I’m a climate voter. I also care deeply about many other issues — social justice, the fate of our democracy, economic inequality, war and peace — but without a livable planet, all those issues are moot. That said, we can’t have effective action on climate if those issues aren’t dealt with. So I’m an “all-in” Democratic voter.
It’s no secret that the extremists who now control the Republican Party are vehemently opposed to ending our addiction to fossil fuels, the main culprits in the climate crisis. Even before the rise of Donald Trump, diplomats who forged the Paris Accords cited the U.S. Republican Party as the most serious obstacle in the world to climate progress. That’s why those accords were not a binding treaty — they knew it would never be ratified by the Senate.
When Trump won in 2016, I knew the only way to climate progress lay in defeating the Republicans. I joined a new organization, Swing Left, and helped organize its first campaign to win back the U.S. House of Representatives. In 2018, we did that, and two years later we saw Trump defeated. But in those four years, Trump and his allies did everything they could to scuttle climate action. That included stacking the federal courts — including the Supreme Court — with far right “conservatives” who would block governmental efforts to prevent climate catastrophe.
We’re still playing catch-up, even with the passage of the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act, which contains the biggest piece of climate legislation in decades. And the Republicans are now saying that they will block all of Biden’s programs if they retake Congress in the upcoming midterm elections. Even worse, they threaten to take control of the election process itself in several swing states, which could end up throwing the 2024 presidential election to their candidate — probably Donald Trump — regardless of the popular vote in those states. What will happen to progress on climate action then?
If you’re worried about climate change — the wildfires, super-storms, droughts, floods, and climate refugees — please vote like the life of the planet is on the ballot: because it is. Massachusetts is a leader in working toward a fossil-fuel-free future. We need to keep up that momentum, but voting here isn’t enough. If you have relatives or friends in key swing states like Pennsylvania, Georgia, Wisconsin, North Carolina, Arizona and Nevada, please contact them and urge them to vote for the straight Democratic ticket. If you know someone in Utah, urge them to vote for Evan McMullin for the Senate, the independent challenging ultra-right Republican Mike Lee. Ask your friends everywhere to support Democratic candidates for the House.
In the 2018 midterms, a huge turnout of voters concerned about Republican extremism gave us the votes to flip the House. Now it’s time to keep the Congress Democratic and begin flipping Republican-dominated state governments. Let’s save our democracy so that we can save progress on climate.
Michael Dover is a member of the steering committee of Indivisible Northampton — Swing Left Western Massachusetts.