This is it: One month to D-Day! That's "Dump Bush Day," November 2nd.
It's now time to roll up our sleeves -- each and every one of us -- and get to work. There will be nearly 10 million of you who will read this letter either on my list or on my site. An army of ten million cannot be defeated! The time for hitting the snooze button has passed, voter registration deadlines start Monday and we only get one shot at this!!!
My plan is simple. Will you join me in the following?
1. REGISTER FIVE PEOPLE TO VOTE THIS WEEKEND. There are only a few days left in most states before voter registration is cut off. Keep asking like-minded people you know if they are registered. If they are not, take them to this website where you can show them where they need to go to get registered. Offer to take them there yourself. Take them to lunch afterward! If you can, pick up registration forms from your local city or county clerk (or get them from you local Democratic Party or Kerry HQ). Carry them with you everywhere you go. Hook up with local groups standing outside shopping centers and events this weekend or Monday or Tuesday and register people there. Nothing is more critical in the next 48 to 72 hours than to get our people registered. The wealthy and the conservatives are already registered -- the poor, the single moms, the recent transplants to your town are not. And neither are students and young adults (check local and state laws, some of which make it very hard for college students to register and vote). VOTER REGISTRATION ENDS ON MONDAY IN Arkansas, Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Indiana, Kentucky, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas and Virginia. Make no mistake, if you live in any of these states – realize now that WHAT YOU DO OR DON’T DO THIS WEEKEND will have an effect on this election!!!
2. CALL AND VOLUNTEER NOW. There is nothing more important in the next 31 days than spending whatever free time you have working to remove George W. Bush from the White House. Again, call the local Democratic Party HQ or the local Kerry HQ or the ACT office and say you want to help. They will put you to work making calls, going door to door, putting up yard signs, lining up rides on Election Day for senior citizens, etc. Removing Bush and electing Kerry will require physical labor on all our parts. We just can't sit home and wish it to happen. (A Warning: Some local Dem HQs are not always as organized as you would hope them to be. If you call and they don't have it together, don't get discouraged. Just move on to my next point, #3...)
3. START YOUR OWN KERRY CAMPAIGN HEADQUARTERS! If the Dems don't have it together in your area, don't complain, just take matters into your own hands and run your own campaign for Kerry. Or, even if there is a strong Kerry presence in your county seat, there still may not be in the outlying areas where you live. There's nothing wrong with you and your friends saying, "OK, today we inaugurate the Kerry HQ here in Hooterville...or Kurt Cobain High...or Dorm Building 5!" If you can't get signs or leaflets, make your own! Don't wait for someone to do it, otherwise it won't get done. Send me pictures of your own renegade Elect Kerry/Dump Bush HQ and I will put them up on my site!
4. IF YOU DON'T LIVE IN A SWING STATE, GO THERE AND START SWINGING. Virtually everyone in this country lives within driving distance of one of the 20 battleground states where the election will be close. Pick one weekend this month and go on a fall color tour to dump Bush. Pack up the kids or the neighbors, pick a town -- any town -- in your nearest swing state, reserve a room at the local Motel 6 and hit the road! Volunteer online or call ahead to the local party HQ to say you are coming and you want them to put you to work (again, if there is no one there to put you to work, make your own handbills, print out a thousand of them, and just show up in Anywhere, Ohio and start going door to door). There are other groups doing work in the swing states that you can hook-up with, like ACT and Driving Votes who could really use your help getting out the vote. You don't have to feel left out of this election just because you live in New York or California or Illinois or any of the other 29 states the candidates won't be visiting. Take matters into your own hands. Think of what a great educational experience it will be for your kids -- or yourself. JUST ONE WEEKEND THIS MONTH -- PLAN IT NOW!
5. TAKE OFF WORK OR SCHOOL NOVEMBER 2. We need everyone working the polls, the phones, the neighborhoods from dawn to dusk. Poll watchers are needed to make sure there is no cheating. Help is needed in all 50 states and you can do it from home or you can park yourself in a swing state for the day.
There you have it. Five Simple Steps. I’ll be doing my part as I travel the country to the 20 swing states. Please join with me in this effort. Kerry is doing his part, he won the first debate (stop the kvetching...of course YOU would have done a better job! But YOU'RE not running for president! He beat Bush...Bush must go!!). Remember, what's at stake in this election is bigger than John Kerry, bigger than political parties and all the other noise that accompanies politicians and their elections. This is about that mother from Flint, Michigan -- and all the other mothers from all the other towns in America -- who have lost and WILL LOSE their sons and daughters in Bush’s never-ending war in Iraq.
Please, put aside whatever keeps you from jumping in to do the necessary work to remove George W. Bush from office. This can only be accomplished when you, right now, stop reading this letter and make that call (or click that mouse) to get involved.
Thanks so much...
Michael Moore
mmflint@aol.com
www.michaelmoore.com
www.michaelmoore.com/takeaction/vote/
P.S. If you are having trouble registering or voting, call 1-866-OUR-VOTE.
P.P.S. If you have a chance to see Going Upriver, the great new documentary about John Kerry in theaters this week, do so!
