseJackie]

10. GOTV is hard work. Armchair activism is easy. Name-calling and insulting politicians...

... whether they are Republican OR Democrat, is easy. Those are the threads that stay aloft indefinitely.

A few times, I've entered those angry/hate threads and mentioned that GOTV efforts would be more effective than the name-calling... but I was shouted down.

Sad.

[MineralMan]

11. GOTV is how we win. The lack of it is why we lose

so often in midterm elections. You'd think we'd learn...

[Wounded Bear]

12. We 'learned' in 2018. We need to repeat that work this cycle...nt

[Silent3]

13. I'm still worried, with laws like Georgia has passed...

...that we could turn out as many votes as we like, and the state legislature will decide that simply doesn't matter.

It's politically harder to pull off, of course, the more Democratic votes that there are, so I'm not disagreeing with the importance of GOTV efforts, or just saying "don't bother, give up" (I have to make that caveat, otherwise I'm sure I'll be accused of doing just that), but there's still good reason to worry the best of efforts can be thwarted by corrupt Republicans.

[Hekate]

14. Kickin' these words of wisdom