A View from One Middle-Class Midwestern Precinct
Election Day 2022 slowly approaches while Halloween rapidly fades in the proverbial rearview mirror. The News business has spent all year pushing a narrative that a Republican congressional flip is a foregone conclusion. Lately, I’ve seen stories about Republicans “closing the gap” with Democrats. Have fun on Draft Kings and Fan Duel with analyses like that.
Fight-or-flight contingencies have frequently and involuntarily been racing around in my head since I finished the last lap around the precinct where I have been running for and elected (unopposed) as Democratic Committeeperson every two years since 2006. The job of a precinct committeeperson can be described as knowing where your voters are and getting their hearts and minds and butts to the polls. We are well past the canvassing stage, or knowing where our voters are, and are deep into the get-out-the-vote (GOTV) stage, in which I am trying to keep the precinct Blue as it has been since only two years ago, and with brand new district maps since then. My struggle is that, even if all goes well here in Big Blue Illinois, there is maybe half a country out there that seems to be fine with being led by a fascist death cult.
It is heartbreaking to consider just how dim and easily fooled that large elements of the American electorate can be by lining up to willfully vote away the public…