"Voting by itself never was nor ever will be a silver bullet - but
when combined with sustained activist organizing and movement building,
we possess a power that is truly threatening to the ruling establishment.
They know this. They are afraid of our movements because they know that
if enough of us get engaged and vote, we'll win. While poll taxes,
voter ID laws and the other schemes they have can stop some of us from
voting, they can't stop all of us. Voter apathy is still their greatest
weapon, and if they lose that, they know they'll lose.
That's why
I believe the answer to a corrupt voting process isn't to opt out -
it's to totally and completely overwhelm the voting system with numbers
that the establishment has never seen.
Fortunately, in 2018, the
tide may be starting to turn. Millions of people appear to be getting
involved in ways we haven't seen in decades. With candidates and ballot
initiatives that are finally worth voting for, they are choosing to
attack the government's primary defect - that inconvenient rule that
allows us to vote them out of power. "
-Tim Hjersted
"Voting is a chess move, not a valentine. And here's the joy of being
politically engaged all year round every year; you get to work with a
whole lot of chess pieces and players and strategies and longterm
visions, so you don't agonize over whether this little hop with a pawn
we call voting defines you. You get to define yourself by what you're
passionately committed to, by who you align with, by your dreams and
your visions, you get to move a lot of pieces a lot of times, you get
heroic allies, and you play to win above, beyond, around elections. But
you vote, because you know it matters too."
- Rebecca Solnit
