Less books and more votes

Mother Jones said farmers ought to raise less corn and more hell. But just what kind of hell should we be raising?

In an independent bookstore today on the boardwalk at Venice, I saw an entire table with towering piles of books of all shapes and sizes that detail the many crimes of the Bush administration and the urgency of defeating him on November 2. Several times now, in various bookstores, I've found myself impressed with the array of books that Bush-haters have written - and yet slightly concerned.

An Amazon search will even turn up a list or two, and there are even an oversupply of anti-Bush t-shirts (I myself just bought one that says "Fuck Bush"). Many have noted in the media that political books are hotter than ever this year, but I have serious doubts that many swing voters will be reading The I Hate George W. Bush Reader. Why is so much energy being devoted to mastering the genre of the anti-Bush manifesto? Why is there not more marching in the streets? Why aren't we all going down to bus stops every weekend with fliers to chat up random strangers about what Bush means to us?

Somewhat more promising are such interventions as Fahrenheit 9/11 and more recently Outfoxed, both of which have been much more widely distributed than expected and may actually reach a few of those mysterious people in Ohio, Florida, Michigan, and Pennsylvania who have not yet been polarized, and yet somehow might bother to go to the polls on November 2.

More promising still, though, are the numerous grass-roots efforts to protect the right to vote all across America. In an unprecedentedly polarized race, turning out one's base is going to make the difference, period. So we should all give our time to the Advancement Project, Right to Vote, and the Election Reform Information Project, as well as revitalized efforts by more established groups. And it's very very critical that John Kerry continue, as he has begun to do, to tell the public that he and his legal team will insure that every vote will be counted. (And he better mean it, too.) This message must be heard above all by African Americans, who were so egregiously disenfranchised in Florida four years ago and at so many other times in this country's history, but also by all Americans who've lost faith in the electoral process.