What Happens After Tonight?
In Which: Limits of voting are outlined, Knowing your neighbors is political, and Making change takes a lot of time and work--but not as much as you might think.
It’s Election Night tonight, and hopefully you’ve voted already—if you haven’t voted yet, please stop reading this and go vote. It’ll still be here when you’re done. And take this, if you need it.
Democracy Starts With A Vote
For many of us, we’re told that voting is one of the most important democratic things we can do—my first election was plastered with the slogan “Vote or Die,” which aged poorly in so many ways. Those of us in Hayward are, unfortunately, not in a position where our vote matters as much as others. Democrats are going to win California—like always—and as we’ve covered before, our Senate and House seats were decided back in January.
So where does that leave us? We’ve paid attention, read about local candidates and statewide measures, and cast our ballot. But the candidates were pre-selected by broken systems and, for many, the Presidential election feels like a choice between holding still or moving backwards. If voting is the most important democratic act we can take, we’ve done all we can.
But that’s not all we can do. Democracy is a practice and there is so much more we can do—arguably, voting is the least we can do. So with City Council taking off until the 19th and absolutely no recordings uploaded, I wanted to dig into what we should do after November 5th: why voting is the start—not the end—of democratic action, what you can do, and some places you may want to learn more and get involved.
Voting Has Its Limits
I want to start by stressing that voting is important. Even with all of the issues around the electoral college, districting centrism, and Democrat funding games, everyone should vote. If nothing else, vote local because those people have a direct impact on your daily life and they live in your community.
But at the national level, change comes slowly—if at all. And this race, like many past races, has mostly been about choosing the least-worst option. Kamala Harris has not supported an arms embargo against Israel, she backed away from single-payer healthcare in 2020, and she recommended sending parents of truant children to jail. She’s a mixed-race woman and representation is important for a lot of reasons. But, as the saying goes, not all skin-folk are kinfolk.
So you vote because it’s the right thing to do, even if you don’t feel great about it. If that feeling of helplessness or hopelessness doesn’t sit well with you, you’re not alone. If you feel like there has to be something more than just voting and hoping, you’re right. It’s time to do more—and I don’t just mean showing up at Council meetings.
Votes… Are Just The Beginning
I want to preface all of this by saying everything good takes time, and you’re not a bad person if you don’t have a lot of that. It’s not your fault if you have to work two jobs to make ends meet. It’s not your fault if you’re a single parent and struggle to provide. It’s not your fault if you’re taking care of your aging parents and a child and feel stretched too thin.
The capitalist system wants to keep you busy and tired and it’s working. But at the same time, we always make time for what think is important. And if you want to see good things happen, you’re going to have to make time. It’s not easy, but I bet you’ll get more of it back once you start putting some in.
Get To Know Your Neighbors
In this case, Hayward Mayor Mark Salinas has it right. Knowing your neighbors is a big deal and a radical act in contemporary society. This is the easiest thing I’ll be highlighting, but it’s doesn’t happen on its own.
Hayward is mostly suburbs and one thing I know about the suburbs is that it can feel isolating. Most people have long commutes, leaving early and getting home late, and only spend a few minutes outside between leaving their house and getting into their car. On the weekends, a lot of people fill their schedules with events in other cities, rarely spending any time in Hayward, let alone in the neighborhood.
But if you take advantage of those small moments or, even better, make a real effort to develop a relationship with your neighbors, it will benefit you in the long run.
Mutual Aid
Mutual Aid is a term coined by Russian philosopher and geographer Peter Kropotkin—I encourage you to read more about him if you’re interested—who observed that a form of mutual assistance was often practiced by animals in contrast to the more Darwinian winner-take-all behavior. But what does that mean to you? Easy: help your neighbor.
Loaning out tools or lending a hand with the yard work or even just agreeing to watch out for delivered packages—helping our your neighbors is a democratic act. You’re building community, making connections, and—if you need to get selfish about it—they’ll owe you some favors.
An example for the parents out there: HUSD has multiple week-long breaks throughout the year. That’s really hard for working parents to deal with—especially since most are dual-income households. Rather than spend hundreds of dollars on a daycare program, if you know a few other families from your kid’s school then parents can rotate watching the kids throughout the week.
I’m not saying this is easy—developing those relationships is difficult and it requires trust to let your kid go to someone else’s house. But that investment makes it better for everyone involved. The kids have more fun spending time with other kids they know, the parents don’t have to take as many days off work, and the parent on kid duty will have an easier time—when kids play together they don’t need as much from the adults.
Our culture has glorified hyper-independence and selfishness, but none of us can do it alone—many hands make light work, right? But maybe you want something a little more formal.
Plug Into The Systems
If the idea of making small talk with your neighbor gives you anxiety, that’s okay. I see you and you’re safe here. Plugging into an existing system can smooth things over by giving you a real reason to interact with people—I know having A Role helps me sometimes.
Volunteerism
There are a lot of nonprofits in Hayward that you could volunteer with. Alameda County Food Bank, El Puente Comunitario, Eden Youth, La Familia… there are so many once you start looking. Not all of them may take volunteers, but it never hurts to ask. Even taking one day a month to lend a hand can do good for you and those you help.
School Bodies
If you have a kid in school, you’ve probably heard about all of the alphabet soup bodies that parents can be on. PTA, ELAC, SBDM, SSC, and others I’ve forgotten about—they all need parents to help. It is hard and it does take time, but it’s a way to get to know other families and parents while also making sure that your child’s school is going in the right direction. A win-win if I ever heard of one.
City Commissions
I’ve talked about Hayward’s Appointed Bodies a lot, so I don’t want to go too deeply on them. But the commitment is usually pretty low—once a month and sometimes less—and you’ll get to know some other people in your community who feel strongly about helping out. It’s a lot more formal and has rules and stuff, but if that works for you, it never hurts to apply.
But maybe none of these speak to you or you can’t find a nonprofit cause that you really care about—if you’re into environmentalism or urbanism I definitely understand. Maybe you need to do something on your own, but it’ll be a bit more work.
Organize Outside The Systems
If there isn’t an existing organization that speaks to you or you’re over the Nonprofit Industrial Complex and the existing structures, you can organize on your own. This is the biggest lift, but ultimately the most satisfying. All it takes is a few people and a regular meeting.
Are there people you know who complain about the same problems? Are they tired of how the City or the County or the nonprofits don’t actually solve the problem? Get together and talk about it. Brainstorm solutions. Make a plan. Pool your resources. That’s all it takes!
If you need, reach out to people who have done it before to get advice or connections. I know of one or two groups that could help you get started. They’re friendly people, I promise.
Keep at it and you’ll be making big changes before you know it.
But I Want Big Change Now!
In this political climate, we’re not going to get a magical leftist President who will make all of the changes that are needed. It’s just not going to happen—look at Bernie Sanders’s bids. And even if he had been elected, he would have been forced into compromises left and right because systems are self-perpetuating.
So it takes a long time working from the bottom up to make change. The wealthy can see the long view—buying candidates, manufacturing consent, and developing policy are investments that pay off. The Koch brothers worked for 15 years and spent close to a billion dollars to lay the groundwork for the Trump administration’s policies.
That’s the perspective that more of us need—not just voting once every 4 years, but seeing democracy as a daily practice. It’s planting trees you’ll never sit in the shade of. It’s caring about your neighbors and your community. It’s taking ownership of our City and making it work for everyone.
Building things is a lot of work—ask me how I know—but I promise that if you make the time, you’ll find others willing to share the load. And every little bit helps.