With just a week to go before the mid-term elections, American democracy is on the ballot.

Five hundred and fifty-two Republicans are running for House, Senate, governor, secretary of state and attorney general across the country. Close to 40% (199 out of 552) of them fully deny the legitimacy of the 2020 election. According to FiveThirtyEight, these election deniers have a 95% chance of winning.[1]

Since the beginning of 2021, twenty-one states have passed forty-two restrictive voting laws.[2] While Republicans claim these laws protect the integrity of our elections, they know that making it more difficult to vote increases their chances of winning. And for the GOP, it’s all about winning and power. Whatever it takes to regain control of the government, Republicans are willing to do, whether it’s gerrymandering, voter suppression, voter intimidation, insurrection, you name it. Democracy be damned!

So, in this last week of the election, it all comes down to getting out the vote. According to the polls, there are a good number of close races which will decide control of the Senate. Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin are all neck and neck. Whatever you can do to help the Democratic candidate in these contests could make the difference. It’s not too late.

While the Republicans appear to be winning the House of Representatives, limiting their margin of victory to a small number will be important. In fact, some believe that the Democrats can still hold the House.

While you may not be a fan of film-maker Michael Moore, he is a strong advocate of democracy. Moore believes the Dems can still win. Here’s what he is doing to get out the vote. And he is asking us to pitch-in as well:

“To win, to make sure our large majority of climate-believing, reproductive rights-supporting, anti-capitalist-fighting, mass incarceration-liberating, voter suppression-smashing, universal health care-providing, union-organizing, affordable housing-creating and soon-to-be victors over the Republican Party — all of us MUST step it up in these final 8 days if we are going to pull off the upset of upsets and send the politically illiterate pundits and election-denying party hacks packing! Once and for all!

“I, too, must do more. While I can’t fly to a dozen states and go door-to-door with each of you this week, I can do the next best thing:  I can personally call your still-undecided brother-in-law and convince him to vote with us. Or your aunt who gave up voting a decade ago. Or your close friend that agrees with us but can’t stand Biden. That’s ok — let me talk to them. If you send me their phone number, I’ll try to call as many as I can every day for the next 8 days. I’ll listen to them and then I’ll do my best to convince them to join us. We’ve got nothing to lose here and everything to gain, one vote at a time….

“If you want me to call a relative or friend to convince them to vote, send me a private email to: MikesMidtermCalls@gmail.com with her/his/their name and number, what your relationship is to them (sister, brother, son, daughter, etc.), and the best time to call. NOTE: As I expect to receive a few thousand requests, I will only be able to do just so many calls…But it’ll be fun — and I think I can bring a few people along with us.

“I’m looking forward to joining with as many of you as possible…

“Let’s do this my friends! Time is running out. The hard work — convincing the vast majority of Americans to side with us on nearly all the major issues — that work is already done! They already do! Now all we have to do is get them to the polls! Easy-peasy! There’s at least 20 million more of us than the Republicans. I mean, talk about having a huge lead! Let’s not blow it. Let’s not fail and embarrass ourselves because we couldn’t get a voter 2 miles to the voting booth! 

“Let’s go! Let’s do this!”[3]

If you don’t think Moore is the right person to make that call, do it yourself. I’m calling my high school friend, Don. Who are you going to call? Together, we can make history!

Bruce Berlin, J.D.

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.

Subscribe to this blog at https://breakingbigmoneysgrip.com/my-blog-3/. Join the movement to revive our democracy. Together we can save the soul of America.

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[1] https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/republicans-trump-election-fraud/

[2] https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/voting-laws-roundup-october-2022

[3] https://www.michaelmoore.com/p/mikes-midterm-tsunami-truth-33