LBJ called it the most powerful tool ever devised by man to break down the walls of injustice and I’m surprised we don’t use it more than we do.  The word VOTE is our greatest weapon because when people come out to vote, the people win.  When people don’t vote, we lose to the oil companies who write their own legislation, banks that are too big to fail, and insurance companies who steal us all blind.

We have two major forces in our government, one fights to protect private industry, corporations and the status quo and the other fights to protect the people .  Private industry spends far more time and money to get what they want and they usually get it.  They spend billions of dollars each year to write their own legislation, influence policy, and receive the benefits and protections of our government at the expense of the people.

They do it by controlling a majority of our U.S. Congress; most of them Republicans and some of them Democrats.  They use divisive, hot button issues to fear monger and deceive people into voting against their own interests.  They divide and isolate voters and privately rile them up with bigotry and hatred to win elections.  And they do it all for profit and power.

The Republican party can’t use the word VOTE the same way we can.  They can’t compete in a wide open campaign like we had in 2008, where we registered and encouraged so many new voters.  I think we need to take ownership of the word VOTE and use it in big bold letters to the point of making the other side look like they are against people voting and likely to suppress the vote, which they often do.

Placing a focus on voting helps create a distinction that can not be countered and it makes Republican attacks look like an attack against people’s right to vote, which it is.  Voting is patriotic, honored and valued and is an excellent rallying cry to unite the coalition of different voting blocks we need to win elections.  We usually just bring it out at the end of a campaign but we need to pull it out early and keep it in the forefront; beginning with voter registration, leading non-stop to GOTV.  VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE!

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Todd Smyth
Fairfax, VA