With less than five months until likely the most consequential election in American history, I’ve been trying to figure out what I can do to help save our democracy.

For a while, I considered going to a swing state like Pennsylvania or Arizona and working on the Biden re-election campaign. In which case, I would probably be making phone calls to prospective Democratic voters or going door-to-door. Neither of those motivated me. Nor did I believe my doing them would have any significant impact on the election.

Of course, I could send donations to the Biden campaign and other important races. And I am doing that. But again, I realized that my rather small donations would hardly make any meaningful difference.

That’s not to say that any of the above wouldn’t assist Biden and the Democrats. Every little bit helps advance their campaign toward victory.

Then, the other day I asked myself: what do I like doing that could potentially have some influence on the election? The answer that immediately came to me was working on policy. But what policy?

That same day I read Thomas Friedman’s piece in the NYT, American Leaders Should Stop Debasing Themselves on Israel. Friedman advocated:

“This is ultimatum time. Biden should be telling Israel that it should accept Hamas’s key demand: Totally end the war now and withdraw from Gaza in exchange for the return of all Israeli hostages. Israel cannot think straight while Hamas holds its people.”[1]

Having spent considerable time and energy on U.S. policy toward Israel, I felt Friedman’s article was calling to me. If Biden could get Israel to end the war, it would be a big boost to his re-election prospects.

While I have no illusions that I alone could affect U.S. policy in any area, here was something I believed was worth my time and that I would feel good doing. I have already attended two meetings of a local American Friends of Combatants for Peace committee (AFCFP) which is focused on influencing U.S. policy in the Middle East. One effort proposed at the last meeting was meeting with NM Sens. Heinrich and Lujan and encouraging them to urge the Administration to forcefully push for a permanent ceasefire. Though I had thought I would rather work on the elections than continue participating with this group, suddenly I saw it was my path to making a meaningful contribution to Biden’s re-election as well as to saving our democracy.

AFCFP raises awareness, builds community, and acts to advance the joint efforts of Israelis and Palestinians working for a just peace in Israel and Palestine.[2] If you are interested in joining this effort, email AFCFP at office@afcfp.org, or write to greggmanoff@yahoo.com in Santa Fe. And, if this project does not motivate you, with less than five months until the election, find something that does and start working now to save our democracy before it’s too late.

Bruce Berlin

A retired, public sector ethics attorney, Berlin is the author of Breaking Big Money’s Grip on America (See breakingbigmoneysgrip.com.), the founder of New Mexicans for Money Out of Politics, a former U.S. Institute of Peace fellow, and the founder and former executive director of The Trinity Forum for International Security and Conflict Resolution. He can be reached at breakingbigmoneysgrip@gmail.com.

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[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/18/opinion/netanyahu-gaza-congress.html

[2] https://www.afcfp.org/ourmovement