The political Right is engaged in the biggest roll back of voting rights since Jim Crow. Not only is this bad news for all Americans, it is bad news for the climate too. Why?

Because the Right is now the political arm of the fossil fuel industry that continues to deny, obstruct and mislead American’s on climate. They do this to preserve their profits. By keeping people from voting they cling to their absurd positions and power. Those whose voting rights are taken, bear the brunt of energy, pollution and climate problems from weather catastrophes, to high energy bills to coal ash pollution. Here are a few things we can do to fight this from a messaging standpoint.

The Voting Rights Lab in concert with AOC Communications and Lake Research has come up with tested language to message the current voting rights moment. It’s the best language and most concerted effort I’ve seen to counter the messages of voter fraud by the Right. Here are two summary statements.

MOVE FORWARD:

No matter our race, background or zip code most of us believe that for democracy to work for all of us, it must include us all. Throughout our history, we have fought to ensure more Americans have our right to vote honored and that every eligible American is able to cast their vote and have it counted. But a handful of politicians want to take us backwards, making it harder to vote and creating barriers to register, instead of doing their duty and delivering pandemic relief and ensuring that Americans can get the vaccine. To move forward together as a nation, we must ensure that every eligible American can cast a ballot so we are able to elect leaders who govern in our interests and make the promise of our democracy real for us all.

FREEDOM TO VOTE:

Most of us, no matter our color, origin, or gender, want America to be a place where freedom is for everyone, we all have an equal say, and we can trust in the integrity of our elections. But today, when all voters should have the freedom to vote equally, a handful of politicians want to put up barriers to silence many of our voices based on what we look like or where we live. Together, we can ensure every eligible American has the freedom to vote and that the results of our elections reflect the will of the people.

These high level messages follow the values sandwich form that I’ve written about here. The include race and inclusion as a common value, they identify who and how these values are being violated and have a vision of where we need to go as Americans. Below are some additional resources.

The Voting Rights Lab has a shiny new SOCIAL MEDIA TOOLKIT with sample content and incredible creative from their friends at IntoAction. Please share far and wide! And if you missed the Voting Rights Lab’s last messaging briefing, you can check out the slides and full messaging memo for guidance on messaging to respond to attacks on voting.

Know that if we lose our voting rights, we can’t win against the assault on our climate and create a safe future for all of us. Thanks for what you do. Please pass this along.

Hobie,

‘We are all connected. Savor the Earth!’™

L. Hobart Stocking
SkyWaterEarth.com
hobart@skywaterearth.com
651-357-0110
Facebook: @SkyWaterEarthConnected
Twitter: @SkyWaterEarth