With less than three months until the 2020 Election, it can be hard to do the daily work of maintaining our democracy during a pandemic. But on days where the notable white supremacist Steve Bannon, who has been “at sea” for several weeks, gets arrested on accounts of fraud and money laundering by a US Postal Service agent, it can be hard not to waste several days gloating at the uncanny irony of the whole thing. Here’s how to stay focused on what really matters in spite of how hilarious this shit is:
Focus on your local down-ballot races.
Even though one of America’s biggest assholes just got arrested for stealing money from a Gofundme to build Trump’s border wall, which was a fucking insane thing to begin with, try donating some time or money to your local progressive candidate. While this story dominates the news cycle (And honestly, can you even blame the news? This is hilarious.), your local candidates are working hard to push a meaningful agenda in Congress next term. Then you can take a break and have a good laugh again.
Sign up to phone bank in a contested state.
Phone banking is a great way to connect with voters during a pandemic – you don’t even need to go door-to-door! Anyway, it would be hard to look someone in the eye and not say, “Can you believe Steve Bannon got arrested by, of all people, the USPS? Did somebody script this shit, cause it’s a little too on-the-nose, right? RIGHT??” That attitude typically doesn’t sway voters, so phone banking can help you stick to a simple script.
Encourage friends and family to mail in their ballots early.
This might remind you of the whole Postal Service part again, so be mindful of that and take a break if you start thinking about him looking like a piece of rotting leather too hard. Email your friends and family with simple instructions on how to mail in their ballots early, based on their locality, to help improve voter turn-out while keeping people safe. Doing simple state-by-state research will help keep you from making several bad Twitter hot takes that will do nothing to save this election.
It may not be easy on days like this, but remain vigilant in not spending hours and hours thinking endlessly on how deeply hilarious it is that Trump’s most evil shill was arrested on a boat by an agent of the very public service Trump is trying to defund. Now get out there and stop thinking about it!
