Make it bigger

| 9:09 am EDT September 8, 2024
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I was watching a football game on television this week, rooting for one team to win, and I kept trying to convince myself that I was somehow contributing to that effort. Then I had to remind myself that sitting home on the couch and idly cheering for someone doesn’t have any impact on the effort that’s being made. I’m only doing it for my entertainment, not for the sake of anyone who’s out there trying to win.

I think this is a lesson we have to remind ourselves of every single day during an election cycle. I look at Kamala Harris’ poll numbers each day, and I hope they go up. I look at new voter registrations every day, and I hope they go up. I look at Kamala out there on the campaign trail, and I hope she performs well. And that’s all nice, but it doesn’t do anything. Staring at TV or Twitter, and rooting for Kamala to win, doesn’t get her a single additional vote. It doesn’t improve her odds by a single additional decimal.

The good news is that while you can’t really do anything to help your favorite football team win, you can in fact do a lot to help your favorite candidate win. You want Kamala Harris’ lead to get bigger? Make it bigger. Spend one day of your life knocking on doors or phone banking or sending voter registration postcards. Sure, you might be nervous while you’re doing it. But so what? The alternative is to sit home that day, stare at your screen, and be just as nervous about the election without doing anything to improve your side’s odds.

Kamala Harris has made this easy for us. I went to go.kamalaharris.com just now and I put in my zip code and I found out there’s a local phone banking operation going on this Wednesday and Saturday. It’s that easy. If you go to one of these phone banking sessions, the campaign people will help you with exactly how you go about doing it. They’ll have you calling people who are already on your side and just need a little push or reminder. And if you don’t want to be on the phone, there are always other opportunities at a phone bank. Be the person who goes and gets coffee for the people making the calls. Do something.

Imagine watching your favorite football team and being able to go and put additional points on the board for them. In elections, you actually can do that. You can go add votes to your candidate’s total, just by doing a volunteer shift. If you don’t think Kamala Harris’ current lead is big enough, make it bigger. Let’s get out there and win this!