Between phone calls, texts, advertisements and signs on the road, there’s no running from it. You know, without a doubt, it’s an election year.
You can’t escape it either. Trying to scroll on TikTok? Here comes a Kamala HQ post to some trendy song. Trying to take a drive to clear your head? Oh look, there’s signage on every corner for Kari Lake, Kirsten Engel, Raúl Grijalva, Ravi Shah — you name it, they’re gonna be there. Trying to watch your favorite TV show on cable or Hulu? Here comes a commercial about “Border Czar” Kamala Harris or “danger to democracy” Donald Trump. It never ends.
According to Axios, during the 2022 midterm election, Americans received over 15 billion political texts, and this year it’s gearing to be even more.
The messaging is very clear and borderline overt. This election (just like the last two elections) is a “fight for our democracy” according to the Detroit News.
But why does all this fighting only want to appear during an election year? Is our precious democracy not important enough to fight for in odd years? Where was the overwhelming messaging in 2023, 2021, 2019 or even 2017? Why is it that everyone touts their civic duty and wants to use their voice only once every 4 years? What about the rest of the time?
While the easy answer is obviously that presidential elections are every 4 years and that’s why everything starts up so suddenly around these times, I think it’s deeper than that.
We can’t just rally the troops and head to the polls once every 4 years and then wash our hands of politics until the next election year rolls around because once we elect these people, they hold these jobs for years.
It’s up to us to keep caring outside of just casting our ballot. We have to care who is on our board of supervisors, who our mayor is or who our sheriff is, and we have to hold them accountable while they are in office.
We have to watch what they do during their term when their names aren’t appearing on ballots. We have to see if they’re following through on promises made to constituents. We have to watch their work.
Your activism and rallying and effort should not end after Nov. 5. You should continue to be politically active, civically engaged and watch what these elected officials up and down the ballot do once they get your vote.
According to a Global Citizen article, this idea is put simply as, “Civic engagement is about acting in ways that benefit your community. The outcome of an election has serious implications for the welfare of a community, which is why voting is so important. But as [Election Day] comes and goes, you can carry the energy and momentum that surrounds voting into other parts of your life.”
There is so much more to civic engagement than voting and washing your hands of everything. There are still responsibilities placed upon you as a member of your community.
Civic engagement doesn’t have to end at the ballot box. If there’s a proposition you care about, whether it passes or fails, join a community group about the issue.
Do you care about abortion and Proposition 139? Get involved with the Tucson Abortion Support Collective. They’ll be around after the election.
Do you care about immigration and Proposition 314? Get involved with Chicanos por la Causa and their immigration services. They’ll also be around after the election.
Do you care about tipped workers and care about Proposition 138? Get involved with the Common Sense Institute for Arizona. They too will be around after the election.
There is so much more to activism and civic engagement than just one day in November.
It’s up to you to communicate that with your community and continue the work year-round, not just in an election year.
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Kiara Adams is a senior at the University of Arizona studying journalism with a minor in government and public policy. Kiara currently serves as one of the Social Media Coordinators for the Daily Wildcat staff managing all of the Daily Wildcat‘s social media including Instagram, X and Facebook. Kiara has reporting experience with local news services, including Arizona Luminaria and the Daily Wildcat, as well as reporting experience in her hometown paper the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Outside of the Daily Wildcat, Kiara spends her time reading, watching movies or hanging out with friends!