Why Vote?
Every Election Counts
Every Vote Matters
When the outcome of an election has the potential to influence the direction of a whole society for a generation or more, the stakes are too high to ignore. And the stakes are especially high for African Americans this year, both at the national and state level.
The results of 2016 have shown us that we cannot ever afford to be complacent! As always, corporate special interests and voter-suppression schemes are threatening to drown out working Americans’ voices at the ballot box– especially in a midterm election when voter turnout is low.
Politics represents a fundamental choice between two widely divergent visions of America. One vision looks backward with a nostalgia borne of tax cuts for the wealthy and “austerity” for everyone else. The other vision, championed by President Obama despite roadblock after roadblock from Congress, looks forward to an America in which all of us share in the nation’s promise of opportunity and societal obligations. This vision—our vision—believes that government is an important defender of middle-class living standards and a protector of the most vulnerable segments of society: children, the disabled, the poor and the elderly, and veterans, especially African Americans, returning from America’s longest wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
In California, voters overwhelmingly supported the re-election of the President and the election of Hillary Clinton. But we have a much tougher fight on the state level to protect education, public safety and the very right of working Californians to have an equal say in the political process.
Because we have inherited a long and proud LEGACY of civic engagement from those who fought to win for us the right to vote and the ability to defend our political interests at the ballot box.
Because in 2008 and 2012 we stood up and said, “YES WE CAN!” And we did. Today, we rise together to say, “NOW WE MUST!”