What are the issues that are (and
should be) motivating young women to register to vote? Let us count some ways!
Elections
are decided by the people who show up to vote. The current crop of politicians
at every level – local, state and federal - is in power because the people who
showed up to vote the last time around made those choices. If you don’t like
the decisions they are making for you right now, register to vote and show up
at the polls on November 6.
The political
landscape in 2018 has been transformed by the #MeToo movement. Countless
new-to-politics candidates have stepped forward. Many of them are openly
talking about personally painful experiences and refusing to go along to get
along any longer. The current debate in the US Senate over the nomination of
Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court of the United States is a microcosm of how
much hasn’t changed in the Senate. Many of the same men who refused to listen
to Anita Hill a generation ago are still in power. Until the US Senate looks
like the American people, that won’t change. Your vote this November is a step
in the right direction.
Among the
new candidates who have emerged in 2018 are people who understand they have
something to lose if they forego political power. We’ve seen a surge by the
powerless - women, minorities and LGBTQ candidates - running for political
office in 2018. Will they all win? No, but if you don’t run, you can’t win. And
if you don’t vote, you can’t ensure these people with new ideas and fresh
enthusiasm for governing get a chance to open doors for people long-denied
representation.
An enduring
issue for women of all ages is reproductive health care. Thanks to the
Affordable Care Act, which is under attack at the federal level in Congress,
women finally have a level playing field when it came to health care in terms
of access, doing away with gender-based pricing, and access to contraception.
All that equity and progress is at risk by the current Administration and
Congress. Here in New York
State we have some
additional protections, but the ground is still boggy.
Young women
in particular disapprove of recent Trump Administration rollbacks to
contraception coverage. The best way to make that disapproval known is in the
voting booth come November.
Where you
live very much determines how you live and what access to care you receive. Worth
noting is Wall Street Journal-NBC polling on abortion access. Voters are now
more likely to vote for a political candidate who is pro-abortion rights than
for one who opposes them. Especially dramatic change was recorded by the poll among
independent voters, 76% of who said they opposed reversing the ruling, up from
64% who were opposed to its reversal in 2013.
In
particular this year, who gets elected to the New York State Senate will
determine if New York
modernizes its pre-Roe V. Wade law to
conform to current federal statue, putting it under Health law, where it
properly belongs. Passage of the Reproductive Health Act has been held up in
the state Senate for years now.
Mother
Nature doesn’t get a vote – but you do, if the environment and climate change
are important to you. One in every 10 voters cares about these issues and 80%
of millennial voters (who will be the largest block of voters IF they exercise
their political power at the polls) believe that climate change is no longer a
threat to our future but is a present danger. They do not deny the
evidence-based reality of their own eyes. How many of our current politicians can
say the same?
Somewhere
between 10 and 15 million environmental voters decide to stay home every
election. The results of those choices have haunted us for the last two years, as
decisions continue to be made to roll back environmental protections that have
been in place since the 1970s. If you like dirty air, polluted water, and shrinking
bio-diversity, you can choose to stay home in 2018. Or you can show up to vote
and speak for all living creatures that don’t have a voice.
Many young
people have been motivated to register to vote because of the gun violence they
see in their public schools and colleges. Politicians have done little to challenge
the power of the gun lobby to effect common-sense, reasonable gun laws and to
look at gun violence as the public health crises it is. You can make a
difference at the polls if you care about this issue by electing leaders who prioritize
public safety and are willing to stand up to the NRA.
Rejecting
party politics doesn’t mean you’re not political. There isn’t much about either
major political party in the country that attracts young voters (or many of the
rest of us either, anymore). In fact blank or unaffiliated voters in New York continue to
gain ground in enrollment. The only thing being an unaffiliated voter means is
you can’t vote in a NYS primary, which isn’t much of loss, given the byzantine
voting rules still in place in this state.
If you care
about modernizing and reforming New
York’s electoral rules, voting in 2018 is important.
Changes in who we send to Albany
will give the forces of electoral reform additional voices in 2019. We won’t
get early voting, expanded voting days, same-day registration, or the other election
reforms that are driving up voter participation in other states if we send the
same politicians back to Albany
who have blocked those reforms in the past.
Elections
are decided by the people who show up and vote. When you don’t show up, someone
else is making critical decisions for you. Going along for the ride means you
are often being taken for one.
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