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Older and Bolder: Vote! |
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Welcome to Older and Bolder: Vote!
A blog from contributors, 65 and older, with experience
trying to make their communities, states, and countries
a better place. A key way to do this is to get out the vote in 2020.
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Why are we doing this?
Why are we making a big deal out of this? Seniors vote. We know that. But for the 2020 Election voting may be different. Many of us will want to vote from home instead of making our usual trip to the polls. Because of the imperative to defeat Trump and take back the Senates in MN and DC, and because of the need to vote safely in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, many of us will want to vote safely at home. Vote by mail is new to many and requires a little planning. It also means seniors will need to encourage and coach others in using the absentee ballot to vote by mail in Minnesota. In summary, we’re doing this voting section because we know this isn’t going to be a “normal” election. It’s being held in a pandemic, after all. Numerous media reports tell of Republican Party plans to add “intimidating” monitors, to try to scare voters away at polling places with high concentrations of people of color; President Trump has said that the federal government is against voting from home because it leads to “fraud,” a claim for which there is no evidence; and the U.S. Senate appears determined not to give states and local governments money to help them get ready for this most unusual election. Trump plans to win this election, no matter how many people want to vote for someone else. |
Click here for our section on How to Vote: Easy Steps. Not voting in Minnesota? Click here to find out how to get an absentee ballot in your state. |
Who are we?
Generally, these folks did their work with a careful eye on politics, aware that the only way to make life fairer and more livable for everyone is to have a key role in establishing the rules of the game.Some did their work through organizations, like nonprofits, or unions, or think tanks, or trade associations, or large and small corporations. Some taught (at all educational levels). Some wrote about public affairs.
All of them now fit the title “elder”: persons who have served their communities well, but are still expected to—and, indeed, very willing to—give their community advice based on their extensive experience.
Most importantly, all of our community elders agree that the country is in the most perilous shape it’s been in during the past 150 years. If Donald Trump is reelected, and if Republicans continue to control one House of Congress in 2021, then America is in near and present danger of becoming a white oligarchy, i.e., a country where white skin is required to succeed and political power is a function, not of your inalienable rights, but of the extent of your wealth.
Now (July, 2020) our current list of 20 contributing elders is cooperating to produce this publication, OlderandBolder.Vote, which begins publishing posts today, July 7. We’ll generate posts until November 3, 2020: the day we choose our president, some senators, and all members of the House.
Older and Bolder’s posts will cover issues honestly and with strict adherence to the facts. When a contributor’s post is published, their names and bio information will accompany the posting. We expect most postings to be some combination of writing by the contributor and links to writing by trusted commentators. You’ll also have a chance to comment on posts.
Following is a partial list of issues that might be covered in the OlderandBolder.Vote blog. The list is divided into three general areas:
Generally, these folks did their work with a careful eye on politics, aware that the only way to make life fairer and more livable for everyone is to have a key role in establishing the rules of the game.Some did their work through organizations, like nonprofits, or unions, or think tanks, or trade associations, or large and small corporations. Some taught (at all educational levels). Some wrote about public affairs.
All of them now fit the title “elder”: persons who have served their communities well, but are still expected to—and, indeed, very willing to—give their community advice based on their extensive experience.
Most importantly, all of our community elders agree that the country is in the most perilous shape it’s been in during the past 150 years. If Donald Trump is reelected, and if Republicans continue to control one House of Congress in 2021, then America is in near and present danger of becoming a white oligarchy, i.e., a country where white skin is required to succeed and political power is a function, not of your inalienable rights, but of the extent of your wealth.
Now (July, 2020) our current list of 20 contributing elders is cooperating to produce this publication, OlderandBolder.Vote, which begins publishing posts today, July 7. We’ll generate posts until November 3, 2020: the day we choose our president, some senators, and all members of the House.
Older and Bolder’s posts will cover issues honestly and with strict adherence to the facts. When a contributor’s post is published, their names and bio information will accompany the posting. We expect most postings to be some combination of writing by the contributor and links to writing by trusted commentators. You’ll also have a chance to comment on posts.
Following is a partial list of issues that might be covered in the OlderandBolder.Vote blog. The list is divided into three general areas:
1. HOW TRUMP PLANS TO STEAL THE ELECTION AND HOW YOU CAN
HELP COUNTERACT HIS GAMES.
HELP COUNTERACT HIS GAMES.
Voting in the 2020 election and why it’s so important: Republicans are trying to stop as many people as possible from voting who look like they might vote for a Democrat or have voted for them in the past. It’s called voting suppression, and Trump is the chief cheerleader.
Each day’s postings will have an admonition like, “Have you encouraged someone to vote today?” Many days’ posts will have information about how to encourage people to vote.
- Stories from other elections about every vote counting.
- The necessity of everyone voting.
- The absolute necessity of allowing all voters, but especially seniors, the ability to vote from home, not exposing themselves to COVID-19 while exercising their civic duty. Republicans already caused at least 52 people to get COVID-19 in Wisconsin during a primary and judicial election because they wouldn’t postpone the balloting.
- Information about struggles in various states to make sure everyone gets to vote.
- Evidence about how some states are clearly attempting to prevent voters they deem potentially Democratic-leaning from participating in the election.
- Posts on the attempts by the Trump administration to starve the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) so that there won’t be a postal service to handle mail-in voting.
- Posts on the horse race aspect of the national and key Senatorial elections, stories about polls, etc.
Each day’s postings will have an admonition like, “Have you encouraged someone to vote today?” Many days’ posts will have information about how to encourage people to vote.
2. HOW BAD CAN IT GET? We’ll write stories about the performance
of the current national administration and its enablers in various states.
of the current national administration and its enablers in various states.
We’ll start by blaming Trump’s gross incompetence for at least 36,000 of the deaths during the first weeks of the pandemic. He's unable to hire, trust and work closely with anyone qualified to govern. Plus he's forcing states to compete with each other and the federal government to get critically needed supplies.
And he refuses to wear a mask!
The attacks on civil society and the social contract are seemingly endless.
And he refuses to wear a mask!
The attacks on civil society and the social contract are seemingly endless.
- We’ll talk about Trump’s systematic attempts to sell off and trash the national parks.
- We’ll look at Trump’s achieving what is apparently the Republican goal in government: after the 2018 Trump tax cut, the nation’s 400 richest families, billionaires all, were taxed one percentage point less than all the people in the bottom 50% of the income ladder. Those 400 families, by the way, control more wealth than the lowest 60% of income earners nationally.
- His abuse of immigrants: caging their children, closing the borders to asylees, and referring to them as murderers and rapists.
- His astonishing 28.8 lies per day and stunning number of false and divisive tweets (over 14,000 as of January 20, 2020).
- The Washington Post reports Trump made 19,127 false or misleading claims in 1226 days. This includes giving false and dangerous medical advice to all of us.
- Send us your best of the worst to wy@olderandbolder.vote.
3. HOW CAN WE FIX THIS MESS?
What should we do to fix the terrible things Trump and McConnell and others have done to this country?
We will write, and invite you to contribute:
We will write, and invite you to contribute:
- Posts on what needs to happen with a new administration and a united Congress; what needs to be fixed first?
- Posts on the need for Joe Biden to become Franklin Roosevelt II through bold and system changing action.
- Posts on things that can be done to our governmental structure to prevent another presidential crook from using the office to feather his/her own nest. We depended on norms that all presidents in the past followed. Trump not only doesn’t care about the norms, he doesn’t care about the laws.
- Posts on strengthening unions so that wage inequities can be somewhat addressed.
- Posts on what needs to happen in the next stimulus bill to get the country over the hump. Where are we going to get the money and the political will to put people back to work and get jobs moving again? We’ve spent 30 years having Republicans trying to convince us that everything the government does is a waste and rich people pay too many taxes.