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- Election Eve
Welcome to the LDS Democracy Network’s Newsletter. (Sent to you by a friend? Subscribe here!)
🏈 It’s officially November, which means we’re officially in Hail Mary land.
And just like no one likes the baker who gives up before the clock runs out on a cooking competition show, we might be looking at the clock but we can still do things! Minds can still be won. Votes can still be cast. Logistics can still be figured out. Registrations can still be confirmed. And early submitted ballots can still be tracked.
You can also take a moment to read this newsletter. Lots of hope below! We look at the landscape of the Latter-day vote in the final days of the campaign. If there are things here you want to share with your friends and family threads and social media platforms, we encourage you to do so as well, always in the spirit of positivity and optimism! Let’s get out the vote for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz!
Of good report
If you haven’t seen this powerful piece making the rounds on your feeds yet, now is the time to take a moment to read this well-reasoned case for Latter-day Saints to joyfully, enthusiastically, and faithfully vote FOR Kamala Harris, and not only against Trump. Kamala Harris and the issues she’s running on represent so many issues that Latter-day Saints care so deeply about. A vote for Kamala is a vote for democracy, decency, and religious freedom.
Context matters
In The Atlantic, McKay Coppins—LDS writer and reporter covering Romney and the Republican Party in the era of Trump—took a close look at the prayers offered at Trump rallies over the course of the campaign. It’s as enlightening an analysis as it is alarming. As Coppins writes, he wanted to “examine the theological motifs that run through them.” Spoiler alert, it’s not a comfortable read, but one that may open the eyes of someone you know who is finally wavering in their support for Trump. Share wisely.
Out of the best books
Political books are often a tool candidates use to take ample time and space to establish who they are and express their foundational beliefs on the America they seek to lead. Here’s an excerpt from Kamala Harris’s book “The Truths We Hold: An American Journey”
In the years since, we’ve seen an administration align itself with white supremacists at home and cozy up to dictators abroad; rip babies from their mothers’ arms in grotesque violation of their human rights; give corporations and the wealthy huge tax cuts while ignoring the middle class; derail our fight against climate change; sabotage health care and imperil a woman’s right to control her own body; all while lashing out at seemingly everything and everyone, including the very idea of a free and independent press. We are better than this. Americans know we’re better than this. But we’re going to have to prove it. We’re going to have to fight for it. On July 4, 1992, one of my heroes and inspirations, Thurgood Marshall, gave a speech that deeply resonates today. “We cannot play ostrich,” he said. “Democracy just cannot flourish amid fear. Liberty cannot bloom amid hate. Justice cannot take root amid rage. America must get to work. We must dissent from the indifference. We must dissent from the apathy. We must dissent from the fear, the hatred, and the mistrust.”
Ward newsletter
Former US Senator (R-Arizona) and Ambassador to Turkey Jeff Flake recently shared in an interview with MSNBC why he is voting for Kamala Harris:
“I’m voting for Kamala Harris not in spite of being a Republican or a conservative, but because I’m a conservative. Conservatives first and foremost believe in the rule of law. And to have a former president who lost a free and fair election then attempted to overturn that election-How can any conservative support such a person?”
He’s since made headlines for speaking at a Get Out The Vote event for Vice President Harris in Arizona.
Every ward is a diverse array of folks, so it stands to reason that some of our brothers and sisters are also being courted by the opposition. But what happens when that opposition keeps fumbling the ball? Please enjoy this story (gift link!), also from McKay Coppins, about how the Latter-day Saints for Trump group can’t seem to strike a resonant chord as every appeal to organize the LDS vote is a certifiable fumble, sometimes hilariously so.
Of our own free will
With the election just a few days away, tens of millions of Americans have already voted. If you haven’t, it’s time to make your plan now for when and where you plan on casting your ballot. Double check where your polling location is, review the down-ballot candidates in your area and vote as early in the day as you can! IWillVote.com is a great resource for all of your voting needs!
Want to do even more?
A major part of breaking the traditional choke-hold that conservatism has on LDS culture is proclaiming that you joyfully and faithfully embrace something different. This engages in a kind of cultural permission-granting that allows others in your network who may, for the first time, be challenging the political status quo they’ve accepted all their lives.
One more praiseworthy thing
A recently returned mission president took to the Deseret News to pen an opinion on the lament he had coming back to the States after being largely checked out of the American political story for three years only to find that what he heard concerning whispers of in South America were confirmed in a spectacular display of division and indecency. The perspective he provides by showing how his friends in other nations are viewing this election with heavy concern makes this an especially provocative and powerful piece. Please read and share this article from Dave Cook.