Democrat? Interested in the future of our nation? Vote at every opportunity.

by Glenn Geher, a founding member of Move Forward New York

If you’re like me - a lifelong Democrat who has been simply horrified at the direction that our nation is taking in the post-Trump-actually-got-elected era, you are probably thinking “what can I do to help get this nation back on track?”

As a founding member of Move Forward New York, I have been privileged to meet many great governmental leaders from our party - folks who make a living trying to help all of us move toward the greater good. And I will never forget what NY Assemblyman Cahill had to say on this front. He made the point that over the next four years, we have NO CHOICE but to be politically active AT EVERY LEVEL - from town school boards on up to Washington, DC. Local politics matters more than ever right now. If we can flood town, county, and state governmental positions with people who stand with our values (which are, to my mind, the truly American values, by the way), we will buffer ourselves against the insanity in DC. Further, doing so will help make sure that we have the infrastructure in place to take over Congress - which will  ultimately have the capacity to stop Trump in his tracks - at least as best we can.

I’m a pretty proactive person - and in this current climate, I’ve actually become convinced that I should run for office. And toward that end, I am running on the Democratic ticket for Ulster County Legislator. You see, in my district (Ulster County District 12), we have a Republican incumbent - who has been in office for about 10 years. I don’t know him personally, but I know a bit about his voting record - which is consistently aligned with the right. To my mind, this is exactly what we do NOT need at the county levels in this nation right now! When my friend Debra Clinton, founder of Move Forward New York and activist sine qua non, told me that this guy was about to run unopposed in MY district, I quickly looked in the mirror and was like, Glenn -  you got this.

Of course, it’s not going to be a gimme - and county-level politics is not exactly the same as the field of education - which is where I usually live - but I am so deeply concerned about the future of this nation and about making sure that I take every step possible to help, that I feel a strong calling on this one.

Voting in Off-Year Elections

Odd-numbered years are considered off-year elections. For instance, in 2015, we had the opportunity to vote for an Ulster County Legislator position and for the Ulster County Executive Position - and for a few other things that, at the time, I didn’t quite understand or think much about.

Well it turns out that in my town of Plattekill, NY, even though we have nearly even numbers of Democrats and Republicans, the Republican Legislative candidate won (by about 99 votes). Pretty close actually. But get this: Only about 30% of Democrats in my town came out to vote - while about 37% of the Republicans came out to vote.

You don’t have to be Einstein to realize that if these proportions flipped - and 37% of Democrats came out while only 30% of Republicans came out, the incumbent Republican legislator would have been unseated.

If you are a Democrat, you better think about this fact. Because that was then, and this is now.

Republicans Control the Ulster County Legislative Chamber!

So to see in even more detail how tragic this all is, think about this. In Ulster County, according to the New York State Board of Elections, about 68% of registered voters are Democrats, with close to only 30% being Republicans. With a proportion like this, you would think that Democrats would control the legislative assembly, right? And you would be WRONG! Think again.

Of the 23 legislators in the assembly, 12 are Republican and 11 are Democrats - so Democrats make up 68% of the registered voters in this county, yet their representatives make up only 47% of the legislature. Seriously.

If you’re like me, you immediately see connections with national-level politics here. Hillary Clinton, the Democratic presidential candidate in 2016, won the popular vote by about 3,000,000. Yes, that is THREE MILLION! Yet the White House and both houses in congress are flooded with Republicans.

I see this all as a lesson in when democracy fails. When our representatives end up mismatching the interests of the majority of the people - and when this happens at all levels of government, then we’ve got a problem on our hands. And we are not functioning like a democracy.

Are You Planning to Vote in the Next Off-Year (2017) Election?

If you are a Democrat and are outraged by the direction that this nation is taking, as I see it, you don’t have the luxury of sitting back and hoping that someone else fixes the problem. There is WAY too much at stake. My wife and I have two kids - and I know full well that it is up to me to take any and all steps possible to help make sure that they and (one day) their kids have the extraordinary opportunity to live in the United States of America. With this in mind, we cannot let the values that form the foundation of this nation fall by the wayside.

And we need to grab this country by the grassroots - and take advantage of each and every opportunity we can to get this nation back on track.

Do I think I’m going to win the election for Ulster County Legislator, District 12 on November 7? Well I sure hope so. But this said, I will say that I am optimistic. Sure, I think I have a good set of experiences and skills and I know that my heart is in the right place. But to be honest, I don’t think that all is going to get me the seat in Kingston.

What is going to get me that seat is the groundswell of Democrats who have been awoken by the current national situation. It is the uprising that is going to get me to Kingston. The same uprising that flooded Washington, DC and municipalities around the world for the Women’s March. The uprising that flooded SFO, JFK, and airports throughout the nation in protest of a highly xenophobic and anti-American travel ban. The uprising that got scientists, who are largely introverted, out to march in political rallies from sea to shining sea.

 

Not My President's Day Rally, SUNY New Paltz; February, 2017

Bottom Line

As I’ve written about in the past, the Tea Party was very successful in flooding seats at all levels of government with Republican and conservative candidates. Well guess what? That was then - and this is now. And to my mind, the Uprising that we have on our hands now makes the efforts of the Tea Party look like kid stuff.

My money says that the Democrats in Plattekill - and in places like Plattekill around the nation - come out in unprecedented numbers in the 2017 off-year election. I sure hope so, because this will allow me to put my money where my mouth is and take direct steps as an elected official to help effect positive change in Ulster County - and beyond.

 *******************************************************************************

If ever there was a time to become politically active and rise up, that time is now. Here is to the uprising.

Join the uprising at www.moveforwardnewyork.org

Note that the views expressed herein are expressly the views of the author and are not necessarily the views of Move Forward New York as a collective entity.