If the fever-pitch power, passion, focus and energy of the #NeverAgain activists simultaneously rallying in Tallahassee, FL, and marching on Washington, DC, is bringing you hope that change is on its way, it is. This November.
While reforming gun laws in this country isn't going to happen overnight, changing control of Congress could. And part of what's so remarkable about these savvy student activists is that they've practically skipped over the lobbying part straight to posing a political threat. Nearly every one of their speeches or man-on-the-street interviews ends with a promise that, even if they can't vote now, they will be able to very, very soon. And in fact, many of them will be voting by 2020, if not by this November.
Here, here, here, here, and here. They're not just talking about registering to vote, they're talking about pre-registering to vote. All of them are crystal clear that change starts at the ballot box.
In the meantime, they are captivating the nation with the prescient reminder that nothing changes unless you vote. That's a message that will resonate with their slightly older millennial counterparts who also came of age at a time when the supposed "grown ups" in the country were failing to protect them.
Just imagine for a second how powerful it would be if an unprecedented wave of female voters, people of color, and millennials were propelled to the polls on November 6 by the urgency of a movement that transcended being a political issue.
That's exactly what's happening. #neveragain. #dream. #metoo. They are all movements for freedom: Freedom from fear, freedom from oppression, freedom to self-determine. They are quite literally movements born of our Declaration of Independence credo: Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
And Republicans are undoubtedly and inescapably on the wrong side of every one of them.