Leigh McGowan: 10 Things You Can Do For Democracy

"I understand this is all so crazy. The question is what do we do about it? Here’s a list of 10 things…

Source:Politics Girl Leigh McGowan.

From Politics Girl

I think Leigh McGowan's "10 Things You Can Do For Democracy" is solid. But she's really speaking to the left-wing of the Democratic Party and perhaps left-wingers, especially young people, who perhaps aren't registered as Democrats, but maybe don't want to go way over to the left with the Green Party. And sure, those folks need encouragement in order to vote, especially for Democrats. And if the "PoliticsGirl" can help with that, more power to her. 

My message is more for the populist who don't like either the Democrats or the Republicans, who are somewhere between center-right and center-left as far as how they describe their own personal politics, as well as blue-collar Democrats, who like MAGA's populist economic message, but don't won't America to become some fascist, nationalistic, dictatorship. I think these are the voters who quite frankly, look like they're half asleep when they go to the voting booths... perhaps flip a coin to decide who they should vote for... who don't do their homework before deciding who to vote for. 

The only way the Donald John Trump's of the world are ever even allowed to visit The White House, let alone become President of the United States: 40% of the country (give or take) who don't know who they're voting for. People who ignore the warning signs about these candidates. 

My list is shorter than 10. If the future of the country, all the great American liberal values that most of us take for granted, that protect all those great individual rights that we all take for granted... if the: 

Rule of law

Separation of powers 

Checks and balances

U.S. Constitution

The Bill of Rights

Personal responsibility

Fiscal responsibility

Limited government

if all these great liberal values that used to be the bedrock of the Republican Party and still is the bedrock of the establishment wing of the Democratic Party... if these are the values that you care about as a voter, this is what you can do to protect them in 2025-26: 

1. Know who the hell you are voting for, before you even consider voting for someone. Check to see if their rhetoric matches up with their record. Don't just rely on their social media feed, their talking points, their own soundbites and what their campaign and campaign supporters are saying about the candidates who are running in your district or state. Do that work yourself. 

2. If you are registered Republican, but you are not a MAGA person, (I respect you for hanging there and trying to preserve the Republican Party. More power to you.) and you care about the values I'm talking about here, don't vote for the MAGA person in your district or state. There will probably be a center-right Republican in that race. Vote for that person. And if you do your political homework, you'll be able to tell who is the real Republican and who is the Donald Trump wannabe. 

Leigh McGowan is talking to the left-wing of the Democratic Party and young Democrats who really only vote, when they think it's cool and the there's a cool candidate in the race. And more power to her for that. But if you believe in the democratic values that I think we both believe in, this really isn't that difficult, if you want to conserve them:

Do your own homework

Vote for the democrat in the race. And I'm talking about the candidate who believes in American democracy. So in a Republican primary, that means voting for the Republican who believes in American democracy. Not necessarily just voting for Democrats and letting MAGA win their primaries. And if the general election is between a pro-democracy Republican and a pro-democracy Democrat, you'll have a real choice there. 

And of course vote. What's the point in doing your political homework, if you don't turn it in? 

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