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Our Time Is Now: Power, Purpose, and the Fight for a Fair America
by Stacey Abrams
If you are looking for a modern-day answer to JFK’s [b:A Nation of Immigrants|1433010|A Nation of Immigrants|John F. Kennedy|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1308722312l/1433010._SY75_.jpg|1423547] and MLK Jr.’s [b:Why We Can't Wait|160939|Why We Can't Wait|Martin Luther King Jr.|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1348700217l/160939._SY75_.jpg|709627], then look no further than Stacey Abrams’s [b:Our Time Is Now: Power, Purpose, and the Fight for a Fair America|50353732|Our Time Is Now Power, Purpose, and the Fight for a Fair America|Stacey Abrams|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1604940616l/50353732._SY75_.jpg|75299432].
A comprehensive history of not just voting history in the United States, this book is also very much Stacey Abrams’ reflections on how she was impeded from winning after her 2018 gubernatorial run in Georgia. She covers point by point all the ways that her voting base was disenfranchised or denied the opportunity to vote. Voter suppression is alive and thriving, but in addition to these injustices, Abrams also explains what she then actually did to combat voter suppression tactics. At many points this felt like an elections-playbook, and writing this review in 2020, this is a playbook that works.
“Full citizenship rights are the bare minimum one should expect from the government. Yet, for two-thirds of our history, full citizenship was denied to those who built this country from theory to life. African slaves and Chinese workers and Native American environmentalists and Latino gauchos and Irish farmers—and half the population: women. Over the course of our history, these men and women, these patriots and defenders of liberty, have been denied the most profound currency of citizenship: power. Because, let’s be honest, that is the core of this fight. The right to be seen, the right to be heard, the right to direct the course of history are markers of power. In the United States, democracy makes politics one of the key levers to exercising power. So, it should shock none of us that the struggle for dominion over our nation’s future and who will participate is simply a battle for American power.”
Rather than focusing on the undecided voter, Stacey Abrams worked to expand voter outreach to include, and even focus on, the infrequent voter. People often written off as non-voters were key to Stacey Abrams’ base, and she did not shy away from how identity politics came into play. She argues that as it is identity that has been used to deny and suppress the vote, identity should be included in how politicians appeal to a wide coalition of voters. In fact, by looking to include new voters of color, she did not loose white voters, if anything the numbers increased.
What matters is that politicians speak truth to power, and that their policies actually help people. Period. This was at the core of her message; in a world where winning is paramount, do what you must do to win. Her pragmatic tactics may seem new, but they are rooted in a history dating back to the 60s. If it could work in the past then it can work, and does work, today.
I remember when Georgia was declared blue this November, and memes were flooding in with lines like, “ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for Stacey Abrams,” and if you want to know how she became the hero of 2020, then I absolutely recommend this book. Abrams’ is a force of nature, and her message should not be dismissed.
A comprehensive history of not just voting history in the United States, this book is also very much Stacey Abrams’ reflections on how she was impeded from winning after her 2018 gubernatorial run in Georgia. She covers point by point all the ways that her voting base was disenfranchised or denied the opportunity to vote. Voter suppression is alive and thriving, but in addition to these injustices, Abrams also explains what she then actually did to combat voter suppression tactics. At many points this felt like an elections-playbook, and writing this review in 2020, this is a playbook that works.
“Full citizenship rights are the bare minimum one should expect from the government. Yet, for two-thirds of our history, full citizenship was denied to those who built this country from theory to life. African slaves and Chinese workers and Native American environmentalists and Latino gauchos and Irish farmers—and half the population: women. Over the course of our history, these men and women, these patriots and defenders of liberty, have been denied the most profound currency of citizenship: power. Because, let’s be honest, that is the core of this fight. The right to be seen, the right to be heard, the right to direct the course of history are markers of power. In the United States, democracy makes politics one of the key levers to exercising power. So, it should shock none of us that the struggle for dominion over our nation’s future and who will participate is simply a battle for American power.”
Rather than focusing on the undecided voter, Stacey Abrams worked to expand voter outreach to include, and even focus on, the infrequent voter. People often written off as non-voters were key to Stacey Abrams’ base, and she did not shy away from how identity politics came into play. She argues that as it is identity that has been used to deny and suppress the vote, identity should be included in how politicians appeal to a wide coalition of voters. In fact, by looking to include new voters of color, she did not loose white voters, if anything the numbers increased.
What matters is that politicians speak truth to power, and that their policies actually help people. Period. This was at the core of her message; in a world where winning is paramount, do what you must do to win. Her pragmatic tactics may seem new, but they are rooted in a history dating back to the 60s. If it could work in the past then it can work, and does work, today.
I remember when Georgia was declared blue this November, and memes were flooding in with lines like, “ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for Stacey Abrams,” and if you want to know how she became the hero of 2020, then I absolutely recommend this book. Abrams’ is a force of nature, and her message should not be dismissed.