This is the third year I have participated in Blog For Choice. Click here to sign up and to view other bloggers.
This years question is: What will you do to help elect pro-choice candidates in 2012?
I feel somewhat limited in ability to help elect pro-choice candidates. We do donate money to the DFL and I periodically, send emails, leave phone messages or write letters to my government folk, that never seems like enough.
I know how easy it is to get used to the status quo. For years our district rep was a democrat, but this last election somehow a republican got elected. I don’t think he even campaigned. We were caught off guard. This has happened all over the state. Once in office, our representative has sponsored a bunch of crap like a “choose life” license plates, voter ids, and lifting the ban on more nuclear plants. The values that I think of when I think of Minnesota are being eroded. Minnesota nice is dying and I don’t know what to do about it.
Amy Klobuchar is up for reelection here in Minnesota. I really like her. I know she needs money and volunteers. Sadly, I am hesitant to volunteer, mainly because of how this community is. I hate small town politics.
I feel like my best way to help elect pro-choice candidates is to urge my friends and family to vote. I recently talked to a friend who feels so disenfranchised that she said she wasn’t going to vote at all. I was shocked by this in part because she helped me develop my strong beliefs. I talked to her and hopefully convinced her that she needs to vote. I will be following up with her and other friends as November gets closer.
I know what you mean on the “never seems like enough” thing. I’m lucky enough to be in a heavily contested district — that is, because I live in a decidedly red state. The upside is that I don’t get to be complacent in my politics. The downsides are:
Even when folks are elected as Democrats here, they are rarely as progressive as I’d like… and reproductive justice tends to be one area where they cede ground (by compromising, by not making it a priority, etc.).
In terms of state politics — or how my state is represented on a national level — it rarely makes a difference anyway.