When January 1, 2020 arrives, we have less than eight weeks until early voting in the Texas primary election starts. After the primary, there will just be a few months before Election Day on Nov. 3 in which we can right the course of our country and build a government that works for all Americans. To that end, it will be essential for Democrats to work their circles to turn out the vote.

Get Involved

Below are a few ways you can get directly involved in grassroots political politics right where you live in Kyle and Buda.

1. Make sure your, friends, and families are registered. Use www.register2vote.org to check registration status and help others get registered.
2. Become a Volunteer Deputy Registrar (VDR) so you can personally register people to vote.
3. Use Map the Vote to find neighbors who are not registered to vote, and then go knock on their doors and offer to register them (or leave them a mail-in registration form if you aren’t a VDR).
4. Join a grassroots group like Kyle/Buda-Area Democrats www.joinkbad.com and contact your Hays County Democratic Party precinct chair to find out how you can assist in your neighborhood.
5. Sign up to be a KBAD Volunteer Superhero by filling out our survey linked here.
6. Vote early and vote the entire ballot.
7. Take your friends and family members to vote.

Avoiding political hobbyism

Getting involved in groups like KBAD is your best way to avoid the infatuation with the national political drama and truly make a difference in your community that can add up to the political power needed to improve our everyday lives.

Eitan Hersh warns about the dangers of political hobbyism in his upcoming book, Politics Is for Power: How to Move Beyond Political Hobbyism, Take Action, and Make Real Change:

 

"A third of Americans say they spend two hours or more each day on politics. Of these people, four out of five say that NOT one minute of that time is spent on any kind of real political work. It is all TV news and podcasts and radio shows and social media and cheering and booing and complaining to friends and family."

 

Instead of falling into the trap of political hobbyism we can “roll up (our) sleeves and, slowly and steadily, achieve modest political goals,” as Hersh says. And with many other small groups like KBAD working together, it can all add up to winning political power that will enable us to achieve our policy goals at the local, state and national level.

 

"Remarkable Americans across the country are currently coming together to do just that, and they are making strides for their vision of what ought to be. In many cases, these volunteers are spending the same amount of time on politics as the hobbyists, but the volunteers are redirecting their political energy toward serving the material and emotional needs of their neighbors. If the typical engaged voters found meaning and pride in organizing ten, twenty, or a hundred voters instead of in dissecting the latest Washington controversy, they too would find redemption in politics as a service to others, a form of politics where participants get power to improve their communities, present and future."

 

Politics is for Power by Eitan Hersh will be released January 14, 2020.

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This post was inspired by a Facebook post by a fellow action-oriented Democratic club Blue Action Dems based in southwest Austin.

Sign up below to get involved with KBAD