Jason,
I have struggled to come to terms with the latest examples of the injustice of America. The murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery — and so many more killed by those who were sworn to serve and protect them — beg the question, can we ever become the country we've told ourselves, and the rest of the world, that we are? A country where all are equal under law? A just country?
This is what I was thinking about as I addressed the Texas Democratic Convention today. How do we make it? What cause do we have for hope in these very dark days of injustice, revealed not only by police brutality, but by the disproportionate burden that African Americans, Native Americans and Latinos have borne in fighting the pandemic and its economic consequences?
The answer, in part, is our willingness to band together to change the status quo of our government, from the courthouse, to the State House to the White House. Grieving and protesting are essential, but we must also take political action. Register to vote in record numbers, vote in record numbers, and elect representatives who will focus on and implement policies of reform and justice in record numbers.
I have hope because we are not impotent in the face of this injustice.
This past Monday more than 2,500 people signed up for our phone bank to reach unregistered voters in Texas and help them register to vote. We made over 210,000 phone calls. If we keep this up, we will help bring hundreds of thousands of new voters into this next election. They are the ones who will elect majorities to their commissioners courts and city councils that will reform local police forces and ensure more equitable investment in their communities. They are the voters who will elect a Democratic majority to the Texas Legislature for the first time in 20 years - a majority that will fight to change decades of racial gerrymandering and work for criminal justice reform.
And they are the ones, if we meet our goals of registering every likely Democrat in this state, who will award our 38 electoral votes to the Democratic nominee for President for the first time since 1976. That will be seismic. And it will guarantee, unlike anything else or any other state, that Donald Trump will not serve another term in office. Joe Biden will be our next President and with the help of every single one of us (supporting him and holding him accountable) he will help to usher in an era of true justice in this country.
This kind of action — doing the hard work that will decide the future of our state and country — gives me hope.
It is the antidote to despair and the key to victory.
Beto
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