WEBVTT

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Why bother?

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The game is rigged.

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My vote won't count.

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The choices are terrible.

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Voting is for suckers.

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Perhaps you've thought
some of these things.

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Perhaps you've even said them.

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And if so, you wouldn't be alone,
and you wouldn't be entirely wrong.

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The game of public policy today
is rigged in many ways.

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How else would more than half
of federal tax breaks

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flow up to the wealthiest
five percent of Americans?

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And our choices indeed are often terrible.

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For many people
across the political spectrum,

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Exhibit A is the 2016
presidential election.

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But in any year, you can look
up and down the ballot

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and find plenty to be uninspired about.

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But in spite of all this,
I still believe voting matters.

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And crazy as it may sound,

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I believe we can revive the joy of voting.

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Today, I want to talk
about how we can do that, and why.

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There used to be a time
in American history when voting was fun,

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when it was much more than just
a grim duty to show up at the polls.

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That time is called
"most of American history."

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(Laughter)

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From the Revolution
to the Civil Rights Era,

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the United States had a vibrant,

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robustly participatory
and raucous culture of voting.

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It was street theater, open-air debates,
fasting and feasting and toasting,

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parades and bonfires.

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During the 19th century,
immigrants and urban political machines

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helped fuel this culture of voting.

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That culture grew with each
successive wave of new voters.

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During Reconstruction,
when new African-American voters,

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new African-American citizens,

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began to exercise their power,

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they celebrated in jubilee parades

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that connected emancipation
with their newfound right to vote.

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A few decades later, the suffragettes

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brought a spirit
of theatricality to their fight,

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marching together in white dresses
as they claimed the franchise.

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And the Civil Rights Movement,

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which sought to redeem
the promise of equal citizenship

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that had been betrayed by Jim Crow,

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put voting right at the center.

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From Freedom Summer to the march in Selma,

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that generation of activists
knew that voting matters,

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and they knew that spectacle
and the performance of power

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is key to actually claiming power.

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But it's been over a half century
since Selma and the Voting Rights Act,

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and in the decades since,

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this face-to-face culture of voting

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has just about disappeared.

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It's been killed by television

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and then the internet.

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The couch has replaced the commons.

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Screens have made
citizens into spectators.

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And while it's nice to share
political memes on social media,

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that's a rather quiet kind of citizenship.

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It's what the sociologist Sherry Turkle
calls "being alone together."

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What we need today

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is an electoral culture
that is about being together together,

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in person,

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in loud and passionate ways,

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so that instead of being
"eat your vegetables" or "do you duty,"

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voting can feel more like "join the club"

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or, better yet, "join the party."

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Imagine if we had,
across the country right now,

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in local places but nationwide,

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a concerted effort
to revive a face-to-face set of ways

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to engage and electioneer:

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outdoor shows in which candidates
and their causes are mocked

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and praised in broad satirical style;

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soapbox speeches by citizens;

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public debates held inside pubs;

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streets filled with political art
and handmade posters and murals;

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battle of the band concerts in which
competing performers rep their candidates.

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Now, all of this may sound
a little bit 18th century to you,

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but in fact, it doesn't have to be
any more 18th century

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than, say, Broadway's "Hamilton,"

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which is to say vibrantly contemporary.

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And the fact is that all around the world,

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today, millions of people
are voting like this.

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In India, elections are colorful,
communal affairs.

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In Brazil, election day
is a festive, carnival-type atmosphere.

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In Taiwan and Hong Kong,
there is a spectacle,

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eye-popping, eye-grabbing spectacle

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to the street theater of elections.

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You might ask, well,
here in America, who has time for this?

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And I would tell you

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that the average American
watches five hours of television a day.

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You might ask, who has the motivation?

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And I'll tell you,

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any citizen who wants to be seen and heard

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not as a prop, not as a talking point,

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but as a participant, as a creator.

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Well, how do we make this happen?

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Simply by making it happen.

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That's why a group of colleagues and I

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launched a new project
called "The Joy of Voting."

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In four cities across the United States --

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Philadelphia, Miami,

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Akron, Ohio, and Wichita, Kansas --

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we've gathered together
artists and activists,

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educators, political folks,
neighbors, everyday citizens

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to come together and create projects

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that can foster this culture
of voting in a local way.

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In Miami, that means
all-night parties with hot DJs

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where the only way to get in
is to show that you're registered to vote.

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In Akron, it means political plays

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being performed
in the bed of a flatbed truck

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that moves from neighborhood
to neighborhood.

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In Philadelphia,

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it's a voting-themed scavenger hunt
all throughout colonial old town.

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And in Wichita, it's making
mixtapes and live graffiti art

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in the North End to get out the vote.

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There are 20 of these projects,

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and they are remarkable
in their beauty and their diversity,

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and they are changing people.

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Let me tell you about a couple of them.

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In Miami, we've commissioned and artist,

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a young artist named Atomico,

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to create some vivid and vibrant images
for a new series of "I voted" stickers.

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But the thing is, Atomico had never voted.

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He wasn't even registered.

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So as he got to work on creating
this artwork for these stickers,

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he also began to get over
his sense of intimidation about politics.

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He got himself registered,

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and then he got educated
about the upcoming primary election,

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and on election day he was out there
not just passing out stickers,

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but chatting up voters
and encouraging people to vote,

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and talking about
the election with passersby.

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In Akron, a theater company
called the Wandering Aesthetics

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has been putting on
these pickup truck plays.

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And to do so, they put out
an open call to the public

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asking for speeches,
monologues, dialogues, poems,

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snippets of anything
that could be read aloud

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and woven into a performance.

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They got dozens of submissions.

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One of them was a poem

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written by nine students in an ESL class,

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all of them Hispanic migrant workers

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from nearby Hartville, Ohio.

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I want to read to you from this poem.

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It's called "The Joy of Voting."

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"I would like to vote for the first time

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because things are changing for Hispanics.

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I used to be afraid of ghosts.

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Now I am afraid of people.

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There's more violence and racism.

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Voting can change this.

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The border wall is nothing.

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It's just a wall.

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The wall of shame is something.

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It's very important to vote

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so we can break down this wall of shame.

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I have passion in my heart.

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Voting gives me a voice and power.

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I can stand up and do something."

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"The Joy of Voting" project
isn't just about joy.

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It's about this passion.

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It's about feeling and belief,

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and it isn't just our organization's work.

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All across this country right now,

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immigrants, young people, veterans,
people of all different backgrounds

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are coming together to create
this kind of passionate, joyful activity

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around elections,

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in red and blue states,
in urban and rural communities,

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people of every political background.

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What they have in common is simply this:

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their work is rooted in place.

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Because remember,
all citizenship is local.

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When politics becomes
just a presidential election,

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we yell and we scream at our screens,
and then we collapse, exhausted.

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But when politics is about us

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and our neighbors
and other people in our community

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coming together to create experiences
of collective voice and imagination,

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then we begin to remember
that this stuff matters.

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We begin to remember
that this is the stuff of self-government.

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Which brings me back to where I began.

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Why bother?

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There's one way to answer this question.

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Voting matters because it is
a self-fulfilling act of belief.

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It feeds the spirit of mutual interest
that makes any society thrive.

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When we vote, even if it is in anger,

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we are part of a collective,
creative leap of faith.

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Voting helps us generate
the very power that we wish we had.

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It's no accident
that democracy and theater

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emerged around the same time
in ancient Athens.

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Both of them yank the individual
out of the enclosure of her private self.

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Both of them create great
public experiences of shared ritual.

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Both of them bring the imagination to life

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in ways that remind us
that all of our bonds in the end

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are imagined, and can be reimagined.

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This moment right now,

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when we think about
the meaning of imagination,

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is so fundamentally important,

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and our ability to take that spirit

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and to take that sense

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that there is something greater out there,

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is not just a matter
of technical expertise.

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It's not just a matter of making the time
or having the know-how.

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It is a matter of spirit.

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But let me give you an answer
to this question, "Why bother?"

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that is maybe a little less spiritual
and a bit more pointed.

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Why bother voting?

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Because there is
no such thing as not voting.

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Not voting is voting,

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for everything that you
may detest and oppose.

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Not voting can be dressed up

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as an act of principled,
passive resistance,

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but in fact not voting

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is actively handing power over

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to those whose interests
are counter to your own,

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and those who would be very glad
to take advantage of your absence.

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Not voting is for suckers.

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Imagine where this country would be

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if all the folks who in 2010
created the Tea Party

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had decided that,
you know, politics is too messy,

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voting is too complicated.

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There is no possibility
of our votes adding up to anything.

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They didn't preemptively
silence themselves.

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They showed up,

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and in the course of showing up,
they changed American politics.

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Imagine if all of the followers
of Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders

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had decided not to upend
the political status quo

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and blow apart the frame
of the previously possible

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in American politics.

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They did that by voting.

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We live in a time right now,

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divided, often very dark,

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where across the left and the right,
there's a lot of talk of revolution

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and the need for revolution
to disrupt everyday democracy.

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Well, here's the thing:

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everyday democracy already
gives us a playbook for revolution.

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In the 2012 presidential election,

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young voters, Latino voters,

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Asian-American voters, low-income voters,

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all showed up at less than 50 percent.

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In the 2014 midterm elections,
turnout was 36 percent,

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which was a 70-year low.

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And in your average local election,

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turnout hovers
somewhere around 20 percent.

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I invite you to imagine 100 percent.

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Picture 100 percent.

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Mobilize 100 percent,

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and overnight, we get revolution.

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Overnight, the policy priorities
of this country change dramatically,

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and every level of government
becomes radically more responsive

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to all the people.

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What would it take
to mobilize 100 percent?

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Well, we do have to push back
against efforts afoot

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all across the country right now

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to make voting harder.

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But at the same time,

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we have to actively create
a positive culture of voting

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that people want to belong to,

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be part of, and experience together.

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We have to make purpose.

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We have to make joy.

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So yes, let's have that revolution,

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a revolution of spirit, of ideas,

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of policy and participation,

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a revolution against cynicism,

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a revolution against the self-fulfilling
sense of powerlessness.

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Let's vote this revolution into existence,

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and while we're at it,

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let's have some fun.

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Thank you very much.

NOTE Paragraph

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(Applause)