By Kenyatta Thomas, Satchel Tsai, Anusha Chinthalapale, & Nick Guthman
2020 – the start of a new decade. It has the potential to be a legendary year, but only if we start it out right. The best way to do that is to come into it with our hearts and minds set on getting Trump out of the White House and electing a Democratic majority to the US Senate, while maintaining Democratic control of the House of Representatives.
As tech-savvy as our generation is, retweeting progressive posts on Twitter and sharing pictures on our Instagram stories isn’t going to cut it. Digital organizing definitely helps, but to defeat Trump and the mess that he’s created it’s going to take a lot more than that.
We have to spend as much time as we possibly can on the ground having real, authentic, conversations with our friends, families, classmates, teachers, and voters. That means canvassing every weekend and phone-banking and text-banking throughout the week.
We can’t afford to sit back and hope that someone else will stand up and do the work. We can’t afford to just sit in the comfort of our homes and think “No way is he going to win again. America knows better now.” We must organize.
A presidency has consequences that last several generations. We have seen what Donald Trump can do in 4 years. We can’t allow him to have 8, and it’s our responsibility to stop it.
We’ve seen our collective power in action before. In 2018, we saw progressive powerhouses like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ayanna Pressley, and Ilhan Omar take office. In 2019, young people helped elect a Democratic governor in Kentucky and flipped the Virginia legislature blue. We showed up and we showed out. The 2018 election had the highest voter turnout in 104 years, with 115 million votes cast. We can do the same thing in 2020.
We can’t waste our time trying to convert Trump supporters. It’s not about them, and it never has been. 2020 is about reaching out to the disenfranchised and getting them registered to vote, and making sure they show up at their polling places on election day. It’s about reaching out to those who have seen figures like Trump rise over and over again throughout their lifetimes and giving them hope and optimism that a better America is possible. It’s about the immigrants who came to America to escape their country torn apart by gangs and violence, the mom working three jobs to make ends meet for her kids, the queer couple afraid to be seen in public holding hands, and the kid who avoids telling their parents that they’re sick because they know that going to the doctor is too expensive for their family.
We can put the Democrat in office who will help form and lead the America we want to see. An America that truly believes in liberty and justice for all and stands against white supremacy and nationalism, where people are able to access healthcare when they need it, and are being paid enough to support themselves and their loved ones. We can do this in 2020. Let’s get to work.