The Home Stretch: Vote!

This piece is part of a series of articles produced in a special topics class taught by Professor of Law, Jurisprudence, and Social Thought Lawrence Douglas on the upcoming election. Articles may have been reviewed by Douglas as well as other members of the class prior to submission to The Student.

Since 2015, former President Donald Trump has dominated the media, the courts, electoral politics down the ballot, our families, and our state of polity as we see and know it. Politics, as it existed before Trump, was hardly utopian in any way. However, it held a sense of decency that has all but faded. When we think about who holds the bully pulpit and what that means to the world, it is essential to have someone forcefully upfront and circumstantially honest but simultaneously calming, and stable. Someone with more decency for the world and its people than we’ve had in our political order as of late. Someone to set us on a path to healing.

We are living in a time that will be taught in political theory classes a hundred years from now because there is a very likely chance that if Donald Trump wins the presidential election, the United States will slip into an authoritarian regime. He has said that he would replace civil servants with political appointees, and with the Supreme Court ruling on presidential immunity — something Biden vowed not to abuse (the result of his nomination of three Supreme Court justices, confirmed by the U.S. Senate under Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who misled the public about their intentions to overturn Roe v. Wade) — there is no telling where he would stop. In his first term, they did not know what they were doing. Now, his team and the people in his circles know how to play at the levers of power. When Trump incited the insurrection, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley’s main concern was keeping him away from the nuclear codes — what more do we need to see? There is a chance he will not step down after four years. Dismissing that possibility is, unfortunately, a sentiment of the politically blind. The people behind Project 2025 (the plan proposes to dissolve the federal Department of Education, which awards grants to college students, among other things) either worked for him before or will be working for him after he’s won. He’s selected one of the most unqualified, blindly loyal vice presidential candidates to ever touch a presidential ticket. And as Trump continues to brag about overturning Roe, SCOTUS Justice Clarence Thomas says we should revisit the legality of gay marriage as well. This is just a little taste of what comes next if Trump returns to power.

I know that politics can be a difficult thing to want to follow right now. I know that many people are apathetic when it comes to voting, and justifiably, with things like the electoral college and low turnout equating to a lack of change. In my city, the only pillars upholding our community are the grassroots organizations that never give up. Finding a cause and sticking behind it, or a policy that resonates with you very heavily can be why we vote nationally as well. A good grassroots movement will create complete uncertainty in even the most predictable elections. Right now, I am thinking about bodily autonomy, being able to love who you want to love, and not wanting our country to slip into an authoritarian state. We are once again being faced with choosing between the old-school bureaucracy and the political movement that Donald Trump mobilized by capitalizing on years of resentment from voters. We need to vote.

While it is also limiting to only having two candidates to choose from, knowing one or the other will win, it is crucial, at this moment in history, to vote for rights that transcend gas and grocery prices. We must vote for the only candidate who vows to expand and not take away. Although not without its flaws, the Democratic Party is the only mechanism for protecting those rights, right now. I give immense credit to the municipal, town, and statewide organizers and party members who play the most significant roles in executing on-the-ground and field efforts for major political campaigns — no easy feat. Most are ground volunteers who canvass, call voters, send postcards, and fundraise for small-dollar donations. I spoke to several former and current Democratic National Convention officials over the summer who all, in their own ways, shared that former President Barack Obama was the last nominee truly backed by grassroots movements, with folks sleeping on friends’ couches and hotel room floors to engage with electorates in swing states. While we owe him an immense debt, there was no energy like that with Biden as the nominee. We are just now seeing that energy slowly return with Vice President Kamala Harris.

To get a sense of the sentiments among party leaders right now, I spoke with the Mass. Dems State Party Chair Steve Kerrigan to ask him about the current moment and what is at stake. He offered: “The energy and momentum in support of Kamala Harris and [Minnesota Gov.] Tim Walz has shown no signs of slowing down since the convention in Chicago, but make no mistake — this will be a very close election. While it has become somewhat of a cliche, I truly believe this election is one of the most consequential in our lifetimes. Harris has a vision for America that is focused on the American people, their futures, and their freedoms. In contrast, Donald Trump is focused on the past and himself. This is no time to be a spectator. We need everyone to encourage their family and friends to tune out the noise and ask themselves: What kind of country do we want to live in? I believe the Harris-Walz ticket provides the best option for America.”

I echo that this will be a close election, if not one of the closest we’ve ever had. If Trump picks up in the midwestern swing states, Harris will have to outperform expectations in the South (Georgia and North Carolina, maybe, but very unlikely, even Texas). Suppose Trump takes the South and overperforms in the Midwest. In that case, Harris will have to hope that her retail-campaign ground efforts and interstate shifts to electing Dems statewide these past few cycles will be enough to put her over the edge. While I do not consider polling to be an accurate electoral measurement in any sense on the national level, ever, Michigan U.S. Senate candidate Elissa Slotkin (currently a member of the House of Representatives who will be the likely winner in that race) recently warned donors that her team’s internal polling has Harris “underwater” in Michigan, so it is all hands on deck in the Midwest. Hell, this time, it may even come down to small states like Maine’s Second Congressional District or that one likely blue electoral vote from Nebraska, which state Republicans just tried and failed to take away from the Democratic candidate. Two states to watch closely are Arizona and Nevada, which have incredibly close elections, and where Harris’s chances of winning those electoral votes are up in the air. The pathways to winning this election are scattered, intertwined, and volatile. I agree with Kerrigan’s call to act not as a spectator but as a doer. If voters coalesced electorally, even half as much as we can in this country, our nation and world would look like a different place.

While weighing options, considering facts, and getting that mail-in ballot signed and sent for the presidential election is essential, the House of Representatives and Senate races are just as important to watch and participate in. The House of Representatives will likely fall back to Democrats after two years of complete dysfunction, first under former Republican Speaker Kevin McCarthy who resigned due to gridlock and currently under the leadership of a uber-conservative Speaker of the House who built his political career on vilifying gay marriage. Senate control will likely remain divided down the middle or dependent on one or two seats (Maryland, Montana, Ohio, and/or Nevada where all incumbents are in competitive races). If Harris wins without an electoral trifecta, there will be very little legislation passed through, if anything at all. If Trump wins without Democrats controlling at least one chamber of Congress, he’ll continue to have his way with the legislative branch, as he does with the other two branches. Accountability is absent from our political order, and we won’t be able to change anything until we change that first. One way or another, he cannot win. As long as he is given power, he will continue eroding everything we are. At one of her recent rallies, Harris echoed that we are witnessing a full-on attack on hard-fought and hard-won fundamental rights. I feel she may be one of the last public barriers left to our systems of governance.

Amherst College students, staff, and faculty are not immune to the would-be Trumpian state. We are the kind of folks in higher education institutions that he may look to silence. We all have a part to play in these times, yet we tend to understate the significance of this moment. I encourage everyone to plan to find a way to play that role and play it with all you’ve got.