Why We Need to Start Ramping Up for 2024 Right Now

It’s Time

This summer has been a summer of burnout. So many folks in my online communities and in real life are struggling with feeling overwhelmed, stuck or grief-stricken in the wake of the ongoing impact of the pandemic.

It’s been important, as I wrote earlier this year and as I recently discussed at Netroots Nation, to work to heal from and combat burnout in real time.

However, the time for a pause is coming to a close, because we are now just six short months from the first presidential primaries.

The landscape of what we will be facing in 2024 is constantly shifting right now. Looming indictments, crash-and-burn campaigns (hello, DeSantis) and Republicans who have changed their tune on Trump have made the Republican field completely up for grabs come next year.

Despite that, there are strategies that we can implement now to get ready for what’s ahead, no matter who the Republican nominee will be by next summer.

Here’s how to get started.

Brush Up On Your Deep Canvassing Strategies

Deep canvassing has been a part of the progressive playbook for three election cycles now, and it’s time to dust off its use. Remember that every interaction you have outside your home is an opportunity to apply deep canvassing in conversation, and it’s more important now than ever to make sure you know how to do it in real time.

Indivisible has a training program on Deep Canvassing that you can watch from anywhere. Make sure you know how to talk to your friends and neighbors about what’s at stake in 2024.

Talk About the Issues You Care About Online and in Real Life

Dovetailing with Deep Canvassing is the importance of raising awareness about critical issues that will be on the table in 2024. Climate change, trans rights and safety, abortion rights, birth control, LGBTQ+ rights, freedom from gun violence, education, and so many other arenas are under threat.

Get loud about why the issues you care about matter so much. Use your voice to advocate, educate, and uplift.

Advocate From a Place of Hope, and Emphasize Wins

Given how many of us have been struggling with burnout, it’s important to not be doom and gloom all the time. Make sure that when you are advocating on issues you care about, you emphasize that together, we can create the change we seek.

Particularly, it’s important right now to seed hope concerning the new labor movement. As more and more unions strike for better pay and better working conditions, real change becomes possible across our entire society.

It’s also important to emphasize wins. A record number of diverse judges have been appointed to the federal bench under the Biden Administration. Voting rights are moving in a positive direction given recent redistricting rulings. The passage of infrastructure legislation has led to historic repair to critical roadways recently in places like Philadelphia. Ballot initiatives on abortion are winning at the state level.

Find hope and tout success wherever you can, as it will increase the investment and energy in our efforts in 2024.

Don’t Forget to Get Local

Lastly, as we have seen a massive uptick in fascist, anti-trans, anti-Black and anti-democratic legislation in Republican-led states, it’s important to never neglect your local elections. 

School board elections in particular are absolutely critical sites to fight for progressive candidates and values right now, as hate groups like Moms for Liberty try to overtake local education. City and county councils, which govern so much of our daily lives, are also being targeted by far right candidates.

Make sure you and your neighbors know what’s going on where you live, and are informed about local candidates and their plans. Trojan horse candidates who appear to be democrats but are not are even getting on the ballot in some states, so go deep in your research and don’t forget to tell your local newspaper or media source if you uncover something troubling.

It’s on all of us to make sure democracy survives in 2024. Time to get back to work!