Today, the right to vote is being suppressed and eroded in many states across the U.S. Amidst a cloud of hateful bigotry and lies about stolen elections, we are being led right to the edge of rebellion against democracy itself.
Politicians threatened by the shift toward a more Democratic electorate are reverting to the types of tools that limit access to political power – enacting restrictive voter ID laws, purging voter rolls, and blocking voting-by-mail during a global pandemic.
Watching our work erode in the face of new voter suppression laws should be beyond painful for our cohort. We fought for the protection of voting rights, and we continue to vote more than any other age group — people over 60 were about 50% more likely to cast a ballot in 2020 than those ages 18-29.
We can and should channel that resolve. As a first line of defense of democracy, we need to strengthen voting rights, so that all people can play an equal role in making the decisions we must make as a nation.
