Happy first day of fall and, to all those with upcoming birthdays, happy Libra season! (It is very un-Libra of me to only take an interest in the signs when it is my own, but … oh well.)
True always, but especially when you VOTE!
Do you know what today is? It’s NATIONAL VOTER REGISTRATION DAY! So in case I haven’t hounded you enough, check your registration status HERE and make your voting plan now. (I am now registered in Texas and will be voting in person on Election Day.) Deadlines will approach faster than you think unless you’re in a state with same-day registration, so do not delay on this! The last thing you’d want is to look back on November 3 (or 4) and wish you’d done something now to have made your voice heard.
A little bit of light reading to go along with the day: The New York Times caught up with famed sociologist Robert Putnam to talk “Voting Alone.” (If you’ve heard the phrase “bowling alone” — likely in a sociology seminar — to describe the decline in America’s communal activities, he’s the man who penned it two decades ago.)
Lastly, if you want to really go the extra mile today, I’d recommend donating to the organization Register2Vote. This non-partisan civic group is working to register new voters in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Texas … and they claim they can reach an unregistered voter for just $2.
(This is not an explicitly partisan ask. If you think that it might be, I would simply ask that you spend a moment reflecting on this. What might it mean for the compatibility of your goals with the nature of democracy if their implementation is dependent on fewer people voting?)
Now, what you came for…
DAY 194: All In: The Fight for Democracy (available on Amazon Prime — and free to EVERYONE, including non-subscribers, today only)
Look, though it’s made by a team of Oscar-nominees, All In: The Fight for Democracy is not necessarily anything cutting-edge as a documentary. It’s a pretty standard, template-ready examination of the issue it covers: voting rights and the efforts to restrict it. Still, the history is so thorough and the case it makes for such an important issue that I would still gladly recommend giving it a watch in spite of the flaws.
All In bases its narrative around Stacey Abrams, the 2018 gubernatorial candidate in Georgia who was up against a system of disenfranchisement and gamesmanship as much as her actual opponent. She’s more like a guide and throughline running through the film than a protagonist, though I do think directors Liz Garbus and Lisa Cortes do occasionally mistake her for one. (Or maybe that’s just Amazon’s marketing department. Who can tell?) Her race serves as the film’s climax, largely because it’s a culmination of a long history of voter suppression, exclusion and intimidation that is endemic to the American story.
Abrams’ challenges serve as a reminder that these issues are not a thing of the past but very much still alive in our present. All In is best when it shows how history does not repeat itself but rather rhymes. Garbus and Cortes assemble a formidable panel of talking heads who help viewers identify the roots of voter suppression and thus recognize when the impulses emerge in the form of new laws. More than anything, the film makes a powerful case that your voice and your vote matter. If it didn’t, why would so many people put so much time and effort into trying to make it harder for you to exercise your civic duty and express your feelings?
Be good to yourselves and to each other,
Marshall