March To The Polls

Written by Stacey Khizder

January 20th was the first anniversary of Donald Trump's Presidency. Ironically, the U.S. government shutdown on the same day... but 'the people' didn't. 

On Saturday, the Women's March had its second debut. All over the country, people marched in support of intersectional feminist rights and in protest of the people, policies, and norms that divide us. In Washington D.C., people marched from the Lincoln Memorial to the White House. I was honored to be apart of that, and wore my 'Feminist as Fuck' hat with pride. 

The theme of this year's Women's March, "march to the polls", couldn't be more fitting. The government shutdown is the latest example of the importance of this year's midterm elections. 

While media heads and politicians point fingers at who's at fault for the shutdown, the reality is this: the Senate couldn't compromise on a bipartisan bill. Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, knew he wasn't going to get the mandatory 60 votes well before 11:59 on Friday night. With that, he and the rest of the Republican Senate could have negotiated a nonpartisan bill that comes up with an annual budget to avoid the shutdown, but they chose not to. As a result, the military will not be getting paid for their work. Meanwhile, time sensitive issues such as DACA, aid for disaster relief, the opioid epidemic, and many other crucial policies are not being addressed by the highest levels of American leadership. Although Donald Trump and right-wingers blame Democrats for not voting with the GOP, I applaud them for not settling for a bill that does not protect DREAMers, among other things. Republicans control all three branches of government, but their dysfunction results in failure to govern, lead, and compromise. 

The Women's March has drawn out millions of people to stand in solidarity for a day, but it is crucial that their activism doesn't stop there. Now, it's time to get out the vote for midterm elections. The current majority leadership in the House and the Senate work to pursue the GOP's disastrous, bigoted, and divisive agenda. 2018 will be the year the people vote bigots and moderate Democrats out, and will vote progressives in.

The resistance continues...