Alarm bells are ringing: If the GOP wins the presidential and congressional elections in November, we will fall off the precipice into fascism! This is no boy cries wolf. On multiple fronts, Republicans and their funders are moving to ensure and justify their permanent dominance.
In response, I get several emails each day from Democrats that translate to, "Give us money and vote for us to save democracy. Just look at everything we've accomplished.” That falls woefully and alarmingly short of what is needed. The biggest threat is the disengagement, disgust, divisiveness, and despair that will keep people home on election day in what will surely be a very close election.
As Jamelle Bouie explained in a recent New York Times opinion piece, “We need to fight political despair everywhere we find it, which means this country needs an overhaul of its economic system, its political institutions, and its public life.”
Despair is precisely what the Republicans and their backers want and what Democrats are not addressing. Voting is the bare minimum, most passive democratic act in a democracy. I don't want to minimize the value of voting, online contributions, or even door knocking for candidates, but those acts are what follow confidence and active engagement in the political process. These actions don't combat despair.
The housing crisis provides an example of what Democrats are not doing and need to do to address despair and disconnection, and to promote the democratic engagement required to avoid the fascist threat.
Over the past few years, I’ve knocked on many doors and participated in many meetings with renters and homeowners as part of a campaign for decent, affordable housing as a member of Community Voices Heard. The same stories repeat over and over.
“My landlord keeps jacking up the rent and won’t even fix leaky pipes, crumbling ceiling, bats, rats, and failed heat. I’m afraid to speak up for fear of eviction.”
“My family and neighbors had to leave Beacon because they could no longer afford inflated gentrified home prices or rent.”
“The new landlord wanted to renovate my building so she could charge double the rent. I was evicted. Now, there’s nothing I can afford. I’ve lived here my whole life.”
In towns, rural areas, and cities across the country, Americans struggle with escalating costs to keep a roof over their heads, often paying fifty and sixty percent of their income. This phenomenon cuts across economic circumstances but affects the poor the most. Increasing equity due to inflated home prices builds generational wealth for the most well-off but remains distant unreachable dream for more and more families.
A few days ago, on my morning dog walk, I ran into and chatted with a local developer. When I commented on the dearth of housing affordable to all, he mentioned a litany of ever-increasing material prices and costly to meet building codes.
Unsaid–but surely–the case, developers and landlords–even those with good intentions and scruples–are in the business to make a profit. That is a constraint. That is why the unregulated private market will never solve the national housing crisis. We need direct state and federal investment to build housing that is affordable across income ranges. We need to tax wealth to pay for it. We need regulations to protect tenants in existing privately owned buildings. We need expedited code enforcement with teeth.
Billionaires, corporate leaders, and private equity investor–no matter how wealthy–summarily reject limits. That is why they spend a great deal to lobby politicians. Their campaign contributions pay off handsomely.
What are Democrats doing? Here in Dutchess County, New York, several communities passed local laws to protect renters from unjust evictions and exorbitant rent increases, only to have them overturned by landlord-funded court challenges that asserted usurpation of state authority. So far, efforts to pass such tenant protections at the state level have been thwarted by real estate lobbying, despite a Democratic governor and legislative majority. Landlords and developers win. Tenants lose.
Not long ago, CVH members met with a state legislator whose support for affordable housing has been tacit and weak. We requested an appearance at our annual Issues Assembly to listen to our 2024 Legislative Agenda and agree to publicly assert support among fellow legislators. Our requests were spurned.
One New York State Senator did join us and spoke forcefully in support of our legislative priorities, forthrightly about what we are up against, and connected to people's struggles.
From one Democratic legislator, we got dismissal. From the other, trust and allyship.
The latter is what we need from Democrats. Whose constituents are most likely to show up on the next election day to mark the box for Democrats?
It’s not just that housing is unaffordable across a broad economic spectrum. Day-to-day, people experience the same challenges, frustrations, and absence of political support for healthcare, the cost of post-secondary education, the failure to substantively curtail climate change, and the prices of everyday necessities.
Many people, we meet feel alienated from politics with a capital P. But that’s not the end.
When we organize and talk to people one-on-one and in groups and hear their stories of struggle, our first collective response is, "That ain’t right!" We listen and affirm the injustice. Then, we talk about how to give folks who feel disempowered and marginalized a powerful voice to make change. We’ve organized tenants to pressure deadbeat landlords and weak-kneed politicians. As a result, people feel connected and affirmed when we achieve progress and even when we don’t accomplish immediate success. Relationships with people we trust mediate the fear that prevents us from acting.
That’s the key. I am not isolated. I have people on my side. I have power. If only people had that trust and connection to their elected representatives or candidates for office. Too often, they don't. So, on election day, they stay home.
The protectors of unentitled power and profit know that fear and dashed hopes beget isolation and self-imposed powerlessness. Interests with lots of surplus cash want the rest of us to fear and blame one another lest we join together. If you are White, blame Blacks. If you are Black, blame Latinos. If you are heterosexual, blame LGTBQ folks. If you are middle-class, blame poor people. If you are born in the U.S., blame immigrants. On, and on. Democrats need to explicitly call out these blaming strategies. They need to tell voters to organize, not just for votes, but to pressure other politicians for justice and equity.
The people we talk to won’t vote for Trump. They know whose side he’s on. They get his awfulness and danger. But for many, between life’s daily difficulties and lack of enthusiasm for current Democrats, showing up to vote doesn’t seem worth the effort. Calling out the existential threat and accomplishments is necessary, but insufficient to bring enough folks to the polls to ensure a death of democracy-escaping margin of victory.
Grassroots issue organizers need to do the grunt work of engaging people to assert their power in the face of organized money–and of course, encourage folks to vote. But if elected politicians and would-be candidates don't step up, our encouragement will fall flat. First, Democrats need to vocally and continuously support local organizing. Second, if the only time they and their supporters knock on people's doors is in the days and week before an election, everyone will see transparent opportunism, not sincerity.
We are teetering on the razor-edge precipice. The election of Republicans will mean the end of our fragile, imperfect democracy and then the potential for organizing for change. All the campaign cash in the world won’t fight despair. Instead of trying to primary and defeat progressives, Democrats need to shout from the rooftops, “Organize! Join unions. Join community groups fighting for your rights. Pressure your elected officials!” That’s how to combat despair, eventually win elections, and stave off the fascist threat.
Arthur taught and led science professional learning and curriculum and assessment development projects for 50 yrs. He writes about education and social justice. He loves spending time with friends and family, hiking, and gardening.
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