I keep seeing this take (mostly on twitter) that goes roughly “well, we voted, and look what that got us!” I’m trying not to engage, but I need to say this once:
We are dealing with the consequences of not voting in 2016. I don’t want to diminish the importance of 2018 and 2020 in any way, but those elections were never going to undo 2016. These consequences were incredibly easy to see coming, but because they’re not immediate, people don’t seem to comprehend the cause and effect. Before I stopped reading twitter, I saw a tweet that said this is happening under a Democratic administration. The fact that six of the Supreme Court Justices were appointed by Republicans, and three of those six were appointed by Trump, doesn’t seem to mean anything.
Yes, you have to vote. This is WHY you have to vote. We said to vote in 2016 and people said it wouldn’t be that bad. Now that it is they say, what’s the point in voting? Well, we’re probably about to enter an era where your state government decides whether you can get an abortion or not. If that’s not a good reason to vote down ballot, I don’t know what is.
We don’t get a do-over for 2016. We didn’t get one in 2020 and we’re not getting one now. All we can do is try to deal with the consequences, which includes but is not limited to voting. I think people on twitter can’t accept this because they can’t deal with their part in it.
