All Politics is Personal

In the Homestretch of this Year's Campaign, It is Not About the Pundits, Polls and Political Theater. It is About What You Personally Do to Impact the Results.

When I was a little kid I would get up very early in the morning. I would trundle into the room in which we had our one black and white TV and turn it on. Often I would get up before the programming started. There were only half a dozen or so channels in the New York area back then and none were on around the clock.

So I would sometimes get the dreaded test pattern which was unnerving and seemed to be urging me to go back to bed. But if I was patient after around 5 a.m., there were signs of life in that box. First would come the national anthem. Then, inevitably, there came something called “Sermonette.” It was some clergyperson offering a few words to begin the day.

Even then, I was a little unnerved by the clergy and uncomfortable, yes, as an 8 year old, with the idea of organized religion (as I am to this day). But I knew that if I made it past the Sermonette, I would get to better programming options. Like “Modern Farmer” and “Agriculture USA” (yes, in suburban New Jersey, that’s what was on next). And then after that lesser cartoons and kid shows (“Davey and Goliath”) before the better ones (“Rocky and Bullwinkle”) came on.

Well, today, I am going to help you relive that childhood experience of mine with something that captures its flavor, my own little political “Sermonette.”

It is said that all politics is local.

I think that still suggests too wide a focus. All politics, in the end, is personal. While the consequences of your actions may impact many, it is your actions themselves that are your most important contribution to the political process.

We may pour over our favorite media sources and debate great issues of the day with our friends and our family. We may spend time—as we should—understanding the broad repercussions of political outcomes for our communities, our states, the country and the world. But in the final analysis, what is most important is what we individually do to affect those outcomes. (Or effect those outcomes. This happens to be one of those rare and welcome cases in which you cannot get your usage of “affect” and “effect” wrong.)

This is important to remember the closer we get to election day. You may wish to howl at the headlines or parse polling details down to the smallest degree. But remember: none of that really makes any difference. In fact, most of the analyses you read and a huge percentage of the polling results you see will be wrong. More often than not they are skewed by biases and ignorance. (Which is not to say there aren’t useful insights to be had. Look at hard data—like trends in voter registration or, in a few weeks, at early voting data. That can provide real insights. So too can things like fund-raising figures or the number of volunteers campaigns are signing up. Signs of concrete action that are much better than looking at garbage politically motivated polls or the takes of hucksters who always want a horse race or the increasingly popular but utterly meaningless polls indicating who are perceived as “likely winners.” Also, while you’re at it, ignore polls of “registered voters.” You want to look at likely voters. And even those are often misleading.)

At any rate, with 58 days to go in the most consequential political campaign of our lives, the more you tune out the noise and focus on what you yourself can do to produce the outcome you want, the better.

Ideally, you will make a plan. It will consist of how you will set aside the time you will devote to supporting Democratic candidates up and down the ballot each and every day. It will also consist of determining what resources you can devote to supporting candidates in terms of donations. Everyone can manage at least an hour a day. You can use that time as a volunteer for local or national campaigns, phone-banking or going door-to-door. If you can, and you have the time and resources, you can volunteer in a swing state where your work can have the maximum outcome. But if you have limited time or resources that does not mean there is nothing you can do. You can make your own plan to vote. You can talk to friends and family about their plans and work to ensure all have a means to get to the polls. You can double check with all of them that they are registered and that their registrations are still valid.

You can reach out to your communities via social media or writing for local or national publications. You can track the messages being promoted by the Harris-Walz campaign and others and amplify them. Or you can tailor them to the specific concerns of those around you.

Every minute and every dollar you can devote to ensuring that Kamala Harris is the next president of the United States, that Donald Trump is denied the power he seeks to use against our country, that Democrats have majorities in the House and Senate, that Democrats win in key races in your state, city or town, is a contribution that can make a difference.

It should be clear that this year, voting for Harris and Walz and the Democrats is, strangely, not a partisan thing to do at all. It is a patriotic thing to do. It is a duty to your country. It is a way you can fight authoritarianism, racism, misogyny and the enemies of democracy. Every little thing you do is what Joe Biden would call a “big fucking deal.”

What’s more you will be acting in concert with the what may well be the biggest broadest polypartisan coalition the U.S. has seen in decades. Imagine: Former Vice President Dick Cheney and AOC, Senator Joe Manchin and Bernie Sanders, are all united by their shared sense of urgency that Trump must be defeated and that the one and only way to do that is to elect Kamala Harris to be the next president.

Needless to say, the consequences of all politics are not just local they are personal too. The women in your family will be directly impacted if Trump is able to strip away more of their fundamental freedoms just as they will be helped if Kamala Harris and Democrats are put in power to restore those freedoms. The kids in your life will be safer and more secure going to school in a world in which gun rules are shaped by Harris and than the Democrats than in one in which the NRA dictates to Trump and the GOP on the Hill the outcomes they want. The future of our environment hangs in the balance. The future of our alliances worldwide and our national security hangs in the balance. Kitchen table issues are on the ballot as Trump proposes tariffs and tax hikes that will raise the cost of living for most Americans by thousands of dollars and Harris and Walz propose changes that will reduce costs and make it easier to buy a home or needed pharmaceutical products.

In other words, months and years after this election you will be feeling its consequences every minute of every day of the rest of your lives. That is why now is the time to take this all personally and take every step possible to impact those outcomes and to ensure a better life for you and your family.