I have so many things I wanna talk with you about.
I wanna break down Eric Reid’s heated on the field confrontation with Michael Jenkins this past Sunday – which ended with Reid needing to be pulled away from Jenkins – who he later called a sellout in his post-game interview.
I wanna break down the latest developments in the murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi and exactly why Donald Trump continues to defend the Saudi Arabian men who murdered him.
I wanna break down the latest updates on several important cases of police brutality that have happened across the country, but all I really have time to talk with you about this morning is EARLY VOTING. Everything else is important, but nothing in the country is more important right now than EARLY VOTING.
Listen to me.
As of yesterday morning, 5 million Americans have already voted. 5 million! That’s a record this early in the game for midterm elections, but I’m concerned.
For the past few days I’ve studied those numbers, and in many states, it’s Republicans that are showing up in huge numbers. In Montana and Tennessee – where key Senate seats are up for grabs, Republicans are clearly winning the early voting battle. In Nevada, it’s close. In Georgia, where we’ve all been fighting so hard for Stacey Abrams, and where the entire state has conspired to make it damn near impossible for her to win, it’s close. Early voting results are neck and neck.
Early voting just started in Texas and parts of Florida. In Indiana it’s close. In Arizona it’s close.
But here is what I know. I’ve said it before and I will say it again.
It’d be great to win early voting in every single state. And the truth is I believe in every state where a Democrat wins early voting, that Democrat will win the entire election, because Democrats are going to show up big on Election Day, but here’s what I need you to understand.
We cannot afford to be demolished in Early Voting. I want us to win early voting in Georgia, but if we don’t win, it at least needs to be very, very close. I think we can actually win early voting in Florida, but if we don’t, it needs to be close, or else we are going to put ourselves in a very tough spot. The same not only goes for Texas, but goes for every single election across the country.
We have to treat every single day that passes for these next two weeks like each and every day is a mini-election day. It means that much. Let me keep it all the way real with you.
Right now Republicans control the House, the Senate, the Presidency, the Supreme Court, most governorships, and most state legislatures.
Do you understand what I’m saying? Outside of a few states and the city governments of some of our largest cities, we don’t have power right now.
And when we don’t have power, we can be railroaded any old kind of way. We have a chance in this election to give our nation it’s first Black woman governor. We have a chance to put Democrats in the majority in the House and Senate.
But let me tell you what’s also very possible – and I’m not just talking scare tactics here. If we don’t show up in huge numbers, Republicans could maintain and even grow their power in Congress, in state legislatures, in governorships, in DA’s offices.
We have two weeks to vote like our lives depend on it during early voting – and they do depend on it.
Let me close this morning with an important lesson I want to teach our listeners. I’m writing a book right now, and I unpack this lesson in an entire chapter in my book.
We often think because we are right, that we will win, but being right is not enough. Listen to me, we are on the right side of history when it comes to racism and voting rights and police brutality and justice and the ethical treatment of women and fair pay and healthcare for all – the things we are fighting for are right, and history will show that, but somewhere along the line we got the idea that being right was most of what we needed to win – and that’s just not true.
Now hear my heart, I’d rather be right and lose, than be an evil winner, but that doesn’t have to be the deal, we can be right, but we have to organize ourselves to victory. We have to vote ourselves to victory. We have to push and fight and donate our way to victory. And for these next two weeks until Election Day, it has to be all hands on deck, and maybe, just maybe, we can be right AND win something for a change.
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Shaun King: It Has To Be All Hands On Deck was originally published on blackamericaweb.com
