Preparing for Tuesday
What you need to know and share
If you’re following the news, you know that Trump has been working overtime to spread election lies to set the stage to contest the results of the election if he doesn’t win. Experts are warning of the threat of political violence surging in the aftermath of the election. The International Crisis Group has issued a detailed study of risks of violence around the 2024 election.
Sadly, some Christians themselves are fueling the lies and preparing to disrupt a free and fair election.
Just last week, PRRI released disturbing data on authoritarianism and levels of acceptance of political violence, including among American Christians.
More than one in five Christian nationalism adherents/sympathizers believe that if Trump is not declared the winner, he should do whatever it takes to assume the presidency.
All this is sobering.
Rather than stewing in anxiety, the best thing to do is to prepare for various scenarios. The purpose of political violence is to instill fear to prevent people from speaking out and disrupting their goals. The best antidote is preparation: knowing what to expect, accessing reliable sources of information, and equipping yourself to act.
Several incredible groups and organizations have been working for months—some for years now—to equip and prepare us for any number of scenarios.
It’s up to us to make use of these resources and make sure that as many Americans have access to these materials as possible.
I’ll be sharing some of the most essential resources here, and I’d ask that you do the same by sharing these resources in your networks.
If you aren’t already familiar with Protect Democracy, spend some time perusing their website. Their team is comprised of dozens of experts—conservatives, moderates, and progressives, policy experts, lawyers, operations experts, and the like. Their purpose is to protect free and fair elections, defend the rule of law, and safeguard the public square. I’ve worked with these folks for a while now and have such admiration for the essential work they are doing and will continue to do.
My friend Chris Crawford is a policy strategist for free and fair elections at Protect Democracy, and he is my go-to person on all things election security. Here’s an interview Skye Jethani did with Chris, which is a great place to start. Or, watch a video panel conversation with Chris here:
Protect Democracy is not a faith-based organization, but Chris helps coordinate work with faith communities to protect our elections and preserve our democracy.
And that’s where we come in.
We need all of us—ordinary citizens, pastors, faith leaders—to confront disinformation with truth.
Protect Democracy has a slide deck explaining how long it may take to project an unofficial winner and count the votes in 2024, with comparisons to 2020. Topline message: We likely will not know the winner of the presidential race on Election Night. Be patient! In the likely case of post-election disinformation, this is your go-to guide for what’s really happening.
The National Task Force on Election Crises also has a new toolkit available that will be updated on an ongoing basis to reflect the current talking points. It includes succinct, actionable items, and graphics and messages that are easy to copy and share.
Please familiarize yourselves with these resources and share in your circles.
I also want to invite you to join me in connecting directly with these networks to get essential information in real time.
Protect Democracy is co-hosting a Post-Election Faith Call with Faith ESRN (Election Sabotage Resource Network) and Faith in Public Life on Friday, November 8, from 2:00-3:00 PM ET, a virtual gathering for faith leaders and faith communities across the country.
The call will share up-to-date information related to election sabotage prevention and share how faith communities can coordinate in the days and weeks ahead.
Register here for the 11/8 Call
Another essential source of information is the Truth and Action Round Up. Coordinated by my friend Adam Taylor at Sojourners and developed in tandem with Faiths United to Save Democracy, the Truth and Action Roundup will deliver reliable election information, opportunities for action, and spiritual grounding to your inbox from now through the inauguration.
Sign up here to receive the Truth and Action Roundup email update 3x a week, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. You can opt-out any time.
Please consider signing up to receive real-time updates, tools, and action steps.
And please share these resources with friends and family, and with your pastors and denominational leaders.
Voting is essential. But in this moment, protecting our democracy involves much more. Please join me in this effort.
***After I published this, I realized there’s one more event I want to invite you to, an Election Postmortem I’m hosting at the University of Notre Dame’s Center for Philosophy of Religion featuring Chris Crawford and several of our top scholars and activists working on faith, democracy, political violence, and election security. It is free and open to the public and I’d love to have you there. Information and registration here.
On weekend mornings at the hospital many of the pts are watching TV. One room after the next has Fox or newsmax going. Lots of these folks are in poor health, and poor financial shape - and have so little to look forward to. Not surprisingly they seem to relish the idea of burning it all down, to see if it comes back better - and the grifters take full advantage. You & your bunch are actually shepherds for these poor people - though they doubtless wouldn't recognize that. Thanks for your efforts and example.
This past week I’ve been sharing on FB facts—backed up with articles that include eye witness accounts, such as an episode of OnPoint that featured two of the former Trump staff who signed the letter supporting Gen Kelly. I’ve never been exactly discreet about how I feel about Trump but I decided to really go for it so that at the very least I could say that I tried. So far I’ve had a retired Lt Col tell me that my problem is that I’m listening to the experts, that these 4 star generals like Kelly and Milley are bitter because they got disciplined, and that if I’m going to do that why wouldn’t I also listen to Dr Phil? Another told me she couldn’t vote for Harris because of the “news” that Walz is a pedophile. And a couple that my husband and I recently became friends with told us that while they find Trump “repugnant” they have to vote for him because it’s a means to an end. We decided not to ask what those means are, but I don’t know that we’ll be going out to dinner with them again.
When the retired Lt Col told me asked me what definition I was “using” for fascism I first reminded him that Gen Kelly was the one who had introduced this—not me—and then used Project Democracy to illustrate the different facets (it is an excellent website!). He then told me that it’s the left that is meeting the definition, not Trump. I’m so discouraged at the insistence to deliberately not just ignore the facts, but to take those facts and somehow make them true in their mind about Harris. I am finding himself thinking that the only way out of this is for him to win, and do literally everything we know he and Project 25 promise, so that maybe THEN the people who voted for him will finally get it?!?