We the people have the mandate
Photo by Nitish Meena on Unsplash
This month I knew I would write about the presidential election, but it’s been especially difficult to focus on something constructive to say.
I don’t usually know in advance what I’m going to write about, although I generally have several topics in mind depending on what’s happening in the news, conversations with friends, or just life events that inspire me to write something. After I decide on a topic, I often spend days thinking about the points I want to make and how to arrange those points in a cohesive essay of about a thousand words. Many of those ideas come to me while running, and I often write phrases and half-formed sentences in notes on my phone, or I copy links to related articles I come across for reference when I sit down to actually write this column.
Sometimes, with all of that preparation, the ideas flow and an essay takes shape in a few hours — although it often takes a slightly different direction than I anticipated. I’m terrible at dedicating a regular time for writing, and it is always difficult for me to focus enough to actually put it all together until I’m behind deadline (apologies and gratitude to my amazingly patient editor).
And then I thought about the supposed mandate to destroy our government.
I wrote my second column for Tumbleweird eight years ago this month. After the shock of Donald Trump’s 2016 electoral victory, I met with a conservative friend to try to understand why he had voted for Trump. I found that my friend and I wanted many of the same things for our country, but we differed on what we thought the government’s role should be. I believed that most of us want what’s best for America (and I still do). So, I wrote about trying to overcome the divisiveness in our politics and how, as fellow citizens, we should work together to achieve our common goals.
But polarization and divisiveness have only gotten worse, with the country more divided today than at any other time in my life. We no longer share a common reality, and objective truth seems impossible to find. It is clear to me from campaign promises and initial cabinet picks that MAGA Republicans want to remake our government in their image, abandoning the government of the people the founders set in motion. Project 2025 is already underway.
As the election results became clear on the night of November 5, I was disappointed but not shocked. As anger, frustration, and fear set in amongst friends, the media had instant analysis of what went wrong, who was to blame, and why America voted for Donald Trump. Grocery prices were certainly a factor, but so were immigration, culture wars, the fact that Kamala Harris is a woman, and the culmination of over a decade of anti-progressive rhetoric from right-wing media. White Christian nationalism and fascism were also certainly a factor, but I don’t believe that those positions represent a majority of Americans.
I’ll leave it to historians and political scientists to analyze the reasons behind election results. But no matter what those reasons are, I accept the fact that Donald Trump won the electoral college and will become the 47th president of the United States.
However, not all of America voted for Donald Trump. Although he received more votes than Kamala Harris, he received less than half of all the votes cast in this election. That means the majority actually voted for someone other than Trump. And with more than a third of registered voters not even bothering to vote, less than a third of eligible voters determined the outcome of this election.
Many Americans don’t believe our democracy can fail. They think that the Democratic talk about fears of fascism was just hyperbolic campaign rhetoric and that the constitutional protections against fascism are invincible. I even had a friend scoff at the idea that Donald Trump was a threat to democracy. But the threat is real, and all the more dangerous when our privilege and complacency allow our freedoms and protections to be taken away when we aren’t paying attention.
Republicans and the media claim voters have given Trump a mandate to do whatever he wants, but there has been no landslide, and the margin is razor thin.
There is no mandate for hate. There is no mandate to turn our backs on the marginalized. There is no mandate for racism, misogyny, transphobia, Islamophobia, and mass deportation of immigrants who are integral to our economy and our communities. There is no mandate to break down the wall between church and state or to use the government to favor one religion over any other. There is no mandate to undermine the Constitution of the United States — the constitution that vests the power of the government in the people. There is no mandate to concentrate that power among a few billionaires and autocrats.
We the people have the mandate to stand up to those who want to undo our progress toward a more perfect union. To give voice to the silenced, to demand justice for the oppressed, to protect the vulnerable, and to stand up against hate in all its forms. We the people have the mandate to make the government work for all of us.
But what power do we have to exercise our mandate?
We resist.
Nonviolent resistance is more powerful than any government that tries to take away the power of the people.
Through nonviolent resistance, suffragists earned the right for women to vote — not because the government wanted to grant them that right, but because the people demanded it. India won its independence from Britain, apartheid was abolished in South Africa, and the civil rights movement brought an end to a century of Jim Crow, largely through nonviolent resistance in the face of an often violent oppressor.
It seems counter-intuitive, but Erica Chenoweth, author of Civil Resistance: What Everyone Needs to Know, conducted an exhaustive study of violent and nonviolent movements throughout the twentieth century and found that nonviolent political activism was twice as likely to result in lasting change than violence. Nonviolent resistance works.
You are not alone. We are not alone. There are organizations at the local and national levels that work tirelessly for our rights and oppose those who would take them away.
The American Civil Liberties Union (aclu.org) is one example. Move On (moveon.org) is another. Indivisible (indivisible.org) has updated its guide on how to organize to protect democracy. There is even a local Indivisible group you can find on Facebook at INDIVISIBLE: Eastern Washington 3rd, 4th, and 5th CD.
Washington State and other Democrat-led state governments are more prepared than they were in 2016. In 2017, Washington led the way in legal challenges to illegal policies like the Muslim travel ban and was successful in dozens of challenges against the Trump administration that would have negatively impacted our state's citizens. Governor-elect Bob Ferguson and Attorney General-elect Nick Brown are ready.
Take the time you need to rest and recover, then reengage locally. Organizing works. This year, the local grassroots organization A Better Richland was able to put forth a voter initiative to change the way our city government is elected. That success shows that a small group of dedicated individuals can make a difference. Through community organizing at the local, state, and national levels, we have the ability to protect our nation from those who want to destroy our constitution for their own benefit.
Margaret Mead said, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”
Be part of the resistance. Support organizations in the way that works best for you. Speak up and get involved.
Don’t allow disillusionment or complacency to lull you into acquiescence. Stay woke.
Ted Miller grew up around the world but now lives in Richland with his wife. He’s a runner, actor, singer, nuclear engineer, and graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy.
Ted believes that if more people worked toward love and understanding instead of giving in to fear and divisiveness, the world would be a better place.